The book deal grew out of Butters' self-published magazine, MaryJanesFarm, which in its three issues has offered homespun advice for home and hearth. The magazine also has ordering information for her 60 different kinds of dried organic foods, including falafel, hummus, chili and soup.

Born in Ogden, Butters, 50, has operated her organic farm since 1986.

Butters can barely believe her recent good fortune. Just last winter she was struggling to pay bills while sales of her dried foods plummeted in the slumping economy as the nation prepared for war with Iraq.

She found herself borrowing money from her bookkeeper, her employees took pay cuts and even her banker came through with another loan, she said.

Butters put together a 40-page book proposal, and her agent shopped it around. A bidding war ensued, ending with the $1.3 million deal.

Butters was raised in a large Mormon family in Utah. The family grew, raised or hunted their own food, and made their own clothes and other essentials.

In 1976 she joined the U.S. Forest Service and eventually lived in a fire lookout tower.

Knowing she wanted to farm, she spent a decade looking for the right place, envisioning it at the end of a dirt road.

Butters and her two young children were living in Moscow when she saw an advertisement for a five-acre spread a few miles outside the town of 20,000 that sounded perfect. The farm was owned by two bachelor brothers and lacked amenities like indoor plumbing. She paid $45,000 for the land on Paradise Ridge and moved in.

"I raised two kids without a toilet here," she boasted. "No TV and no indoor plumbing."

Both her children are grown but remain involved in her business, which has expanded from farming to include a line of organic dried foods such as soups, pastas, beans and meals.

To fuel growth, she organized a private stock offering in the early 1990s, raising $500,000 from 55 stockholders. She remains majority owner of her company.

Her farm was bordered on three sides by a much larger grain farm, owned by Nick Ogle. They have since married.

In her spare time, Butters has been involved in a host of environmental and social justice issues.

The book deal will help her pay off debt and help her build a new home to replace the original farmhouse, which burned down in 1996.

For now, she sleeps in a bed in her office in the winter. In the summer, Butters has created an outdoor living space under a grove of trees, complete with a bed, dresser, chairs and the other comforts of home.

Her farm produces 60 varieties of garlic, plus iris bulbs and cut flowers and vegetables. It is also the home of her Pay Dirt Farm School, in which city people pay to live in rustic cabins and work on her farm for a brief time.

Though their styles differ greatly, Butters admires what Stewart has accomplished for domestic goddesses everywhere. Stewart is facing charges that she obstructed justice and lied to investigators about her sale of ImClone Systems stock in 2001.

"She gave validity to what women love to do in their homes," she said. "I'm sorry she is being bashed."