Stone's Throw Farm

Loren Nelson helped me buy my farm. He didn’t broker the land deal or loan me money or anything like that; he helped me find the courage to approach Kathy Ziells about buying her land, and then kept my spirits up while I waited for her final decision and then for what seemed like forever until the deal closed.

I’m bringing this up because Loren died last Thursday. It was a sad day for farmers in our area, not to mention all the other people who I’m sure are mourning Loren.

I met Loren at the Food Farm, where I worked (still work) and where Loren volunteered one day a week for many years. Loren would faithfully pick beans with us or catch broccoli, and everyone was always happy to see him because of his positive attitude and good sense of humor.

Loren was Kathy Ziell’s pastor and initially told me that he thought she would be open to the idea of selling her land to me. It wasn’t that I was afraid of Kathy (now that I know what a kind and friendly person she is, the idea of fearing her seems pretty ridiculous), but I was afraid she’d say “no” and that all my hopes and dreams would be dashed. I had already looked all over the area for a  farm and was pretty disheartened by the process.

Once I had approached Kathy about buying the land, I knew Loren would be at the Food Farm once a week to ask me about the process, so that motivated me to follow-up with Kathy and keep things moving in the right direction. Loren had such a “can-do” attitude despite his cancer that it seemed silly to get depressed in my situation. He also reinforced my belief in the importance of growing organic food and the possibilities in the field of organic farming. I think he made all of us at the farm feel good about what we were doing.

I’m not surprised to hear that Loren wanted his memorials to go to the Peterson/Webster/Nelson fund, a scholarship fund for the Farm Beginnings Program. He’ll keep helping aspiring farmers, one way or another.