Local Foods

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors is accepting applications for its Land Access Program (LAP) at the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm, located at 4811 Melrose Ave. in Iowa City.

LAP provides land-use agreements to area farmers of varying experience and scale on public land located at the Historic Poor Farm. The use agreements include land, irrigation water and dry storage. There are 1.3 acres available, and parcels may vary in size, beginning at one-eighth of an acre. The Historic Poor Farm is developing under a 10-year master plan that includes improvements to the historic, recreation, local food production and land conservation elements on site.

Questions about LAP, the public use of land on the Historic Poor Farm, and proposed future improvements should be directed to Jason Grimm, Historic Poor Farm farm manager and Executive Director at Iowa Valley RC&D, at [email protected] or 319-622-3264.

The Historic Poor Farm master plan is available at https://www.johnsoncountyiowa.gov/board-of-supervisors/historic-poor-farm.

Details and how to apply are available at https://www.jchistoricpoorfarm.com/present. Completed applications must be submitted by Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. Submission of an application does not guarantee rental of a farm site.