Friendly Farm

Friendly Farm providing pesticide free fresh local produce for over 30 years Fresh local produce grown within Iowa City limits.

You may place an order by phone or email and pick up by appt. We will try to have farm stand on Fridays in pm, also will be at most Saturday Farmer's Markets in Iowa City. Our produce is sold at New Pioneer and featured at Waterfront Hyvee. However we sell to various local markets and restaurants throughout the season depending on what we have available and what is needed.

If all life moves inevitably towards its end, then we must, during our own, colour it with our colours of love and hope....
02/10/2025

If all life moves inevitably towards its end, then we must, during our own, colour it with our colours of love and hope.

Marc Chagall


The earth’s economyJust when I thought the dayhad nothing left to give,when heat was ladled acrossthe shallow dry plateo...
02/09/2025

The earth’s economy

Just when I thought the day
had nothing left to give,
when heat was ladled across
the shallow dry plate

of the nation, working or not, alive
or not, my country
road home from work
an affair of sour radio news and roadkill —

the furred skunk, possum, cat,
squirrel, raccoon, in the

special economy of the outward-
facing nose, lost in final scent,

the surrendered open mouth,
forehead pressed back in frozen
tragedy, tension gone, time done,
appetite dissolving into skull —

I find myself at the kitchen counter
in a different Americana, tearing
kale ruffles from their spines
for a chilled supper of greens with lemon

and oil, Dijon, garlic, cucumber —
live, wet and impossibly cool from the
earth garden just outside the door,
where the farmer’s wife one hundred

years ago also opened her apron
like a cradle, gingerly receiving
into thin billowing cotton pockets
as much as she could carry

as much as she could carry

—Ruth Mowry


May Sarton: "An Observation"True gardeners cannot bear a gloveBetween the sure touch and the tender root,Must let their ...
02/06/2025

May Sarton: "An Observation"
True gardeners cannot bear a glove
Between the sure touch and the tender root,
Must let their hands grow knotted as they move
With a rough sensitivity about
Under the earth, between the rock and shoot,
Never to bruise or wound the hidden fruit.
And so I watched my mother's hands grow scarred,
She who could heal the wounded plant or friend
With the same vulnerable yet rigorous love;
I minded once to see her beauty gnarled,
But now her truth is given me to live,
As I learn for myself we must be hard
To move among the tender with an open hand,
And to stay sensitive up to the end
Pay with some toughness for a gentle world.


“For One Who Is Exhausted, a Blessing” by John O’DonohueWhen the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,Time takes on the st...
02/02/2025

“For One Who Is Exhausted, a Blessing” by John O’Donohue

When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
Time takes on the strain until it breaks;
Then all the unattended stress falls in
On the mind like an endless, increasing weight.
The light in the mind becomes dim.
Things you could take in your stride before
Now become laborsome events of will.
Weariness invades your spirit.
Gravity begins falling inside you,
Dragging down every bone.
The tide you never valued has gone out.
And you are marooned on unsure ground.
Something within you has closed down;
And you cannot push yourself back to life.
You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drove you has relinquished.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken in the race of days.
At first your thinking will darken
And sadness take over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.
You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.
Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.
Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.


Under the bluffs that overhung the marsh he came upon thickets of wild roses, with flaming buds, just beginning to open....
01/31/2025

Under the bluffs that overhung the marsh he came upon thickets of wild roses, with flaming buds, just beginning to open. Where they had opened, their petals were stained with that burning rose-colour which is always gone by noon, -- a dye made of sunlight and morning and moisture, so intense that it cannot possibly last. . . must fade, like ecstasy. Niel took out his knife and began to cut the stiff stems, crowded with red thorns.
He would make a bouquet for a lovely lady; a bouquet gathered off the cheeks of the morning. . . these roses, only half awake, in the defencelessness of utter beauty.
Willa Cather, A Lost Lady


"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There i...
01/30/2025

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature ... the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter."
Rachel Carson


Robyn Sarah: "An Early Start in Midwinter"The freeze is on. At six a scatteringof sickly lights shine pale in kitchen wi...
01/26/2025

Robyn Sarah: "An Early Start in Midwinter"

The freeze is on. At six a scattering

of sickly lights shine pale in kitchen windows.

Thermostats are adjusted. Furnaces

blast on with a whoosh. And day

rumbles up out of cellars to the tune

of bacon spitting in a greasy pan.

Scrape your nail along the window-pane,

shave off a curl of frost. Or press your thumb

against the film of white to melt an eye

onto the fire escape. All night

pipes ticked and grumbled like sore bones.

