How They Found a Farm

By: Raylene Nickel

After earning a master’s degree in engineering, Kate Edwards, Iowa City, Iowa, did an about-face on career choice and decided what she wanted most for her life’s work was farming. She’d come to love it while spending time with her farmer-grandparents as a kid. But she’d grown up thinking farming was out of reach. Encouragement from others pushed her toward her dream.

She started in 2010 by renting one acre to launch a community-supported agriculture (CSA) called Wild Woods Farm. Over time Edwards, now 34, changed farm sites twice, and today her owned, 16-acre farm is the largest CSA in Iowa, supplying vegetables to 250 families and employing six seasonal workers.