<div>Hi, I’m Don Glasenapp, friend of Farmer John Peterson and Angelic Organics Farm. For seven years, I coordinated the festive vegetable packs at Angelic Organics.
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<div>John and I had many great times on the pack line alongside the 20 or so volunteers who regularly showed up to help pack CSA vegetable shares.
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<div>As many of you know, John had a stroke in the spring of 2024, causing the closure of his storied farm Angelic Organics, after 34 years in business as a Community Supported Agriculture Farm, and after 70 years total of John farming on his family’s farm.
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<div>My wife Laura and I coordinated the shareholder harvest days in the spring of 2024 when the farm closed.
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<div>I am now serving as John’s assistant, since medical, administrative, and financial hardships have befallen him, and he needs help with transportation, opening and reading his mail due to degraded eyesight, and with numerous other tasks.
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<div>I am the organizer of this crowdfunding campaign, trying to help my good friend John to get his life back on track.
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<div>John's beloved wife Haidy, who is recovering from her own health challenges under the care of her mother in Finland, is also very involved with supporting John from afar, such as doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work for this campaign.
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<div><strong>Life Post-Stroke</strong>
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<div>Since gradually recovering from his stroke in 2024, John has been working diligently, while very compromised, to get his beautiful farmstead listed for sale, which is sitting on 11.5 acres, with its constellation of many unique, artistic and well-kept buildings that he has been developing for his whole life.
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/103046769_1777632140147608_r." width="100%" />
<div>John’s family built this barn in 1957 when John was eight; John has nurtured it his whole adult life
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/103046769_1778263038251198_r.jpg" width="100%" />
<div>Musical performance in the barn loft theater in 2022
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/103046769_1778261718202786_r.jpg" width="100%" />
<div>Renovated Corn Crib/Granary
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/103046769_1778262806158649_r.jpg" width="100%" />
<div>Interior of Granary
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<div>Tragically, since the closure of the farm in 2024, to John’s astonishment, there have been many bureaucratic/organizational hoops to jump through for the sale of his farm—his right to sell it is still pending. (It’s not about a material default or a foreclosure.)
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<div>We are unable to share details of these delays, but suffice it to say that John is now working with an attorney to get an agreement in place to get his farm listed for sale.
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<div><strong>Impact of Delayed Farm Sale</strong>
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<div>The seemingly endless negotiations (2 years) to sell the farm property have resulted in high carrying costs: building upkeep, insurance, taxes, utilities, plus John’s living expenses–around $10,000 per month total, <strong>not including</strong> medical bills, and now $5,000 per month in attorney's fees, the cost of an assistant, and a handyman (farm buildings need a lot of upkeep).
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<div>And, of course, since the closure of the farm in the spring of 2024, there has been no income.
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<div>While recovering from his stroke, John was flabbergasted that he has to pay an attorney goodly sums of money to be able to sell the farmstead that he helped build up since he was a child–his lifelong home ensnared by relentless red tape.
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<div>Do you see why John has been trying to get out from underneath this burden for two years by selling his farmstead?
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<div>With enough funds, John imagines achieving a fair outcome.
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<div><strong>Cancer Enters the Picture</strong>
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<div>Last summer, as John endured interminable negotiations for the sale of his property, a lump gradually formed on the right side of his neck.
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<div>Neck and tonsil cancer were diagnosed in the fall of 2025, taking over the right side of John’s head, causing excruciating pain and mental debilitation.
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/103046769_177765482945792_r." width="100%" />
<div>tumor in neck
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<div><strong>Cancer Treatments</strong>
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<div>Grueling chemotherapy and radiation treatments started in early February 2026, and ended in mid April 2026. ("That's a lot of poison," say the doctors.)
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<div>John is now recovering from this slew of radiation and chemotherapy treatments, seriously depleted, 50 pounds lighter and with no appetite, unable to collect his thoughts, suffering from declining vision and sudden bouts of stuttering, and nearly broke. His throat feels like cardboard, food is tasteless, rashes appear here and there and linger. (The doctors say that these are standard indicators on the way to recovery.)
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<div>Thankfully, the tumor on his neck has now receded. And, with the cancer treatments behind him, he can now have his eyesight tested, and hopefully have his vision restored.
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<div>Did the delays in selling his farm and the corresponding worry and sleepless nights contribute to this cancer? Maybe.
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<div><strong>A Life of Service</strong>
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<div>During its 34 years as a Community Supported Agriculture Farm, Angelic Organics fed about 500,000 people in the Chicagoland area nourishing organic vegetables; it was the biggest farm of its type in the world.
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<div>In addition, the feature documentary film <a href="https://angelicorganics.com/watch-the-movie/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Real Dirt on Farmer John</a> premiered in the early 2000’s in many countries. John inspired millions of viewers with his story of vision and courage, and the film garnered 33 film festival awards. John conducted over 1,000 press interviews and screened the film in over 500 theaters around the world.
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<div>John has led a life of service to his community: stewarding his family farm for seven decades; transforming his farm into a thriving organic farm organism; training hundreds of employees in the art of organic farming; facilitating legal well-paying jobs for our less fortunate friends from below the border; providing farm tours, festivals and field days for thousands of people; touring 18 countries with his film for five years–sharing a message of hope and community.
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<div>If John were to coin a tagline that has defined his life, it would be, “be there for others.”
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<div><strong>The Future?</strong>
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<div>John wants to sell his farmstead, and he wants to resume his writing.
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<div>(Here are samples of <a href="https://angelicorganics.com/farm-news/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">John’s Angelic Organics Farm News</a> . He has many other types of autobiographical writing to share, which you can peruse <a href="https://angelicorganics.com/farmer-john-writes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a> .)
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<div>John notices, now that he is not consumed by farming, that the world beckons him again, sort of like when he started Beloit College—a fascinating, bountiful, and multi-faceted world—full of opportunity and discovery.
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<div>John says: "You might wonder what that was like for me in college: I commuted from my farm 8 miles away where I tended crops and milked 34 cows morning and evening. I found out that other students had not spent their summers tending crops; many had been traveling abroad…or sailing. Many of them had attended boarding schools. And the kind of fencing my fellow students did was a sport; it didn't keep the cows in. I was unleashed into a big, new, wondrous world of adventure and discovery."
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/103046769_1777633505870742_r." width="100%" />
<div>John's college days
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<div>John is not sure where his current journey is leading; however, he is ready to explore a new world.
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<div>But, he has to be able to sell his farm first.
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<div><strong>How You Can Help</strong>
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<div>John is in need of financial assistance from friends of the farm to finally resolve the obstacles to the sale of his property.
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<div>Please join me in helping John get through this time of trials in his life, and to hang on financially until he has the green light to list his farm for sale.
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<div>Contribute to John’s staying power by donating to this crowdfunding campaign.
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<div>Please share this GoFundMe page with your friends and networks.
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<div>Thank you so much for your care for our Farmer John.
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<div><strong>Free 'Farming in the 50's' Film from Farmer John</strong>
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<div>Farmer John wants to share with you a free film that he digitized from the silent 8mm films that his mother shot in the 50's. He thinks it will give you a richer perspective on his family farm, which he transformed into Angelic Organics in the early 90’s.
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<div>The film is 40 minutes long, filmed during the 50's when time seemed to move at a slower pace.
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<div><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nq3h5GXZ4R2YDa8kZ-VU39xBRy_hhhMD/view" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here</a> to watch the film ‘Farming in the 50’s’. Feel free to share this film with your friends.
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<div>Sincerely,
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<div>Don Glasenapp
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