Iowa Worm Farm

06/08/2026

My first Indigenous Microorganism collection of the year failed after five days.

The second attempt worked.

But not because everything went perfectly.

One of the three collection boxes was moved and partially emptied by a raccoon.

I know it was a raccoon because it left behind what I am choosing to interpret as a strongly worded message.

The good news? The new box held up.

The better news? I had two other boxes sitting nearby, undisturbed.

That was the real lesson.

The second attempt succeeded because I stopped depending on one perfect outcome. I moved deeper into the forest, found a cooler location, and used three smaller boxes instead of one large box.

I could not control the temperature.

I could not control the exact speed of microbial growth.

I definitely could not control a raccoon with strong opinions about cooked rice.

But I could create a better system around the uncertainty.

That feels like a pretty good lesson from the worm farm.

Don’t bet on one box.

Read the full Field Notes post here: https://iowawormfarm.com/blogs/field-notes/don-t-bet-on-one-box

A failed IMO collection, a cooler forest location, three smaller collection boxes, and one frustrated raccoon led to a simple lesson about building systems that can handle uncertainty.

06/05/2026

Another totally normal Iowa Worm Farm errand.

This time, the truck came home with two cone-bottom fermentation tanks and several 55-gallon food-grade barrels that were previously used for pickles.

Because apparently my business model is slowly becoming:

1. Find useful things other people are done with.
2. Put way too many of them in my truck.
3. Bring them back to the shop.
4. Figure out how to turn them into something that helps soil.

These tanks and barrels will hopefully be repurposed for fermenting biofertilizers and testing new ways to increase beneficial microbe populations.

The bigger goal is simple:

Use more local materials.
Create more of our own products.
Reduce the need to ship things across the country.
Rely less on petroleum-based inputs.
Turn “waste” into something valuable.

It’s not fancy yet.

It’s pickle barrels in the back of a Chevy Colorado.

But it’s one more step toward building a local soil health system that makes sense here, with the resources we already have around us.

Also, if you see my truck driving around loaded like this… no you didn’t.

06/02/2026

Indigenous microbes: 1
Adam: 0

This was my first IMO collection attempt of the year… and it failed.

IMO stands for Indigenous Microorganisms. The idea is to place cooked rice in a healthy natural area and collect some of the local biology that already lives there.

When it works, it can become a useful tool for composting and soil health.

When it doesn’t work, it becomes a colorful little mold museum.

I checked this after 5 days, and my best guess is that I let it sit a day or two too long. So I’m resetting, trying again, and checking earlier next time.

That’s part of the point of Iowa Worm Farm. I want to show the process — not just the pretty finished results.

Attempt #1 failed.

Attempt #2 is already underway.

May this one rest in moldy peace.

06/01/2026

What are we voting for?

Not politically.

With our money.

With our habits.

With the things we keep choosing, even when we say we want something different.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. My family has an ongoing conversation about our local McDonald’s. The service is inconsistent enough that even my kids notice it.

My response to them has been simple:

Until we stop giving them our money, they have no reason to change.

Of course, they still want the fries.

And honestly, I still want the fries too.

That’s the uncomfortable part.

Because this isn’t really about McDonald’s. It’s about all the things we keep choosing because they are easy, familiar, convenient, or comfortable.

It’s easy to talk about what other people should change.

Farmers should change.
Companies should change.
Stores should change.
Neighbors should change.

Maybe they should.

But what am I still voting for?

That’s the question I’m sitting with this week.

Full post here:
https://iowawormfarm.com/blogs/field-notes/what-are-we-voting-for

Every purchase is a vote. A reflective Iowa Worm Farm post about convenience, chemicals, food choices, and asking better questions about what we choose to support.

05/29/2026

Work in progress… and apparently I now haul giant plastic cubes around town.

These are the first IBC totes headed to the new Iowa Worm Farm shop, where I’ll be converting them into composters.

The plan is pretty simple:

Take local organic material that would otherwise be treated like waste.
Compost it.
Feed it to worms.
Turn it into something useful for soil, gardens, lawns, and local food systems.

Nothing fancy yet. No polished “after” photo. Just the beginning of the next phase — one tote, one load, and one slightly overconfident truck strap setup at a time.

The new shop is still a work in progress, but this felt like a small milestone worth sharing.

More composters coming soon.
More worms coming soon.
More controlled chaos coming soon.

And yes, I checked the straps approximately 400 times.

05/26/2026

“Education costs money.”

That’s something my dad has said for as long as I can remember.

