This is Butler/Butter/But-But/Butler Mappus. She loves to play outside, feel joyful, be barefoot, and to share the wonders of the natural world with children. Butler grew up down on the coast in Charleston, South Carolina, and moved up to Boone in 2014. In high school, Butler was voted “Most Child-like”, and she finds great joy and truth in embracing that title. She graduated from Appalachian State with a degree in Outdoor Experiential Education and Psychology. Butler has worked and taught at Buffalo Cove Outdoor Education Center and also at High Country Forest Wild. She is a lover of building and being a part of community, and is so excited to be here at Simply Growing.

Butler/Butter/But-But/Butler Mappus

Facilitator |  Simply Growing Farm

Ali Pack started teaching kids during high school through an affiliated preschool program. She earned a BS in Elementary Education and found a love for the outdoors in college. After she graduated, she taught outdoor and ecology based education in California and then Maine.  She moved to Boone to teach 3rd graders in a classroom under the umbrella program of Expeditionary Learning. Ali is the owner and creator of Turtle Sun Healing, a gentle healing practice providing reflexology, stone and crystal medicine and Emotion Code to adults and children alike.  She is happiest while playing in the forest and creek with her husband Austin, daughter Amaya Wren, and dog Koda.

Ali Pack

Turtle Sun Healing |  Simply Growing Farm

For Jess, Simply Growing reflects much of what she has worked toward throughout her life. For as long as she can remember, Jess has always wanted help to foster the personal best in everyone that she meets. Despite the fact that she has undergraduate and master’s degrees in education, she has long since realized that her calling as an educator was not going to be found in the public-school setting. Instead, Jess and her husband, David, have spent much of the last 13 years building a homestead, raising animals, educating their children, and doing their best to grow as much of their own food as possible. This has been their first season translating their years of accumulated gardening experience into the market garden realm and they are currently selling food at Be Natural Market, as well as to local restaurants. Jess feels like she has learned a great deal about farming this season, and she is very excited to continue to improve her own skills while sharing her knowledge through educational programs.She is excited to offer a place where people are exposed to new experiences…. where they have the chance to deeply connect…with themselves, with each other, and of course with the Earth.  She looks forward to the opportunity to learn, grow, and play outside with people….to help each person shine their own shine….in their own way…. and brighten up this corner of the world.

Jessica Stetter

Founder and Visionary | Simply Growing Farm