Bob writes... I am Bob Bower, the Growing and General Manager here, at Angelic Organics. This is my 14th season. The fields are looking good (although they are a little wet). Our life on the farm has continued to move rapidly forward over the course of the winter. Those who were 2007 shareholders will recall how last season winded down in sadness as the farm lost a key worker. In September of 2007, Lora Krogman, my partner/girlfriend, with whom I have been involved for over 8 years now, died in a tragic car accident (see our past newsletters starting with week 15 at AngelicOrganics.com/nlLora for more details). Lora’s contributions to the farm and to my life were tremendous. Daily she supported the crew, bees, flowers, biodynamics, visitors, me, and more. In some regards, I do not know how I/we moved forward, but we did. Diana Nolden, who was injured in the same car accident, is fully back at work and contributing exceptionally as always.

As I am 43 years old, I was not yet expecting to so closely encounter death. But in order to understand what happened to Lora, where she is now, and how I can actively continue my relationship with her, I have dug deeply into death and dying. My sense is that Lora still actively contributes to my life and to our farm. And while her moment-to-moment conscious physical support is clearly gone, she continues to provide us with warmth, love, vibrancy, and inspiration. Further, as much as I wish to free Lora on her current journey with appreciation and positive thoughts, I do not want to understate how her no longer being physically incarnate here is a huge adjustment. Lately, I am swept over with happiness and gratitude when I tune into Lora’s essence. I’ve determined that Natalie Merchant’s song Kind and Generous embodies how Lora has and still contributes to me and the farm.

From a daily standpoint, she must be behind how smoothly things have gone here--how we have been able to distinguish between the important and the unimportant, the essential and the non-essential. And while we are not without problems, things seem to be moving along well and coming together. I am thankful for how well things are going. Throughout the winter we have been getting things done earlier than in previous years--for instance all of the following were done earlier than in the past: our seed order, our greenhouse plans, our direct seeding plans, our transplanting directives, our field plans, setting up our delivery sites, and more. These accomplishments keep us optimistic and lead us to believe that we have “turned a corner” in many ways.

One of Lora’s responsibilities was this newsletter (and the fruit newsletter). Joanne Mandt in now taking on compiling this document. As she gets things in place and as my continuing vision for the electronic presentation of the newsletter solidifies, I’ve determined that we need to label our newsletter presentation as Under Construction. Mostly, between Joanne and myself, we will mold, with the aid of Adobe products, this document into what serves us best from both communication and efficiency standpoints. In future weeks I will elaborate on changes we are making to the vegetables--from what’s new, to what’s no more, to what we’re doing differently. I hope you enjoy this week’s box and all of the ones to come in the future.