Rosamond Press

A year ago I sent the video ‘Rosemary Rides and Shoots’ to the Ventura Museum. In this home movie that was shot by one of the grandsons of Henry Lewis, we see my late mother riding and shooting with the Lewis boys whose father owned the lima bean fields in Carpenetria and Camarillo.

Rosemary told her children she almost married the young man who is seen diving from a platform. We have forgotten his name. The dream that we could have grown up on a ranch riding horse, stayed with us, and was carried over to the dreams I applied to Rena Easton, my Muse. In her letter, Rena says her husband has a small ranch and farm in Montana.

On his 109 acre farm in Carpenteria, Henry Lewis planted the beans and raised the first crop of the species ever grown in the United States.

The ranch is almost…