Des Moines Register Story

by admin on September 24, 2008

Dawn Sagario from the Des Moines Register wrote a piece on our beloved little farm. What a nice piece. Here’s a sample from the full article.

Missouri Valley, Ia. - Berries packed with disease-fighting antioxidants are thriving on a western Iowa farm, with the potential to become the next big health food, according to one researcher.

The black chokeberry, often called by the scientific name aronia melanocarpa, produces deep-purple fruit, about the size of blueberries but with more health benefits. In aronia, the level of anthocyanin, an antioxidant, is about 1,480 milligrams per 100 grams of fresh fruit; in wild blueberries, 486 milligrams; and cranberries, 140 milligrams.

Other researchers have looked at how aronia affects cardiovascular disease, colon and breast cancers, liver failure and obesity, Wu said.

“…to encourage more farmers and get more people involved to create an industry,” Vaughn Pittz said. “It started out just to be more or less a small family project, and it just sort of snowballed.”

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Mentioned in the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil

by admin on August 22, 2008

The folks over at the Nonpareil had a nice piece featuring us today. Here’s a chunk of it:

MISSOURI VALLEY - Vaughn and Cindy Pittz, along with their son Andrew, planted 207 Aronia berry bushes in 1995 on their land in the Loess Hills.

Thirteen years later, the Sawmill Hollow Organic Farm is the largest Aronia berry plantation in the Midwest and the first in the United States to be managed organically.

All 13,000 berry bushes are cared for by hand without chemicals. Their oldest bushes produce 35 to 40 pounds each season while the newer ones produce around 20 pounds.

“We’ve got something very special here on multiple dimensions,” Andrew said. “First, it’s a great value-added crop, and second, this will be really good for community building in Iowa.”

Read the rest…

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Site Launched!

by admin on August 21, 2008

Welcome to the beginning stages of the Sawmill Hollow website. We will be adding more information as time allows. We’re busy harvesting right now - once we’re done expect a lot more information.

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