Kate Edwards has been managing Wild Woods Farm, a 7-acre vegetable farm in Johnson County, Iowa for seven years full-time.
There she grows onions, among 30 types of vegetables with 150 varieties.She runs a vegetable Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) that feeds 200 families in her community. 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