HONEY CREEK, Iowa — The owners of Honey Creek Farm are hosting an event from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Friday to celebrate the first farm protected in Southwest Iowa by the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT).
The event, located at 19339 Cougar Avenue in Honey Creek, is a free gathering of like-minded locals, with live acoustic guitar and vocal music from local artist Steve Taylor, snacks, drinks and inspiring stories about generosity, hope and farm legacies designed for Iowans and others interested in supporting SILT’s mission to circle the state’s cities with permanent table food farms. The West Branch nonprofit works with landowners across the state to permanently dedicate their land to sustainable table-food farming. Honey Creek Farm owners, Johnny and Tana Piniarski, purchased the farm from SILT earlier this year for more than 50 percent under market rate with the requirement that a conservation easement, or voluntary landowner agreement, keeps the land in sustainable food farming for good.
For additional information or to RSVP, email info@silt.org or call/text 319.800.8108.
The farm, sold in 2015 to SILT at a deep discount by Honey Creek resident Joe Driscoll, was the first acquisition by the nonprofit organization. The group took out a loan to save the farm from sheriff’s sale and Driscoll pledged to help raise the funds for the group to own it outright, but illness and other major life events didn’t permit it. Enter the Piniarski’s, who understood the trade-off of purchasing the land at an affordable rate in return for keeping the land in sustainable, regenerative table food production. The SILTFest Honey Creek event is taking place to help the Piniarski family celebrate their new farm and for area residents to see the impact of SILT’s work firsthand .
About SILT
The Sustainable Iowa Land Trust protects 14 farms for a total of 1,134 acres across Iowa. Its mission is to permanently protect land to grow healthy table food. More information can be found at silt.org
–The Sustainable Iowa Land Trust