The Sweet Life: Cherry Stories from Butler Ranch Book Reading & Signing with Local Authors

The Ukiah Library is hosting

The Sweet Life: Cherry Stories from Butler Ranch

 Book Reading & Signing with Local Authors:

Dot Brovarney, Mary Buckley, Yvonne Kramer,

Phyllis Mervine, Yoli Rose, Jill Scott, & Amy Wachspress

Sunday, February 5^th – 2 pm- 3:30 pm

The Sweet Life (edited, with additions, by Dot Brovarney) offers a rich bounty of tales with a common thread: our community’s deep respect, gratitude, and love for a pair of Ukiah ranchers and their cherry orchard. Storytellers recount the joys of picking cherries at Butler Ranch and remember the warmth and openheartedness that characterized George and Ella Butler. The legacy of the Butlers’ commitment to land and community continues, holding a place at the Butler Community Orchard and in our hearts always. The book, including seventy-five photographs, also features ranch history, family biographies, and poetry.

Dot Brovarney  started in the history field as a volunteer researcher in the photographic archives of the San Diego Historical Society in the early 1980s. Eventually, she received her M.A. in History from UC Santa Barbara. She became Curator at the Mendocino County Museum in 1988, moving to the Grace Hudson Museum where she worked from 1990-1996. Her museum work included doing oral history with Pomo elder weavers and their families, culminating in the exhibit and book titled “Remember Your Relations” about Elsie Allen’s collection of historic Pomo baskets. Over the past twenty years, while raising a daughter, Dot continued doing history and other cultural projects in Mendocino County. She curated “A Passion for Plants & Place,” an exhibit on Carl Purdy at the County Museum. She also founded Mendocino LitFest and the Butler Cherry Ranch Project, and created historic walking tours for Ridgewood Ranch and downtown Ukiah. Currently, she is researching and writing a book about Lake Leonard in Reeves Canyon and promoting the just-published work, The Sweet Life.

For more information, please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us  Sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.