1998 Newsletter Harvest Week 7Articles: Inaugural Open House for New Land and the Spiral of Life

1997 Letter of Inquiry | FAQ's | The Press Release on Acquisition
1998 wk2 Newsletter: Land Deal Closed!
1998 wk7 Newsletter: Open House, Spiral of Life!

A Special Open House

Our open house was extra special last week; we inaugurated the new land. The investors and our core group members arrived early Sunday morning for a fence cutting ceremony. After dismantling the boundary between the two properties, we filed onto the 38 acres and sat down to a spectacular breakfast of crepes and quiches. (The breakfast banquet was masterminded by Ari with much help from Amber, Tiffany, Meagan and Shannon.) Pieces of the fence were later distributed to the investors as certificates of ownership.

There must have been 150 to 200 people for the pot luck and afternoon activities. The two hay wagons were mobbed with kids and adults, and we still couldn't get everybody on. It took well over an hour to get people through the food line. I just stood there in the heat and humidity wondering what about our schedule? We had a schedule. In the meantime, Tom Spaulding and John Diversey were in a shady corner of the yard serving up hundreds of ears of sweet corn to happy shareholders.

The day's activities were recorded by Taggart Siegal and assistant Rana for an upcoming documentary on the rebirth of the farm. (Taggart made a documentary on the demise of the farm in 1982, Bitter Harvest.) Thanks to so many of you who helped prepare for the event, and to those of you who came out to celebrate with us.

The Circle, The Square, The Land

I mowed a circle a quarter mile in diameter into the new land. It seemed the right symbol for the whole saga of acquiring the property. The linear aspects of the deal were money, securities laws, legal agreements; the curvilinear aspects were social principles and ecological values. The tension between the two were quite obvious in many of the dialogues about the acquisition.

The ancient Egyptians revered the tension between the curve and the straight line. Out of the relationship between the two, according to that culture, emerged an even more dynamic form, the spiral.

The Egyptians felt the spiral expressed a most cosmic principle, that it was a template for how life itself unfurled. (Note the shape of the Milky Way, the pattern of seeds on a sunflower head, the form of a seashell.) I mowed a spiral into the circle, since we are all playing our part in the unfoldment of eternity. I sliced through the spiral with a straight line to the center of the field, where I installed a staircase.

After lunch, shareholders joined hands, walked the straight path to the center of the field, encircled the staircase, and sang an adaptation of This Land is Our Land. (Adaptation by Tom Spaulding and farm crew.)

An investor asked me, "does that staircase go up, or does it come down"?

I looked at him blankly.

"What I mean is," he assisted, "is it taking things up to the heavens, or is it bringing heaven down to earth"?

Angelic Organics, 1547 Rockton Road, Caledonia, IL 61011-9572, Phone: 312-409-2746, Fax: 815-389-3106