Its a cool morning in the desert, at the M.O.R.E. Mojave Off-Road Racing Breast Cancer Race, Barstow. I’m in my bright red and white racing suit, helmet on, slipping into our A-Arm car Class 1300, air is coming in to my helmet, someone is strapping me in, so many buckles. My oldest daughter calmly and confidently sitting next to me as co-pilot as she starts up the GPS Navigation System, my navigator for the next 250 miles of some of the roughest places to race with ruts, whoops, steep descents and hairpin turns. This is the race car my husband and son race in, not me…

I turn the key and the Porsche 2.3L engine roars, I smell the racing fuel as my adrenaline kicks into high gear. My left foot finds the clutch but starts to shake uncontrollably as I attempt to force my mind to control my limbs. Race time is only minutes away. Focus…

Remember what Tony taught you I kept thinking, look ahead out in front and then back again, slow into the curve, accelerate out, shift down…

Countdown 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 The huge flag drops -Go!

Pedal down, engine jumps into gear with a deafening sound, my daughter starts relaying navigation instructions…

Already hard to see, dust everywhere from all of the other cars, we hit a couple of ruts hard and realize my shoulder strap isn’t buckled. We realize we can’t keep going unless we get it fixed. I look for a spot to get off and someone to help us. Luckily we found a pit close by with a willing racing team to help fix my harness.

We go on to navigate the entire 250 mile course and make it back without breaking anything or us. Half way through the race at our own pit stop I vividly remember someone yelling out, “Hey! I can take over for you if its too much for you!” I responded immediately “No thanks” Then pushed my foot to the floor and thought “Hell no!” Not now, not ever! I had precious cargo, and no way would I let someone else drive my daughter to finish this course! I was going to do this and cross that finish line with my daughter. While I don’t remember how long it took us to get to the finish, I do remember settling into the adrenaline, lap by lap, staying present, filtering out all of the distractions and getting to the finish line as a team.

Mind over matter. Keep going. Lemonade life is so much what I found on the course that day. It took our amazing race team; my husband, son, our youngest daughter and friends to support us and the car that day. It took people we didn’t know on the course that jumped in and fixed my harness when it popped off. It took my daughter and I as a team to successfully navigate that course, something we had never done before. It took a leap of faith.

My lemonade company has tested me so many times, wobbling legs for my first speaking opportunity, my ‘safety harnesses’ have popped off product shortages, running out of money and so many other things. But every time we have a dedicated team of people there to support us, keep us moving forward, people we know and don’t know always there encouraging us. We’ve got the GPS Navigation System up and running again on our Lemonade Company and have made great strides since last week. We are still on track and look forward to 2024 our 13th year in business to see where the road takes us next.

Thank you for being along for the ride – We are here to serve you the most delicious lemonades for you to sip and share.

Lori Volk, Chief Believer

Lori’s Original Lemonade

est 2011

I am sitting on the stern of our cruising sail boat watching the world go by this morning. Tom and I got out early on the kayaks before the harbor became full of the  inlanders trying to escape the heat. We were met with dolphins at the harbor entrance playing among the mixed up sea. The swell was coming from all directions which made it hard to paddle.  We floated along by the breakwater and were lucky enough to find the dolphins – we sat there for a bit as the dolphins swam all around us as I sipped my morning coffee.

The water was too murky to see anything probably due to the extra surge. And so now, back at the dock I am sipping the last of my now cold cup of coffee after putting another coat of varnish on the port handrail.

My recap from this week is pretty uneventful – In lemonade land I finally made an attempt to contact 5 new prospects in the last hour of the last work day of the week.  We do have a new spot for our lemonade! Zachari Dunes, Oxnard formerly The Embassy Suites at Mandalay Beach. So on Friday afternoon as the vacationers were checking in I wheeled in cases of Lavender, Strawberry and our Classic Lemonades to the market inside the lobby. Funny story, about 40 years ago I got a job there as assistant to the General Manager. While I thought this was going to be such a glamorous job, I realized that I would be put in the back room working on a computer much of the time, which wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned. So I lasted only about 2 weeks there and left… now, 40 years later I was delivering lemonade from a company that I created to the exact spot where I quit that job! The serendipitous of the events in my life I find to be so crazy… realizing I didn’t get very far at least in geographic location.

We are preparing for another run- Did I mention there is another sugar shortage?? So many shortages over the years – lemon, sugar, lavender, strawberry, bottles… So we’ve bought enough sugar for two bottling runs just in case. I’ve been thinking about another flavor too- let us know if you have any input! We are definitely and decidedly a full flavor, real lemonade brand- if you want light you can add water, or tequila and not worry about it.

Let me know in the comments what you think our next lemonade flavor should be.

In the meantime, I am organizing the office, trying to spend some time doing sales, and hopefully getting out to see my amazing customers and trying to make sure I get my workouts in as well.

Hope you are enjoying the summer, and seeing the sun – at the beach we see the sun sometimes… not as much as I would like.

We are still here to serve you the most delicious organic lemonades for you to sip and share.

Lori Volk, Chief Believer/Ironman

Lori’s Original Lemonade

Since 2011

Journal

1/13/23 Friday 840 am

Good Friday Morning!

It’s a chilly 49 degrees on the Sea of Cortez as I write, my wood burning stove never caught well this morning so the propane heater is working over time. Tom just made a breakfast of eggs and potatoes using up the last of what we brought. The sky is blue and the sun is shining bright over the sea. I contemplate what my dreams and visions are for LOL for the coming year. Jack Johnson serenades us to “Slow Down you are Moving too Fast” and we are just settling into the Baja pace as we prepare to leave soon. But we will be back – planning to go to the whales again further south next month. I need to reconnect with the amazing creatures of the sea as we spend time on the water with them, something happens when you put your hand on one of these giants and look them in the eye… We love being off the grid, propane for cooking, solar for power – self sufficient – the sea and sand, ospreys, occasional desert fox, owls, the beauty of the Baja desert.

