Mary-Jane Butters (born May 6, 1953) is an American organic farmer, author, environmental activist, food manufacturer, and the publisher of MaryJane Farm magazine.Boggs, Sheri. "Rural Revolution." The Pacific Northwest Inlander, May 2005. She lives with her family on a farm in Moscow, Idaho.Monson, Ali. "Idaho People Profile: MaryJane Butters." Community Magazine, July 2005. Her farm and business were featured in the December 1995 issue of National Geographic magazine."National Geographic touts area." Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Oct. 2001.
Daily life Butters was the second youngest of five children born to Mormon parents Allen and Helen Butters.Barrett, Jennifer. "Utah native built an organic farming empire." The Salt Lake Tribune, 22 Nov. 2007. The family made their own food, made their own clothing, and camped on weekends, where they fished and hunted.Jackson, Kimberly L. “For women of the great outdoors.” The Star Ledger, 3 July 2008. Butters credits her father with teaching her carpentry, organic gardening and her mother with teaching her homemaking, fishing, and camping.
In 1971, Butters graduated from Ben Lomond High School in Ogden, Utah.Stephenson, Kathy. "Welcome Butters, a down-home guru." The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 Aug. 2008. In 1972, Butters took a job at a mountaintop lookout tower in Weippe, Idaho, as a Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association fire watcher. She briefly studied forestry at Utah State University, but dropped out.London, Bill. "Farm Life with MaryJane Butters." www.MaryJanesFarm.org. In 1974, Butters was one of the three women who became the first female wilderness rangers in the U.S.A, maintaining trails and cleaning sheepherder camps in the Uinta Mountains of northern Utah. After that summer, she earned her carpentry proficiency certificate and was hired as the only woman on a crew building houses at Hill Air Force Base. Early in 1976, Butters became the first woman station guard at the remote Moose Creek Ranger Station. There she met Emil Keck, a fire-control officer, and construction-crew chief who lived at the wilderness station year round, and who became her mentor and the namesake for her second child.Choate, Loralee. "Featured Bio: MaryJane Butters of 'MaryJanesFarm.'" Where Women Cook, Dec. 2010.
Career
Paradise Farm In 1986, Butters purchased a five-acre homestead and farmhouse at the base of Paradise Ridge in Moscow, Idaho, for $45,000. The 1905 farmhouse was destroyed by fire in 1996, but the farm continues to be the headquarters for Butters' businesses.
In 1989, Butters met a farmer who grew organic, pest-resistant "desi" garbanzo beans that had proven to be unmarketable. Butters bought and experimented with the beans, eventually developing a dried falafel mix that she began to market under the Paradise Farm label in 1990. She began marketing other unused organic crops and incorporated her food business in 1993 as "Paradise Farm Organics, Inc." Today, she grosses more than $1 million annually from her line of over 60 dried organic foods. Butters is the company's president, and her husband, Nick Ogle, oversees production. In 1997, the company reached an agreement with Mountain Safety Research, a division of REI, to label and market her products.Williams, Elaine. "Timeline: Natural woman.: Lewiston Morning Tribune, Dec. 2001.
By 2001, the black-and-white food catalog she had been printing since 1996 had evolved into a self-published magazine, MaryJane's Farm, and customers placing food orders over $50 received free subscriptions. Butters has since branded her farm and her food line with the name "MaryJane's Farm" in order to "create loyalty and trust.""MaryJanesFarm: Putting a Face to Food." Renewing the Countryside, June 2005. In 2007, the company was profitable for the first time.
In 1993, Paradise Farm changed its name to Paradise Farm Organics, Inc. to reflect its incorporation. In 1999, Butters took Paradise Farm Organics, Inc. public in an initial stock offering. Shares in the company were valued at $9 per share with a minimum purchase of 600 shares.Nelson, Lorraine. "Organic Food Company Offers Stock." Lewiston Morning Tribune, 8 Oct. 1998. At the time, the company was attempting to raise $500,000 to build a facility for shipping dried-food orders, and was still recovering from the 1996 fire, which had left her with $100,000 in credit-card debt."Oregon Business Plan Committee and Rural Idaho Entrepreneur Recognized for Leadership in Sustainability and Conservation." Sustainable Northwest, 4 Mar. 2008. The company raised the funds with 45 investors, who receive "dividends" in the form of fresh produce, free-range eggs, and stay at her bed and breakfast. Butters has said she prefers supportive shareholder relationships to bank loans, which she thinks tie farmers to prolonged obligations with legal entities that have no interest in the future of small farmers.
MaryJane's Farm magazine and "Everyday Organic" newspaper column MaryJane's Farm is an organic-focused lifestyle magazine based on farm life with Mary Jane."MaryJane Butters Guns for Organic DIYers." Belvoir Media Buyer Planner, 18 Mar. 2008. The magazine began in 1996 as a mail-order catalog. Later editions included gardening articles, recipes, farmer bios, homemaking projects, photography, and essays.Mahany, Barbara. "The Leader of the Farmgirl Pack." Chicago Tribune, Sunday Edition, 24 July 2005. In 2008, Butters partnered with Belvoir Media Group to re-launch the magazine as a bi-monthly.Moses, Lucia. "Belvoir to Relaunch MaryJanesFarm." Media Week, 17 Mar. 2008. Belvoir marketed the publication to environmentally- and health-conscious women between the ages of 25 and 49. Advertisers include Mountain Rose Herbs and Eden Foods.Irwin, Tanya. "What's Hot Under the Covers." Media Post's Magazine Rack, 29 May 2008. , the magazine claims a circulation of 150,000Advertising Specs, MaryJanesFarm, www.maryjanesfarm.org/advertise.asp. and is sold at Walmart, Whole Foods Markets, and Barnes & Noble.Petkanas, Christopher. "Living: Back to the Land." Travel + Leisure, Jan. 2009.
