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.

The Gift    N. Scott Momaday    For Bobby Jack Nelson    Older, more generous,    We give each other hope.    The gift i...
05/24/2026

The Gift
N. Scott Momaday

For Bobby Jack Nelson

Older, more generous,
We give each other hope.
The gift is ominous:
Enough praise, enough rope.


Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.Myrna Loy
05/20/2026

Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.

Myrna Loy


I Have this Way of BeingJamaal MayI have this, and this isn’t a mouth           full of the names of odd flowersI’ve gro...
05/17/2026

I Have this Way of Being
Jamaal May

I have this, and this isn’t a mouth
           full of the names of odd flowers
I’ve grown in secret.
           I know none of these by name
but have this garden now,
           and pastel somethings bloom
near the others and others.
           I have this trowel, these overalls,
this ridiculous hat now.
           This isn’t a lung full of air.
Not a fist full of weeds that rise
           yellow then white then windswept.
This is little more than a way
           to kneel and fill gloves with sweat,
so that the trowel in my hand
           will have something to push against,
rather, something to push
           against that it knows will bend
and give and return as sprout
           and petal and sepal and bloom.



THE BIG HEARTBy Anne Sexton"Too many things are occurring for even a big heart to hold."  ~From an essay by W. B. YeatsB...
05/16/2026

THE BIG HEART
By Anne Sexton

"Too many things are occurring for even a big heart to hold." ~From an essay by W. B. Yeats

Big heart,
wide as a watermelon,
but wise as birth,
there is so much abundance
in the people I have:
Max, Lois, Joe, Louise,
Joan, Marie, Dawn,
Arlene, Father Dunne,
and all in their short lives
give to me repeatedly,
in the way the sea
places its many fingers on the shore,
again and again
and they know me,
they help me unravel,
they listen with ears made of conch shells,
they speak back with the wine of the best region.
They are my staff.
They comfort me.

They hear how
the artery of my soul has been severed
and soul is spurting out upon them,
bleeding on them,
messing up their clothes,
dirtying their shoes.
And God is filling me,
though there are times of doubt
as hollow as the Grand Canyon,
still God is filling me.
He is giving me the thoughts of dogs,
the spider in its intricate web,
the sun
in all its amazement,
and a slain ram
that is the glory,
the mystery of great cost,
and my heart,
which is very big,
I promise it is very large,
a monster of sorts,
takes it all in--
all in comes the fury of love.

❤️


The Rapture - Mary OliverAll summerI wandered the fieldsthat were thickeningevery morning,every rainfall,with weeds and ...
05/13/2026

The Rapture - Mary Oliver

All summer
I wandered the fields
that were thickening
every morning,

every rainfall,
with weeds and blossoms,
with the long loops
of the shimmering, and the extravagant-

pale as flames they rose
and fell back,
replete and beautiful-
that was all there was-

and I too
once or twice, at least,
felt myself rising,
my boots

touching suddenly the tops of the weeds,
the blue and silky air-
listen,
passion did it,

called me forth,
addled me,
stripped me clean
then covered me with the cloth of happiness-

I think there is no other prize,
only rapture the gleaming,
rapture the illogical the weightless-

whether it be for the perfect shapeliness
of something you love-
like an old German song-
or of someone-

or the dark floss of the earth itself,
heavy and electric.
At the edge of sweet sanity open
such wild, blind wings.



Half lifeWe walk through half our lifeas if it were a fever dreambarely touching the groundour eyes half openour heart h...
05/11/2026

Half life

We walk through half our life
as if it were a fever dream

barely touching the ground

our eyes half open
our heart half closed.

Not half knowing who we are
we watch the ghost of us drift
from room to room
through friends and lovers
never quite as real as advertised.

Not saying half we mean
or meaning half we say
we dream ourselves
from birth to birth
seeking some true self.

Until the fever breaks
and the heart can not abide
a moment longer
as the rest of us awakens,
summoned from the dream,
not half caring for anything but love.

Stephen Levin



this is the recipe of lifesaid my motheras she held me in her arms as i weptthink of those flowers you plantin the garde...
05/10/2026

this is the recipe of life
said my mother
as she held me in her arms as i wept
think of those flowers you plant
in the garden each year
they will teach you
that people too
must wilt
fall
root
rise
in order to bloom
rupi kaur, The Sun and Her Flowers



Thomas Centolella: "Splendor"One day it's the clouds,one day the mountains.One day the latest bloomof roses—the pure mon...
05/08/2026

Thomas Centolella: "Splendor"
One day it's the clouds,
one day the mountains.
One day the latest bloom
of roses—the pure monochromes,
the dazzling hybrids—inspiration
for the cathedral's round windows.
Every now and then
there's the splendor
of thought: the singular
idea and its brilliant retinue—
words, cadence, point of view,
little gold arrows flitting
between the lines.
And too the splendor
of no thought at all:
hands lying calmly
in the lap, or swinging
a six iron with effortless
tempo. More often than not
splendor is the star we orbit
without a second thought,
especially as it arrives
and departs. One day
it's the blue glassy bay,
one day the night
and its array of jewels,
visible and invisible.
Sometimes it's the warm clarity
of a face that finds your face
and doesn't turn away.
Sometimes a kindness, unexpected,
that will radiate farther
than you might imagine.
One day it's the entire day
itself, each hour foregoing
its number and name,
its cumbersome clothes, a day
that says come as you are,
large enough for fear and doubt,
with room to spare: the most secret
wish, the deepest, the darkest,
turned inside out.



“I find this morning that what I most vividly and longingly recall is the sight of my grandson and his little sunburnt s...
05/05/2026

“I find this morning that what I most vividly and longingly recall is the sight of my grandson and his little sunburnt sister returning to their kitchen door from an excursion, with trophies of the meadow clutched in their hands—she with a couple of violets, and smiling, he serious and holding dandelions, strangling them in a responsible grip. Children hold spring so tightly in their brown fists—just as grownups, who are less sure of it, hold it in their hearts.”
― E.B. White, Essays of E. B. White





the enkindled spring :: d. h. lawrenceThis spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,Wild puffing of emerald trees,...
05/01/2026

the enkindled spring :: d. h. lawrence

This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.
I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze.
And I, what fountain of fire am I among
This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed
About like a shadow buffeted in the throng
Of flames, a shadow that’s gone astray, and is lost.



Address

2040 Waterfront Drive
Iowa City, IA
52240

Telephone

+13196215462

Website

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