It’s Day 5 and breakfast this morning consisted of HN’s blueberry spelt pancakes and a PB&J strengthening smoothie. After that, a 2.5 hour ride in the van to the Oneota Food Co-Op. During the drive to lunch, HN pointed out to us that land prices vary greatly with topography changes and county line changes. This was interesting to me because this kind of information is readily known where I’m from. The division of heritage over county lines: Amish, Norwegians, and Germans is still prevalent in Iowa today.

We didn’t spend much time walking through Oneota’s before eating lunch, but the atmosphere mirrored a small upscale grocery store. From my understanding, a food co-op’s success lies in community support. Individuals purchase shares of the co-op and therefore essentially own part of the business and the idea is that customers are financially and morally invested in the success of the co-op. Like I said, it felt like a normal grocery store, but it’s nice to know that there’s more to it.

After lunch, we went to Seed Savers, a seed company that specializes in preserving heirloom seeds. On site, there’s an heirloom apple orchard that houses over 700 varieties of apples that have all grown during various times of American history. Our tour guide, Orchard Manager Neil Hamilton, told us his story in connection to apples. It seems that every monumental moment or person in this man’s life has something to do with apples. He’s found his mother’s favorite variety along with the varieties that first got him interested in apples as a field of study. The goal of the Seed Saver Apple Orchard is to preserve biodiversity in a country where it’s easier to practice mono-cropping with our produce.