NewBo City Market Cultivates Connections

So I've driven past Morgan Creek Farm's vegetable stand along U.S. Highway 30 west of town a bunch of times. Been meaning to stop by sometime. I swear.

But until Monday morning, I didn't know much about the place. I didn't know that Morgan Creek Farm grows vegetables on 37 acres, along with greenhouse space for year-round production. And I hadn't met Bill Rieckhoff, his wife, Robyn and her father, Bob Vanous, who own and run the farm. I met them at Monday morning's groundbreaking (OK, more like a hay-throwing) for the NewBo City Market at the corner of Third Street and 12th Avenue SE.

And that's one of the main ideas behind this year-round farmers market. When it opens Nov. 1, it will introduce people who eat to people who grow food. And both sides benefit.

“The big thing we believe in is local. Knowing the people who grow your food, knowing where it's growing,” Bill Rieckhoff said. Morgan Creek is adding greenhouse capacity and likely some jobs at the farm in anticipation of the business boost he expects from selling produce at the market.

“We are really excited about this,” he said.

It's tough not to get excited looking at drawings of how a former manufacturing plant will be transformed into a bright, airy market, with a large outdoor sales area and huge public plaza. The surrounding New Bohemia neighborhood is already popping with a renovated CSPS Hall, restaurants, bars and other businesses. But it's easy to see why the neighborhood's boosters believe the market could fuel even more growth.

I've heard a few jabs at this project from those who think this fast-food town doesn't need some sort of pricey, free-range arugula stand for finicky foodies, paid for, in part, with some public bucks. But they've got it all wrong.

This isn't about some sort of out-of-touch elites. This is about our community being in closer touch with what makes our corner of the globe special. And basically, that's dirt. Soil, loamy glacial till, whatever you like to call it. The stuff this city's food processing prosperity has sprouted from over the decades. The stuff that was still under Bill Rieckhoff's fingernails Monday morning after planting onions and tomatoes over the weekend.

Vendors such as Morgan Creek are lining up for slots at the market. Among them are a lot of local people working hard to make a living off Iowa land. The investment in the market, both the public dollars and private donations, represents an investment in that work, and is consistent with our heritage and values.

So farmers get a great place to connect with customers, shoppers get fresh local food, and the community gets what backers say is the only public market of its kind in Iowa.