About 

Hi, I'm Elana Gingerich and I farm on 40 acres of mixed pasture and timber. I grow chestnuts, pawpaws and a few other types fruits and nuts. I raise a small herd of cattle that gets rotated through timber and pasture for grass finished beef. I also sell chestnut and pawpaw trees so that you can have the joy of raising and harvesting these things in your own farm or yard. 

I grew up 2 miles away from where I  farm  now on a hog farm.  I've worked on many kinds of farms. I've picked sweet corn, milked cows, worked on vegetable farms and more. In 2015 I learned that Chinese Chestnuts are a tree that can grow in Iowa and produce a carbohydrate nut similar to corn. That made sense to me. I wanted to grow trees that grew food. I did an internship at Red Fern Farm where I learned a little bit of what I need to know but I'm always still learning. The cattle were the next piece of the puzzle- there was so much grass growing on our land that it was getting hard to walk through it. Cattle can turn grass into human food and if used right can increase soil organic matter and improve the soil microbiome. I also think that our grass finished beef is pretty tasty. I grow paw paw trees because paw paw fruit it unique and fun, the trees can produce in partial shade and the tree is the only food source for the zebra swallowtail butterfly- which I have seen a few of on our farm!