The tap runs rust over your chapped hands.

Sweep last night's toast-crumbs off the tablecloth.

Puncture your egg-yolk with a prong of fork

so gold runs over the white. And sip

your coffee scalding hot. The radio

says you are out ahead, with time to spare.

Your clothes are waiting folded on the chair.

This is your hour to dream. The radio

says that the freeze is on, and may go on

weeks without end. You barely hear the warning.

Dreaming of orange and red, the hot-tongued flowers

that winter sunrise mimics, you go out

in the dark. And zero floats you into morning.



Hold Everything Dearas the brick of the afternoon stores the rose heat of the journeyas the rose buds a green room to br...
01/25/2025

Hold Everything Dear
as the brick of the afternoon stores the rose heat of the journey
as the rose buds a green room to breathe
and blossoms like the wind
as the thinning birches whisper their silver stories of the wind to the urgent
in the trucks
as the leaves of the hedge store the light
that the moment thought it had lost
as the nest of her wrist beats like the chest of a wren in the morning air
as the chorus of the earth find their eyes in the sky
and unwrap them to each other in the teeming dark
hold everything dear
the calligraphy of birds across the morning
the million hands of the axe, the soft hand of the earth
one step ahead of time
the broken teeth of tribes and their long place
steppe-scattered and together
clay’s small, surviving handle, the near ghost of a jug
carrying itself towards us through the soil
the pledge of offered arms, the single sheet that is our common walking
the map of the palm held
in a knot
but given as a torch
hold everything dear
the paths they make towards us and how far we open towards them
the justice of a grass than unravels palaces but shelters the songs of the searching
the vessel that names the waves, the jug of this life, as it fills with the days
as it sinks to become what it loves
memory that grows into a shape the tree always knew as a seed
the words
the bread
the child who reaches for the truths beyond the door
the yearning to begin again together
animals keen inside the parliament of the world
the people in the room the people in the street the people
hold everything dear
–Gareth Evans


a short story of falling :: alice oswaldIt is the story of the falling rainto turn into a leaf and fall againit is the s...
01/22/2025

a short story of falling :: alice oswald

It is the story of the falling rain
to turn into a leaf and fall again
it is the secret of a summer shower
to steal the light and hide it in a flower
and every flower a tiny tributary
that from the ground flows green and momentary
is one of water’s wishes and this tale
hangs in a seed-head smaller than my thumbnail
if only I a passerby could pass
as clear as water through a plume of grass
to find the sunlight hidden at the tip
turning to seed a kind of lifting rain drip
then I might know like water how to balance
the weight of hope against the light of patience
water which is so raw so earthy-strong
and lurks in cast-iron tanks and leaks along
drawn under gravity towards my tongue
to cool and fill the pipe-work of this song
which is the story of the falling rain
that rises to the light and falls again



The Action of the Beautiful - May SartonI move through my world like a strangerWhere multiple images collide and fall,Fr...
01/21/2025

The Action of the Beautiful - May Sarton

I move through my world like a stranger
Where multiple images collide and fall,
Fragments of lakes, eyes.......or a mirror.
How to include, make peace with them all?
Only your face (is this too illusion?)
So poised between silence and speech
Suggests that at the center of confusion
An inward music is just within reach.
Can so much be spoken by an eyelid,
or the bent forehead so much light distill?
Here all is secret and yet nothing hid,
That tenderness, those deep reserves of will.
There is no future, past, only pure presence.
The moment of a glance is brimmed so full
It fuses consciousness to a new balance -
This is the action of the beautiful.
Lakes, mirrors, every broken radiance
Shine whole again in your reflective face,
And I, the stranger, centered in your presence,
Come home and walk into the heart of peace.


MATINSA sickle of moon is caughtin the branches of cottonwoodsalong the ice choked river.A black night.Stars in their co...
01/18/2025

MATINS

A sickle of moon is caught
in the branches of cottonwoods
along the ice choked river.

A black night.

Stars in their constellations
so far away,
my prayers fly nakedly,
shadows among them.

It is cold.

With broken star gazers who pray,
I await a reply.
Simple worship does not seek
the approval of an echo.

Freezing, yielding to the shivers
of cooling blood, I stumble in
to wait by my fire
of forest wood.

I hear silver chimes
hanging in the blue spruce
outside my frozen window
played by mercy of sudden wind.

A sickle moon, a star,
a wrung out prayer,
matins sealed with silver chimes.

~ Charles Van Gorkom, Canadian poet, artist, and bootmaker.


