Saturday, Feb. 3 was an exciting day for Ashley and Zachary Wenke of Montezuma and their Pleasant Grove Homestead small growing business.
They earned the top award of $7,500 in a “pitch off” event at the Iowa Farm Bureau Young Farmer Conference held in Des Moines.
Ashley commented, “As one of the top three participants from a public vote competition held in December, we had to provide a seven-minute pitch evaluated by judges and voted by the over 500 people attending, plus participate in a ten-minute interview with a panel of judges.
The prize is making it possible for the Wenkes to make improvements in their concentrated agricultural enterprise. They said they plan to use the funds to purchase shelving units for their walk-in coolers and freezers, plus stainless steel tables for packing produce, and for harvest totes.
Ashley said, “These items should increase our efficiency in getting items to market by about 30 percent as well as improve the sanitation. Originally, we intended to use the funds for a salad spinner but through our previous media promotion of the event we were able to secure a used model!”
Pleasant Grove Homestead is headquartered on a 6.5-acre plot near the north edge of Barnes City, but it has a Montezuma address. This small farm provides meat, fruit and vegetable produce, eggs and honey to surrounding communities through farmer’s markets, cooperatives and direct to consumer channels.
According to the business website – pleasantgrovehomestead.com – originally it was mostly for selling woodworking and craft type items. The journey began in 2017 with egg laying hens, beekeeping, and planting 80 fruit trees. Over the years Ashley and “Zach” have gained more experience and more than doubled their production in those areas. Ashley said, “As of 2023, we have raised over 1,500 meat birds, 300 laying hens, and added three high tunnels to our large market garden.” All of their products are home grown.
Pleasant Grove Homestead has an overall theme, “Healthy soil leads to healthy people.”