By Sue Mayfield-Geiger
If one were to make a movie of MaryJane Butters’ life, the script
treatment would read something like this:
Young girl leaves Mormon home in Utah to find herself, getting very odd
jobs along the way like forest ranger scout, carpenter, and ranch
hand, as she pursues her lifelong dream of being a simple farmgirl.
Sounds sweet. Maybe a bit idealistic and perhaps a tad unexciting.
Let’s examine the sub-plot:
Now married with two children and living on five acres in Moscow,
Idaho, the farmgirl raises her two children in a house with no indoor
plumbing or TV. Drives old truck with holes in the floorboard, husband
leaves, she ekes out a living by trying her hand at organic farming and
starts a farm magazine.
Now we have a little drama, but we need some action. The sub-plot
continues:
The farmgirl is barely making ends meet and the farm nearly goes
under numerous times until a New York literary agent just happens
to see a copy of the magazine and his interest is piqued. He calls the
farmgirl with a request. He would like for her to write a book (a two
book deal is subsequently agreed upon for $1.35 million).
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. The entire plot thickens:
The farmgirl is leery; not sure she really wants to get involved in the
writing business because (she says), she’s really not a writer and besides,
she does not want to have to leave her farm to do book tours. (What? Is
she nuts?) Read on:
The farmgirl finally comes to an agreement with the city slicker who
even agrees that her book tours will be minimal and sends her an advance
of $400,000. Farmgirl pays off mounting debt, grabs a pen and simply put,
writes everything she knows about farming. And do women everywhere
really want to know about farming? You betcha, says the farmgirl, because
as she coyly puts it: “There’s a farmgirl in all of us.”
Sounds like a perfect ending to a rags-to-riches fairytale, but the epilogue
is the best part:
Today, MaryJane Butters is working on her third book; recently formed a
partnership between her magazine (MaryJanesFarm) and the publishers of
Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion; is remarried to the hunky farmer next
door who owns the 600 acres that adjoin her property; and her company
(Paradise Farm Organics, Inc.) offers a mind-boggling variety of quality
products, including her famous dried, organic food (also sold at REI, Costco
and Amazon). She has a deal to design clothing and is in negotiations for
a line of tools and paints for a home-improvement store chain. MaryJane
has been featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, The
Chicago Tribune, More, Vogue, The New Yorker, Country Living, Condé Nast
Traveler, House and Garden, Los Angeles Daily News, and numerous other
publications.
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