Sara and Jim Anderson tend gardens on their 50-acre farm in Jefferson County. Photo: Emily Kestel
Writer: Emily Kestel
Sara and Jim Anderson own Anderson Prairie Farm, where they’ve lived since 2013. She is from Texas, and he is from northern Ireland. Sara studied conservation and natural resources in college before teaching transcendental meditation for several decades with Jim. After they retired, they decided to plant their roots on an acreage, close to water and with enough space to build their own home with their own hands and grow enough food to sustain themselves.
The number of vegetables, herbs, berries and other edible plants grown on the farm is endless. There are the usual onions, rhubarb, garlic, potatoes, peas, carrots, beans, celery, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cucumbers, cabbages, asparagus and kale. Then there are a few serviceberries, currants, gooseberries, aronia berries and other fruit bushes. In fact, she and her husband Jim go to the grocery store only for milk, cheese, butter and bulk items.
This, she said, is the dream. If only more of the state were like this. More natural, she said. More regenerative.
About 85% of land in Iowa is farmed, yet roughly 90% of the food eaten by Iowans is produced out of state.
In 2021, the Andersons worked with the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust to place an easement on their land, protecting roughly 36 of their 50 acres from future development that would upend the Anderson’s regenerative farming efforts. Sara hopes their decision to protect their land will inspire others to do the same.
This story originally appeared in our latest Iowa Stops Hunger magazine. Read the full version here.
Iowa Stops Hunger is an ongoing Business Publications Corp. initiative to raise awareness of food insecurity in Iowa and inspire action to combat it.
