Kazimour Farm & Orchard launches plan to revitalize Century Farm

CEDAR RAPIDS — After 25 years of inactivity, a new vision is blossoming on a Century Farm and orchard in Cedar Rapids.

Kazimour Farm & Orchard in southeast Cedar Rapids, long a staple for fall family outings and school field trips, has been purchased under a plan to revitalize the land that has served the community for most of the last hundred years. With new programming, the purpose of the property runs parallel to the themes that have touched children and adults alike for decades.

GROW, a nonprofit started this year by third-generation orchardists Kim and Kory Kazimour, will transform the land into a place for work, relaxation, hunger relief, conservation and other local nonprofit efforts. The sisters and granddaughters of orchard founders John and Mary Kazimour launched the organization, with the full name of Growing Real Opportunities for Work, with an aim to help adults with disabilities develop skills, get jobs and find purpose.

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With growth at its core, they hope to impart the same essence that Kazimour still is recognized for, years since most families stepped foot on the farm.

“I think the harder you work, the luckier you get. That’s our family motto,” said Bob Kazimour, son of founders John and Mary Kazimour, and father of Kim and Kory. “And (Kim and Kory) have worked very, very hard.”

New growth

The nonprofit, modeled after a similar program started by Kim in Gainesville, Fla., instills horticulture skills that are applicable to every part of life.

The model in Florida, which aims to build skills in adults starting when transitioning out of high school, has grown into a program powered by 25 employees who garner $150,000 in sales this year, in addition to grant and fundraising opportunities.

“The concept of what we’re all trying to do resonates with so many people. They are either directly involved because of a family member with a disability of some degree that keeps them from being able to hold down a full-time position, or they’re supportive of the idea,” said Maureen Rompot, GROW board member and cousin of Kory and Kim. “If it just has that kind of impact on one person, everything is worthwhile.”

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With a greenhouse and new infrastructure to support volunteers and employees, the property’s new owners are hoping to invest about $200,000 to turn 42 acres with about 2,500 trees at its height into a year-round operation.

From picking apples and fertilizing plants to administrative work and retail sales, there’s a job for people with any ability. Participants, who have often started as volunteers in the program’s southern iteration, can eventually transition into employment on the farm or in a place they love.

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“It’s a place where you don’t get fired,” Kim said. “The nice thing about horticulture is you can break down tasks into smaller pieces, so there’s always something possible for someone to do.”

Over time, participants gain soft skills — like learning how to take direction, how to ask for help — that let them work virtually anywhere, even outside of horticulture.

While other local businesses serve missions to employ adults with disabilities, the supply of opportunities and organizations to support them far outstrips the need, Kim said. In addition to the holistically healing benefits of working outdoors, the nature of their program offers more flexibility to be inclusive of a wider range of disabilities.

With 1,200 volunteer hours logged, the nonprofit hopes to start programming in February before opening for customers, including “u-pick” opportunities.

How it grew

For decades, families and students across Cedar Rapids knew Kazimour Farm & Orchard as more than just a place to pick apples. From the 1940s through its closing in 1998, folks knew the farm as a place to learn and make memories.

Even for the workers, clocking in never felt like labor. Kory, who was making change for the family business’ customers by early elementary school, worked her way up the business like most of the Kazimour kids.

“We knew the whole spiel for every apple,” said Kory. “It was fun. It never did seem like you were working.”

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That feeling is what GROW hopes to replicate. The sisters, who purchased the once-overgrown land on Otis Road SE to save it from residential or commercial development, are adding a new verse to the song written by their grandparents in 1919.

“What we’re doing is what the orchard has always done, just with a new group of people,” Kim said.

While raising five children in a one-room house, John and Mary Kazimour planted the seeds of the orchard that produced about 10,000 bushels, or roughly 400,000 pounds, of apples at its height. Until the mid-1980s, the farm also grew cabbage, tomatoes, corn, asparagus, radishes and cucumbers.

In the farm’s heyday, visiting it was an all-day affair for families. On a busy weekend, Bob said hundreds of cars would line the orchard.

Many of the orchard’s heirloom varieties, which earned the Kazimour family a legend of top awards at the Iowa State Fair for decades, survived through the derecho and other hardships to deliver hard-to-find varieties of apples today. But the real fruit of the land has been the feeling that brings customers back, generation after generation — the reason Kim and Kory purchased it.

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Just minutes from downtown, there’s a place of quiet and serenity in the eye of life’s storm.

“With anybody that comes out, they get out of the car and feel that feeling of peace and belonging. Everybody feels it organically,” said Rompot. “It’s the essence of this place.”

It’s that experience that has kept Kazimour Farm & Orchard as the apple of Cedar Rapids’ eye, after all these years.

Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com