Well Tom and I missed the storm of the century… actually we started out at 4am the morning of and with windshield wipers going at full speed I contemplated for the next hour turning around. We were headed to our small beach casa off the grid on the Sea of Cortez for some R&R and a little catch up on work. But, we out ran the storm and it cleared up somewhere in San Bernardino.

As for LOL, we are bottling again! We are out of Ginger and we can’t put it off any longer – Ginger has been a long standing favorite of our customers for many years now.  So, before we left I ordered pallets of fresh frozen juice, ginger and pallets and pallets of bulk glass! Good that we are getting our glass from CA now and it doesn’t have to come from Canada or out of state! Prices are going up on almost everything that I am buying now and I am being torn on whether or not we have to raise the price yet. We haven’t done a price increase in years…. It is my least favorite part of this adventure I have created. We will hold off as long as we can.

In the meantime I love getting phone calls from our super fans! Did you know that you can find the number for us on our bottle and call me directly? ;) for the good or bad it has been that way since day one. But I love it. Thank you to all of you new and old fans you are my inspiration and fuel to keep going.

I am visioning more help with LOL coming – we have grand plans and I know that can’t do this by myself anymore.  I am recharging slowly as I recover from a bit of burnout mode which I’ve experienced many times over the last 11 years.

So here is to year 12! My goal is to expand to more locations so that you can find us easier. I want to bring you my book about the the crazy adventures of LOL this year and I want to continue to bring you the most delicious organic lemonades for you to sip and share.

With gratitude xo

Lori, Chief Believer Lori’s Original Lemonade

Since 2011

11/15/22

With the weather getting colder it is getting quieter around the LOL headquarters. We had a few big orders go out last week and with the record breaking month we had last month, it was bound to slow up a bit.

We’ve got another fresh batch of Lavender, Strawberry and our Original, “Classic” lemonades freshly bottled and headed out to 10 states as we speak.

While we are forever grateful for the continued partnerships that we have maintained for the last 11 years, I can’t help during this time of year wondering if people will keep buying our lemonade. Frankly, the feeling comes in every time it slows down that we may be out of business just like so many other beverages over the years. It is the time that I remind myself that for the last 11 years we are still here, despite the slower days as the winter grows colder. While my logical mind knows that, the other side of my brain (that runs/ruins my life) continues to tell me otherwise.

With only 3 months left to pay off the last of the loans I borrowed to survive the Kehe distribution disaster in 2019, I am cautiously excited as I round the final corner to the finish line to extinguish all debt both personal and business. It’s been a long haul over many years, and quite frankly I am exhausted.

I am writing to you from our off the grid hideaway in the middle of Baja on the Sea of Cortez next to a small propane heater as I look out over the blue green sea blown with white caps from the strong north winds.

Fortunately, our little round casa did not have too much damage from the last hurricane that came through about a month ago, tho we can see our small retreat is showing signs of age as well.

I am grateful for all that I have been entrusted to me and taking time this week to rest, recharge and think about my path for 2023.

With gratitude …

Lori, Chief Believer, Lori’s Original Lemonade

Since 2011

Its been a whirlwind of a week, setting up for the Jordanos Food Show, our valued distributor in Santa Barbara, tracking the supplies for the bottling this week, piloting our 41′ Sailboat in and out of the dock (for the first time!), and taking the 3rd Power Squadron boat handling class… Oh and somewhere along the line LOL turned 11!

Already Friday, and I’m pretty exhausted as I look back on this week. Besides a bunch of paperwork following the food show, I don’t feel that I accomplished a lot – That said, sales are up 27% over projections and we are only the middle of the month! And, seeing old and new faces at the food show was awesome! We are excited to be working with a bunch of new customers, restaurants, breweries, delis, and lots of other spots from the Tri-Counties.

Bottling of our signature Lavender Lemonade, Strawberry, and Original started in the wee hours yesterday morning way before the sun came up. We appreciate our co-packer partnering with us since we started back in 2011. The team they have is incredible, more than 90 families are supported every time a lemonade bottle is sold. The plant is alive with steam from the huge vats, the mixing tanks where all of our ingredients are blended together, and the clanking of the glass bottles as they line up on the conveyor belt. We purchase truckloads of glass bottles that are packed on pallets several dozen feet high! The subtle calming scent of lavender and the sweet smell of strawberries, mixed with the citrusy scent of our fresh frozen lemon juice makes me happy every time I’m there. We bottle 63,000 bottles at a time and each bottle is hand-packed into trays at the end of the line by three people! From there the lemonade case goes on the conveyor belt to be shrink-wrapped and loaded by hand onto the pallets, plastic-wrapped with each pallet weighing in at 2400 pounds they are picked up by the distributors :)

And on a personal note, I finally was able to get myself on the helm of our 41 ft sailboat and take her in and out of our slip a couple of times myself (Tom coaching)- with a 14′ beam and a few 26,000 lbs moving through the water, my only goal was not to run into something or someone – and I achieved that goal! ;) More practicing to come!

So, we are just plugging along in lemonade land as we move into fall. Spending time organizing the office, and my files and preparing to add some new customers.

With that, our mission is to serve you the most delicious lemonades for you to sip and share.

Lori Volk, Chief Believer Lori’s Original Lemonade

since 2011