Sass Family Farm – Iowa City IA by Patty

Monday, August 27. The next night we got to visit with all these folks again, and many others, at a dinner at the Sass Family Farm in Riverside. The Sass family runs a vegetable CSA and act as kind of an animal sanctuary for various goats, llamas, sheep, cattle, horses, and other animals I’m probably forgetting that other people can’t take care of any longer. They also host thousands of children throughout the year, but especially in the fall when they set up a straw maze, pumpkin festival, hayrides, and other fun farm activities for kids. Maurice and Sherry Sass were fantastic hosts and spoke really eloquently about how they want people to come to their farm and experience it so they can understand a little better where their food comes from.

We also heard from some key players in Iowa agriculture. First up was Chris Petersen, the president of the Iowa Farmers Union, who talked about how we need to change farm and food policy to make sure that we have a system that supports the growth of local food. Dealing with the safety of imported food, getting mandatory country of origin labeling for food, and devoting more farm program money to independent family farms are all on his list for the changes we need to make sure that the public demand for local food can continue to be met. Then we heard from Fred Kirschenmann, a legend in sustainable agriculture, who talked about how the time is ripe for Iowa to be a leader in supply consumers with the food they want – food with high quality, food that has a story, and food that comes with a trusting relationship from farm to table. Then we ate. A lot. Including pie, of course. I had the peach gallette (a term that I learned how to pronounce at the Minneapolis farmers market during the pie contest), which like everything else, was great.

Article Tag(s):

If you are interested in commenting on this blog, please go to our forum...