Off the Map: Geyer’s farm offers flowers, pizza

By Katie Mills Giorgio, correspondent

OXFORD - Dave and Anna Geyer's farm is much more than just a picturesque homestead south of Interstate 80 in Oxford.

It is where they have lived for nearly 17 years, raising their family, growing an abundance of flowers and making delectable wood fired pizza and breads.

Some may know their farm as the beautiful spot where those in need of a bouquet, small or large, can partake of Anna's Cutting Garden.

'When we first moved here I wanted to have a CSA but I started having kids and realized that was a bit much,” Geyer said. So she created her you-pick garden and the flower business was born. Today she sells flowers by the bucket, often for weddings, and does some arranging as well.

Others likely know the Geyer farm as the home of wood fired pizza nights that the couple has been hosting for the last four years on the second and fourth Thursdays of the summer months.

Inventive pizzas - jalapeno popper, tomato tart, classic pepperoni, peach Melba and raspberry and many more - cooked in the outdoor masonry oven the Geyers built themselves are the main attraction.

'We try to come up with a new pizza every time,” Geyer said. 'We work with what ingredients, meat and produce, we can get locally. My crew is brimming with creativity.”

Pizza lovers bring a chair of a blanket to sit on and kick back to enjoy as much pizza as they can eat. Geyer said they average about 150 to 200 attendees every time they host their pizza evenings.

'The most pizzas we made in one night was 220,” Geyer said.

Her crew, made up of family and friends, is part of what makes their pizza evenings so fun. 'I love my crew. They are wonderful and keep this light while still working their tails off.”

'It's a very fun place to gather,” Geyer added. 'But it's a lot of work. There is a lot of behind the scenes planning and prepping that goes into it.”

The Geyer's farm also will play host to the 11th annual Art & Flower Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The event, which benefits Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity, was started by the Geyers after an artist friend suggested they should hold an art festival. Guests can enjoy pizza, view works by a dozen local artists and listen to a variety of musical acts.

It's events like the art festival and the pizza nights that bring a sense of balance to Anna's world, she said.

'I love the rhythm of the solitude of the farm versus the great sense of community that shows up on pizza night,” she said.

Geyer, who has lived near the Oxford community her whole life, said that sense of community has brought the world to her farm.

'Some people show up every week. But every week we see people we've never seen before,” she said. 'I get to meet people from all over the US, the world even, and I get to see a world I'd not other engage with.”

If You Go

11th annual Art & Flower Festival

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday

1259 Rohret Rd SW, Oxford

Pizza nights

5 to 8 p.m., Sept. 11 and Sept. 25

Cost: $10 a person

Contact: (319) 828-4257

http://www.geyersovenbreadandpizza.com/