I’ve been thinking about that phrase a lot lately as I work on the new Iowa Worm Farm shop. Progress has felt slower than I wanted it to feel, but I’m starting to realize something important:

Slow doesn’t mean failing.

Sometimes the extra time, extra cost, extra mistakes, and extra uncertainty are just part of the education.

The better question is:

Did I learn something?

This week’s Field Notes post is about learning through the messy middle, letting joy be part of the work, and remembering that progress does not always have to hurt to be real.

Read the full post here:
https://iowawormfarm.com/blogs/field-notes/education-costs-money

A personal reflection on learning, progress, uncertainty, and the reminder that growth does not always have to hurt. Sometimes the cost of the lesson is tuition.

05/23/2026

A few months ago, I shared that Iowa Worm Farm had officially outgrown the 70 square foot storage room inside my insurance office.

Well… this is the news. 👇

IWF now has about 750 square feet to work with here in North Liberty.

I’m calling it “the shop,” because that’s exactly what it was in its previous life. This building is about 115 years old, and at one time it was the actual shop for the farmstead.

Now it gets to be a shop again.

There’s something I really love about that.

It reminds me a little of Toy Story — when something old gets pulled back out, dusted off, and given a new purpose. I’m grateful to have the space, and in a weird way, it feels like the space is happy to have work to do again.

The plan is to build a larger indoor composting system so Iowa Worm Farm can divert more local food waste from the landfill and turn it into high-quality, biology-rich compost for the worm farm and our lawn care projects.

More compost.
More worms.
Less landfill.

It’s very much a “coming soon” situation. I’m still one guy, and I’m trying to do this the right way. That means testing, learning, adjusting, and probably saying “well, that didn’t work” more than once.

But this feels like a big step.

From 70 square feet to 750 square feet.

Let’s grow. 🪱

05/21/2026

767 pounds of coffee grounds diverted from the landfill.

That’s what Dunn Brothers Coffee in Coralville has helped Iowa Worm Farm accomplish so far.

Instead of going to waste, those used coffee grounds are getting a second life in our composting and worm farming systems — helping us turn a local waste stream into something that can go back into Iowa soil.

Huge thank you to Alex and the Dunn Brothers team for being willing to try something simple, local, and useful.

This is the mission in action: less waste, healthier soil, and more local resources staying local.

Also… 767 pounds of coffee grounds is a lot of coffee.

My worms are either thriving or preparing to open their own drive-thru.

05/18/2026

What’s on my mind this week?

Doing the right thing.

Or at least doing the best thing I know how to do with the information I have today.

This week’s Field Notes started with a few different moments that somehow all pointed in the same direction: a farmer defending the way he farms, my kids feeling embarrassed about dancing at a wedding reception, and my own reminder that most of what I worry about is outside my control.

The line I kept coming back to was this:

No one is watching us dance.

Not as much as we think they are, anyway.

Most people are busy thinking about themselves, their own choices, their own fears, and their own uncertainty.

So maybe the work is to do the thing anyway.

Dance if you want to dance.

Build the thing you feel called to build.

Do what you currently believe is right.

And stay open enough to admit that someday you may learn a better way.

That’s what this week’s post is about.

https://iowawormfarm.com/blogs/field-notes/no-one-is-watching-us-dance

A personal Field Notes reflection from Iowa Worm Farm on doing the right thing, questioning what we believe, and staying open to growth.

05/11/2026

I read a question in a book that has stuck with me:

**“How are you complacent in the very thing you say you want to change?”**

That one is uncomfortable.

At Iowa Worm Farm, I think about this a lot when it comes to waste, soil, local systems, convenience, and the gap between what I say I believe and how I actually live.

I say I want less waste.
I say I want stronger local systems.
I say I want to support locally owned businesses.

And still, I catch myself choosing convenience.

That doesn’t mean I’m failing. It means the work is real.

I don’t think the goal is perfection. If perfection is the goal, most of us will quit before we start.

The goal is awareness.

To notice the little contradictions. To pause long enough to ask whether my daily choices are aligned with the way I say I want to live.

Maybe real change doesn’t start with a giant announcement or a perfect system.

Maybe it starts with one uncomfortable question:

**What part do I play in keeping alive the very thing I say I want to change?**

Read the full post here: https://iowawormfarm.com/blogs/field-notes/the-part-i-play

A reflective post from Iowa Worm Farm about waste, convenience, local systems, and the honest work of noticing the part we play in the change we say we want.