Wordsby Anne SextonBe careful of words,even the miraculous ones.For the miraculous we do our best,sometimes they swarm l...
01/17/2025

Words
by Anne Sexton
Be careful of words,
even the miraculous ones.
For the miraculous we do our best,
sometimes they swarm like insects
and leave not a sting but a kiss.
They can be as good as fingers.
They can be as trusty as the rock
you stick your bottom on.
But they can be both daisies and bruises.
Yet I am in love with words.
They are doves falling out of the ceiling.
They are six holy oranges sitting in my lap.
They are the trees, the legs of summer,
and the sun, its passionate face.
Yet often they fail me.
I have so much I want to say,
so many stories, images, proverbs, etc.
But the words aren’t good enough,
the wrong ones kiss me.
Sometimes I fly like an eagle
but with the wings of a wren.
But I try to take care
and be gentle to them.
Words and eggs must be handled with care.
Once broken they are impossible
things to repair.
 

The most wonderful watercolor painting gifted to us by Al's better half Millie Perocheau. It so captures the old barns s...
01/14/2025

The most wonderful watercolor painting gifted
to us by Al's better half Millie Perocheau. It so captures the old barns spirit. Thank you!

William Stafford: "Earth Dweller"
It was all the clods at once become
precious; it was the barn, and the shed,
and the windmill, my hands, the crack
Arlie made in the ax handle: oh, let me stay
here humbly, forgotten, to rejoice in it all;
let the sun casually rise and set.
If I have not found the right place,
teach me; for, somewhere inside, the clods are
vaulted mansions, lines through the barn sing
for the saints forever, the shed and windmill
rear so glorious the sun shudders like a gong.

Now I know why people worship, carry around
magic emblems, wake up talking dreams
they teach to their children: the world speaks.
The world speaks everything to us.
It is our only friend.


Praise Song for the Dayby Elizabeth AlexanderEach day we go about our business,walking past each other, catching each ot...
01/14/2025

Praise Song for the Day
by Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.
All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.
Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.
Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.
We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.
I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,
picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.
Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.
Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?
Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.
In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,
praise song for walking forward in that light.



Note to Self WorkBeau Siaget there before sundown. feed yourself only with what nurtures. let the process of shedding be...
01/13/2025

Note to Self Work

Beau Sia
get there before sundown. 

feed yourself 
only with what nurtures. 

let the process of shedding 
be joyous in its eternity. 

create and call it creation. 

tell lashing out that 
it isn’t worthy of your song. 

beat the drum
instead of yourself. 

beat the drum when hands 
want to become fists. 

beat the drum to get 
beneath the surface. 

jump off the bed. 
welcome waves in the tub. 
cook as if dancing. 

be a metaphor
when literal is too much. 

cry into your journal
as if it is rising’s way. 

praise into your journal 
like you ain’t apologizing 
to no one for shine. 

claim into your journal, 
for there’s no need 
to die waiting. 

be too vibrant for lingering
on those who neglect. 

too awww 
to keep treating yourself 
so poorly. 

be more than knowing. 

in case you need encouragement, 
I’mma share 
that memory 
you tucked away, 

scared you’d be laughed at 
trying for more than 
drowning spectacularly. 

that shows you beyond 
the bad beats. 

who you were before 
that season you’ve forgotten. 

to remind 
that every victory counts
and that you’re 
one step closer today. 


Gamblers All- Charles Bukowski sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think,I'm not going to make it, bu...
01/12/2025

Gamblers All- Charles Bukowski

sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think,
I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside
remembering all the times you've felt that way, and
you walk to the bathroom, do your toilet, see that face
in the mirror, oh my oh my oh my, but you comb your hair anyway,
get into your street clothes, feed the cats, fetch the
newspaper of horror, place it on the coffee table, kiss your
wife goodbye, and then you are backing the car out into life itself,
like millions of others you enter the arena once more.

you are on the freeway threading through traffic now,
moving both towards something and towards nothing at all as you punch
the radio on and get Mozart, which is something, and you will somehow
get through the slow days and the busy days and the dull
days and the hateful days and the rare days, all both so delightful
and so disappointing because
we are all so alike and so different.

you find the turn-off, drive through the most dangerous
part of town, feel momentarily wonderful as Mozart works
his way into your brain and slides down along your bones and
out through your shoes.

it's been a tough fight worth fighting
as we all drive along
betting on another day.



Address

2040 Waterfront Drive
Iowa City, IA
52240

Telephone

+13196215462

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Harvested cherry tomatoes for field to family for ic schools... beautiful day to pick!

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