Experiencing the fruitfulness of God’s creation
The farm at Iona House is more than a place of agricultural production; it is a place of spiritual formation and a place to have your imagination captured.
Animals at Iona House
Goats, a llama, a mini-mule, a duck, and a horse are all an important part of the working farm at Iona House. Within the 71 acres of the Iona House campus, solar powered electric fencing provide a roving paddock for our goats to naturally control weeds, poison oak, blackberry vines and other invasive and unwanted plants. We are looking forward to soon having chickens providing provide Iona House guests with farm fresh eggs.
Animals have a unique way of including us into their world and therefore intuitively reminding us that we ourselves are created and part of the larger order of created things. This is particularly true of horses. Their size, intelligence, sensitivity to emotion, and dynamics as herd animals give them a unique desire and ability to connect with humans. Sometimes that simple connection can open up new avenues of trust and new ways of connecting with God through creation.
The Village Garden
Iona House currently operates an incredibly diverse 1/4 acre fenced garden filled with veggies, various fruit trees, a small vineyard, and many perennial flowers. In many ways the village garden is a microcosm for what we hope for in the longer run - larger scale agricultural production on the Abbey side of the property (see below). Currently the village garden is a wonderful place for enjoying fresh produce and great conversation. It’s a satisfying place to get your hands dirty while serving alongside others. We have a wonderful group of local volunteers who work in the garden each week. We welcome you to join the crew.
Pictures below are all from the garden.
The Abbey Agricultural Vision
Orchards
The agricultural vision for Iona House is to plant a wide variety of fruit trees that will provide a harvesting season from June all the way to November each year. We want Iona House to be a veritable Garden of Eden.
With an elevation of 2400 feet, the Iona House campus is perfectly located to grow apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums, pluots, cherries, nectarines, persimmons, and pretty much every type of fruit tree you can think of (with the exception of citrus and tropical fruits). The orchard will be managed with scientifically-informed regenerative agriculture techniques designed to bring about maximum orchard health and provide safety to all guests (i.e. not using chemicals that are toxic to humans).
Our orchards will be learning spaces, intentionally somewhat experimental - trying out multiple varieties of each fruit tree, grafting, cultivating new breeds, and more. Guests will have the opportunity to learn orchard basics and the explore the wonder (and challenges) of growing fruit. Guests will not only be able to enjoy fresh, tree-ripened fruit straight from the tree, but will be able to pick fruit to take home if they so desire.
Vegetable Garden
Iona House will grow a wide variety of organically-grown vegetables in the Abbey garden. The vision is to have these veggies supply a substantial amount of the food needed to feed guests, especially in the summer months. We will likely make use of garden tunnels, hoop houses, and a greenhouse to help extend our growing season into the winter as well.
Vineyard
Iona House will plant a vineyard of table grapes as well as a vineyard of wine-grapes dedicated to making (and perhaps bottling) wine for Holy Communion. There are a growing number of vineyards and wineries in the Placerville / El Dorado County area - an area which has been discovered to be a fantastic place to grow world-class grapes. The vineyard is a powerful, recurring, biblical metaphor that we believe holds special relevance for spiritual formation.