Newsletter March 2026
As a fan of Greek mythology, the story of spring is special to me. Demeter rejoiced and welcomed her daughter, Persephone, every six months from the underworld. Hades had abducted Persephone and since she ate pom-egranate seeds in the underworld she was forced to live there. But Zeus negotiated, allowing Persephone to live with her mother half of the year. This is how the Greeks ex-plained the changing seasons. When Persephone was with Deme-ter, crops grew and harvests were bountiful. When she was with Hades, Demeter became depressed and crops died in fall and win-ter. Visit https://mythology.net/greek/greek-gods/demeter to read more about this interesting story.
Just as Demeter celebrated Persephone’s return this spring news-letter features many things to celebrate. Let’s applaud how much we support CALS! Demeter’s education chair, Kate VandenBosch, presented our board a proposal to give $64,500 in scholarships, grants and internships for the 2026-27 academic year. This is the largest amount we’ve ever awarded. Thanks to all of you for your generous support. This newsletter focuses on last year’s recipi-ents. I’m excited to read their stories.
You can also celebrate by joining fellow Demeter members at our upcoming events such as the annual meeting on April 29 at the Blackhawk Country Club in Madison. George and Debbie Crave of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese will talk about their award-winning cheese operation. Their cheese is fantastic and is availa-ble at Metcalfs and other Madison-area stores. Plan to attend De-meter’s annual Garden Party on June 10 at Allen Centennial Gar-den. And mark your calendars for the Corn Roast on September 9.
Included in this newsletter is the 2026-27 membership/donation form. Please consider volunteering for a committee or board posi-tion. Please contact me or another board member if you’re inter-ested. The best part of volunteering is that it’s a fun group and you can help decide on the future direction of our organization.
Sharon Brantmeier, president, Demeter