Growing Generously and Feeding My Soul at Mustard Seed Farm
by Kara Grady, Science Researcher on Grounded
Alice McGary has run Mustard Seed Farm in Ames, Iowa since the early 2000s. Before that, she lived in a number of Catholic Worker houses, which informed her ideology of how the farm should run. It is a community farm, and if you’re lucky enough to visit on a Tuesday or Friday morning during harvest season, you’ll find a bunch of people from across Story County harvesting produce, packing CSA boxes, learning new gardening techniques, and picking flowers.
Alice was generous enough to let me have a second stab at interning after my plan to live at the farm last May fell through. I was pretty scared of her at first but soon found a very thoughtful and determined soul under what many would deem a “bossy” exterior. She and her husband Nate asked my advice (despite that I knew nothing about how a farm worked) and we had many stimulating conversations about scripture (me and her both being Catholic).
Alice’s greatest love is growing food for those in need. Over one-third of all organic produce grown at the farm this year was given away to local charities: the new Ames Catholic Worker House, Martha’s House of Hope and of course to the workers who came on harvest mornings. People sent heartfelt notes of thanks after the derecho when they found their boxes still being delivered. Her second greatest love is teaching others how to grow food, and I certainly fell into that category! I learned how to dig for potatoes, chop up a fallen Osage tree, weed, pick strawberries, shuck garlic, turn compost, and so much more. Throughout winter I continued to show up to the monthly farm team meetings, where we would discuss goals for 2021 and created a bucket-load of committees to help finances, intern outreach, and events run smoothly.
It’s been almost half a year since my internship ended in late September, and yet I still find myself asking advice from our Facebook community as I build my way to a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Alice and Nate’s living style certainly exemplifies that! They heat their home with firewood, use minimal plumbing and electricity, compost as much as they can, do laundry completely by hand, and use massive rain collectors to irrigate crops. It’s thanks to these DIY methods that losing power during the derecho did not affect the operation of the farm much if at all. It also helped their crops survive through the extremely dry summer that persisted throughout most of the US.
What is Alice’s stamp on my life? First, I learned that farming is not the degrading occupation I as a scholar always presumed it to be. Second, that organic food, prepared with friends, is manna from Heaven, especially after a long morning of hard work. Third, that community is more important that anything you could buy. Fourth, that our health is secondary to the health of the planet. Fifth, that being there for others is the key to happiness.
I’m proud to say that it was this experience that launched me joining Grounded as a Science Researcher and realizing that I want to devote my life to environmental science communication. There are still too many people who shun the need for change: in our energy industry, in our agriculture sector, in the way we go about our everyday lives. Alice taught me a better way, a resilient way that respects the Earth and makes you part of a resilient community.
We’d love to grow the Mustard Seed Farm family! Go to the website https://www.mustardseedfarm.org/ to find out all the latest events and information about the farm, volunteer and internship opportunities.
Kara Grady is a current senior at Iowa State University and is a fierce advocate for climate justice, food equality and sustainability. She is also an integral member of the Grounded Science Research team, helping gather scientifically-backed data, statistics and facts to help ensure the accuracy of the film. Connect with Kara @gr_kara.
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