As if pizzerias didn’t have enough competition.
A recent story in the Des Moines Register highlighted the burgeoning trend of local farms adding pizza programs. The story highlights three different Iowa farms that now serve pizza.
For farmers, the pizza pop-ups can be a simple way to add revenue while also connecting with consumers face-to-face. For pizza lovers, the farms have become a destination, with the Register’s story detailing how some are “traveling from hours away to eat one of these wood-fired pies. Parents see pizza farms as a place their kids can safely run around before tucking into a slice. The rustic settings recall simpler times.”
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As the story points out, this isn’t exactly a new concept. It cites A to Z Produce & Bakery in Stockholm, Wisconsin, as one of the pioneers of the Midwestern pizza farm—it started cooking up pies in 1998—but other farms across the country have been making pizza for even longer. American Flatbread in Waitsfield, Vermont, for example, began as a farm-to-pizza concept in the mid 1980’s.
Still, the trend seems to be reaching new heights in Iowa. One of the three farms highlighted in the story, Maggie’s Farm Wood-Fired Pizza, appears to specialize in making pizza. The farm simply generates ingredients and toppings for the first-rate pies churned out at Maggie’s.
Luna Valley Farm is another pizza farm highlighted in the story. This particular farm goes so far as to raise some of the proteins featured atop its seasonal, limited-run pizza nights. Grass-fed beef and lambs as well as Heritage-breed pigs are raised at Luna Valley Farm, helping create pies like the Pig and Fig, which the Register notes features olive oil, Italian Sausage, soppressata salami, pepperoncini peppers, fresh mozzarella and Parmesan with a fig-balsamic drizzle.
At each destination highlighted in the story, there’s an emphasis on how each destination offers outdoor activities like lawn games—not to mention the inherent beauty that comes with enjoying pizza with fresh ingredients at the farm on which they were grown. That’s awfully hard for independent pizzerias to compete with.
