Integral Acres

Integral acres is a 21.5 acre farm a few miles Northwest of Holstein in Ida County Iowa. All of it is seeded to an organic pasture mix. About 2 of the acres are a border buffer zone planted to native Iowa hardwoods like poplar, willow and oak. The interior is about 15-18 rows of alternating standard apple tree rows and chestnut tree rows. These rows are laid out on contour to help with water distribution.

There is also an acre of Hazelnuts in the northeast corner of the farm that is organized in grid for easier harvesting.

Each apple tree row has 5-6 hazelnut shrubs planted in line between each tree. Each chestnut tree row will have 2-3 small berry bushes planted in line in between each tree. This is to mimmic a forest’s various levels like shrub layer, understory, and canopy.

In between each tree row is an alley and we plan to grow other food in some of these alleys. For instance we have one alley dedicated to a strawberry patch. In another alley we are growing a long row of garlic and potatoes. In future years we plan to rotate livestock through the alleys that remain pasture to keep the grass shorter and to clean up any apples we don’t pick