News : Iowa Ag Secretary tours Kerry, Old School, other area farm businesses

Iowa Ag Sec. Bill Northey and Mike Elwick discuss the Old School Produce tomato-growing system.

A few years ago, Mike Elwick vigorously opposed the decision by the Vinton-Shellsburg school district to sell the former West building. After the building had changed hands twice, Elwick said he realized it was time for him to buy it.

Still, he says, he had no idea of what he would do with that building and the surrounding grounds, until he looked up its zoning status.

Elwick told a group of local residents and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey on Wednesday that the property had been zoned for a truck farm or garden area.

That bit of information started Elwick on the unique journey which has led to his second year of successful crop growing at the Old School Produce Co.

Northey was touring a variety of Benton County agricultural businesses on Wednesday. After lunch with the Vinton Lions Club, Northey and several members of Benton Development Group visited Old School. There Elwick explained the history of the business, as well as the technology he has learned to use to help create his irrigation system. He also discussed the variety of crops he grows with the help of Steven Kalina.

“We have everything from A to Z,” said Elwick, “asparagus to zucchini.”

Old School is the unique kind of business that a retired man would have a much easier time doing than a man who still had a full-time job, Elwick told the ag secretary.

“This is a good place to use retirement time and retirement savings to build something to pass on to someone else,” he said.

Northey also planned to visit the Kerry facility in Vinton, Wallace Farms in rural Keystone and Pheasant Run Farms in rural Van Horne.

For more information about the history of Old School Produce, click HERE.