Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2021

From Garden to Table
Mary Fier creates a variety of pumpkin desserts from her fall
harvest. She and her husband, Ron, have a stand between
Maquoketa and Preston where people can find pumpkins of
all shapes and sizes right now.
Eastern Iowa Farmer photos / Brooke Taylor
Fiers grow.
What started out as an interesting
conversation with a neighbor many years
ago has turned into acres of pumpkins
that get used around the farm or sold in
their pumpkin shed along Highway 64.
“I just love fall,” Fier said. “And pumpkins
are my favorite. It is really about
the thrill of going out and finding a big
one. There are so many different kinds of
them, it is just fun.”
Fier is not the only one who gets excited
about harvest season. She said her
husband also enjoys the process just as
much as she does.
“My husband will say, ‘Oh Honey!
Look at this one!’ even as he is teasing
me about how excited I get when I
find a big one. It is so much fun and is
something that we look forward to doing
together each fall.”
Fier Farms sell their pumpkins on the
honor system in a small shed along the
highway, and on weekends they get to enjoy
a steady stream of cars through their
living room windows.
“It warms my heart so much that people
are so honest,” Fier said. “We have
so many nice messages from people who
want to tell us thank you for all of our
hard work. People really appreciate the
pumpkins, and we love seeing them go all
over Eastern Iowa. People have just been
great.”
With the pumpkins she keeps back for
herself, Fier cuts them in half and then
removes the seeds. She places them face
down on a cookie sheet and bakes them
for one hour. Once they are done baking,
she removes the pumpkin pulp inside
and freezes it or uses it to make pumpkin
bars and pumpkin rolls for her holiday
gatherings.
Not all of the produce found in area
gardens create sweet treats; some who
prefer the savory route for their crops.
Gardeners Michael and Bridget Miller
of DeWitt are the savory sort, growing a
variety of tomato and pepper plants, rows
of lettuce and unique additions such as
kale and even peanuts.
A diversity of plants allows the couple
to experiment with unique recipes in the
kitchen, most of which consist of a little
of this and a little of that.
“My husband doesn’t always follow a
recipe,” Bridget Miller said. “He just puts
things together until it tastes right. It is always
delicious, but he can never recreate
it exactly.”
Not being able to recreate a dish does
not deter the couple from trying new
things, which also includes canning
and freezing their garden bounty to use
throughout the year.
“We can a lot of salsa and pasta sauce,
and we like to make pickles and peppers.
We usually freeze our Brussel sprouts
and kale, and most of our lettuce goes to
neighbors throughout the summer.”
This sharing of produce is what keeps
the Millers working hard in their garden
all season. They enjoy using their backyard
as a way to help out others in the
community.
“Depending on what we have, we
donate our produce to the Referral Center
or the American Legion. I like to make
jam from our grapes, and we donate jars
to be sold at the Legion’s bake sales and
fundraisers,” she said.
Neighbors, including neighborhood
kids, also have access to the garden in
the summer, and it is not uncommon for
the Millers to look out their window and
see someone picking off of their tomato
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