Meet Modern Farmer’s Guest Instagrammer: PepperHarrow Farm

It was a book on permaculture that inspired Adam O’Neal to become a farmer. It just took awhile for the career-change to happen – ten years, in fact. He’d always been the outdoors type and loved hiking, camping, and snowboarding Colorado’s backcountry. But that book he picked up while he was in his late 20s hooked him on agriculture, even as he worked as an oil field mechanic in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

“I dreamed of being able to tend a piece of land for a long time, and in 2011 the dream came true,” he says.

Jennifer and Adam O’Neal.

Adam, 40, and his 37-year-old wife, Jennifer (plus their three kids and a cadre of friends and neighbors who lend a hand from time to time) work a 20-acre farm located about 40 miles southwest of Des Moines. While the couple are first-time farmers, Adam was involved in a master-gardener program and Jennifer grew up gardening with her grandmother.

They are quite diversified and grow flowers, a variety of vegetables, and raise Dexter cattle. They also keep bees, chickens, a pig, and have a one-acre orchard. “We work to produce as much of our own food as we can to create complete meals on the farm,” says Adam. They also sell their products at a local farmers market and have recently expanded into a few area grocery stores.

Dexter cows

The O’Neals also hold a number of events at their place, including “Yoga on the Farm” which Adam says has grown over the past four years from a handful of participants to “a few hundred” people expected for this year’s event.

“We always want our message to inspire others to get back to the land in any capacity,” he says.