Mary Lavinia Batten was named after her grandmother Mary Lavinia Thomas who with husband William Lewin Thomas, settled on the farm in 1947.   In 1967 Mary at age 11 moved to the farm with her parents and brother Chris.  They came from the Washington DC suburbs, but farm life was full of new adventures and wide open spaces.  Their parents quickly filled their new life with joyous gatherings with friends and family and dogs and cats and horses and cows and Esso (the family goat).  We all learned by trial and error how to maintain and love the land and the 150 yr old farmhouse and barn and livestock.  Mary continued to live in the area until 1985, always returning to the farm for celebrations and healing times.  In 1985 Mary followed her brother Bruce and friend Brenda to the frontier of Alaska, falling in love with the adventuresome spirit of the people and the vast wilderness there.   But always, Mary would return to the farm for family events and projects, feeling spiritually renewed by the love of the family and land there.  The dream of a healthy, sustainable farm venture ever brewing, Mary was thrilled when nephew Ben and brother Chris proposed taking on such a glorious goal!  We are all very proud to be a part of the growing endeavors of Fiddlers Green Farm.