18/05/2025
Chris has Cancer
There's no easy or delicate way to share this kind of news - Chris has been diagnosed with squamous cell metastatic carcinoma (it's a skin cancer that formed a tumor in the lymph nodes in his neck).
The good news is that it's very treatable, it was caught early, and Chris is starting an aggressive course of chemotherapy and radiation.
Obviously there is no good time to receive a cancer diagnosis, but it's particularly difficult for a farmer to endure this intensive treatment during the growing season. During the summer, we grow and preserve the majority of the goodies we sell for the whole year.
This summer, Chris will be undergoing daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy for seven weeks straight, so he is going to be 100% focused on his health.
We are figuring out what that means practically for our farm, but we know we will be producing less than we have in previous years, and we are both pretty anxious about that.
The farm is our sole source of income, so we are reaching out to our community to help us make it through this summer and keep our small business going.
Ways to Help
Right now, we have a small stash of pickles up on our website (including the last jars of chow chow and cowgirl candy from our summer garden). We also listed some of your favorite savory and spicy pickles pre-order (they will ship out the week of May 27th).
Since we may be sold out of some varieties (sweet pickles, sorry!) and sizes, we encourage you to consider purchasing an eGift certificate that you can use when we stock up again. That way, you can help us in this difficult time and still get the pickles that you want!!
A bunch of folks have asked for ways to financially support us without buying pickles (lol I guess everybody doesn't love pickles like we do), so we've included some different ways below.
Please don't give if you're struggling financially yourself - we know times are tough right now and we don't want too put anyone in a more precarious position.
We would appreciate if you could share our fundraising link or share the post about Chris' diagnosis from our page (https://www.facebook.com/ValhallaOrganics/posts/pfbid02uerntCeKAnRvTQV6SQjnCDUoCbR3tXJfrWPTsvtVvf145CbAjVotx5FLfAp4z3p6l) . It really helps to get the word out.
Here's the fundraising link to share: http://valhallaorganics.org/donate
If you'd prefer to donate using a different trusted method, here's our info:
Venmo: Ruby-Reid-2 or venmo.com/Ruby-Reid-2
If you need the last 4 digits of the phone number: 4491
PayPal: [email protected]
Checks: please make the check out to "Christopher Day" and mail it to 1055 Carlbrook Rd, Vernon Hill, VA 24597.
Thank you for supporting our small farm and our big dreams!
Ruby & Chris | Valhalla Organics
Click here for an update from Valhalla Organics!