Kate Edwards runs a vegetable Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) that feeds 200 families in her community.
Here, members pick up their weekly share at one of her seven drop sites.
Edwards has owned and operated Wild Woods Farm, a 7-acre vegetable farm in Johnson County, Iowa for seven years full-time. There she grows 30 types of vegetables with 150 varieties.
While both of her grandfathers were farmers, Edwards is a generation removed from farming and found that the CSA model provided a viable path back to farming.
Edwards has participated in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency's (FSA) Farm Storage Facility Loan Program and the FSA microloan program.
She and her landlords also have a conservation plan in place for the land that she rents.
Edwards is also involved with farmer organizations and is both a member of Farm Bureau and of Practical Farmers of Iowa. Kate earned her masters in engineering before entering farming.
USDA Photo by Preston Keres. Original public domain image from Flickr