The magazine also operates a website to sell its product lines to readers. Marketed items include dried foods, products for the home and garden, crafting supplies, clothing, and household goods. Some items are made by artisans in Project F.A.R.M. (First-class American Rural Made), an organization Butters created to support rural businesses. The website includes a chatroom, "Farmgirl Connection", for current and aspiring women farmers. Butters says that the chatroom is her attempt to replicate the support system she witnessed between her mother and other Mormon women in Utah.
For three years, Butters also wrote a weekly "back-to-the-land" syndicated newspaper column, "MaryJane's Everyday Organic", which was distributed through United Feature Syndicate.Grimes, Mary Ann. "News Release." United Media: United Feature Syndicate: Newspaper Enterprise Association, 17 July. The column provided concrete suggestions for green and organic living and was targeted at current and aspiring women farmers who wished to have good fields and crops.
MaryJane Farm Bed & Breakfast Butters opened a bed & breakfast on the farm in 2004. Butters has used her bed & breakfast to diversify her business and promote the agritourism industry“MaryJanesFarm: Putting a Face to Food.” Renewing the Countryside, June 2005. and “glamping"—glamour camping—a term now widely used in the media. Butters’ brand and merchandising rely on the notions of “glamorous camping” and feminized outdoor activities in a marketing approach she has described as “the juxtaposition of rugged and really pretty, grit and glam, diesel and absolutely darling.”Green, Penelope. “Girl Gone Wild, Idaho Style.” New York Times Book Review, 26 June 2008.
Pay Dirt Farm School
In 1995, Butters founded a not-for-profit organization called Pay Dirt Farm School, designed to teach the business of organic farming to new farmers.“Founders of a New Northwest 1999.” Sustainable Northwest. Skills taught include chopping firewood, budgeting, composting, biofuel production, food preserving, and craft selling, and the curriculum is customized to the students’ interests.“Spreading the Word.” Conde Nast Traveller, UK Edition, June 2005.
The U-Pick Country Club Butters also ran a u-pick membership organization. For a $100 fee and the cost of production, a household was given permission to collect produce and eggs from the greenhouses, fields, orchard, and chicken coop during daylight hours, seven days a week.London, Bill. "Community Supported Agriculture." Moscow Food Co-Op News, Mar. 2007. Members could also gather flowers, picnic on the farm, or visit animals. Butters’ goal in starting the country club, according to son-in-law Lucas Rae, was to give others a chance to live out their “farm fantasy” and educate families about the source of their food.Roberts, Tara. “Farm fantasy: Area families get their fill of fresh fruits and vegetables as part of MaryJanesFarm U-Pick Country Club.” Moscow-Pullman Daily News, 11 Sept. 2007. Butters has also said that she wanted to combat the culture of convenience food, which has “created a nutritional famine”.White, Jeanette. “Fall perfect time to visit MaryJane Butters in Moscow.” Spokesman-Review, Aug. 2008.
Historic schoolhouse MaryJane Butters and her husband, Nick Ogle, serve on the board of a group dedicated to preserving the historic schoolhouse where Ogle's mother attended classes. The school and the half acre of land it occupies are owned by members of the Blaine Community Association, and the space is used during the summer for parties, weddings, dances, and Quaker services throughout May, June, July, and August.Drawhorn, Omie. “Summer Contra Dances Bring Blaine Schoolhouse Back to Life: Renovations have kept the historic building alive and well.” Daily News, 16 Aug. 2007.
Historic flour mill In 1997, MaryJane Butters and her husband, Nick Ogle, bought the organic flour business owned for 40 years by Joseph Barron in Oakes dale, Washington.London, Bill. "Nick Ogle: Man from Blaine." The Latah Eagle, 19 Sept. 2002. The mill was the only one left of the many mills once standing in the area. The deal included an electric grinding mill machine and an old, four-story mill building with the original equipment. The grinding mill was moved to Moscow, Idaho, and is used by Butters to grind flours, cereals, and legumes for her line of dried organic foods. The historic mill building, built in 1890, is maintained in its original location. Butters has invested over $300,000 of her own funds toward restoring and preserving the mill.
Books and Special Publications Butters is the author of three Random House books: MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook: For the Farmgirl in All of Us, MaryJane's Stitching Room, and MaryJane's Outpost: Unleashing Your Inner Wild; four published by Gibbs Smith: Glamping with MaryJane, Milk Cow Kitchen, MaryJane's Cast Iron Kitchen, and Wild Bread: Sourdough Reinvented, Flour + Water + Air; and a self-published children's book, Moo-n Over Main Street Metropolis.
In the Fall of 2003, Butters signed a Random House book deal of $1.35 million for MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook: For the Farmgirl in All of Us. The book was published on May 24, 2005.MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook: For the Farmgirl in All of Us, Amazon.com Butters said the book was designed to be an uncomplicated manual for all things “farmgirl,” including making a wall tent, sewing a French seam, and staying in a lookout tower. The book's promotional tour included New York, Illinois, Vermont, Missouri, Indiana, and the Northwest.Moll, Jessica. "Pro Crochet." Spokane Inlander, June 2007.