MARIAN K. TOWNE was born in South Dakota during the Great Depression. In her Mennonite farm family, wasting food was anathema. Wherever she has lived in the Midwest, she and her family have purchased locally grown fresh produce, gardened, and cooked. She is also the author of Bread of Life, Diaries and Memories of a Dakota Family, 1936--1945 and The Onliest One Alive: Surviving Jonestown, Guyana.