In Harmony's Sam Applegate helps refugees build skills needed to run their own farms
The Burundi refugees Sam Applegate works with may be new at navigating this nation’s small business bureaucracy, but they’re old hands at farming.
Working with the 70-acre In Harmony Farm that Applegate manages near Earlham, they grow well-known Iowa staples like potatoes, carrots and onions as well as treasured homeland specialties like African eggplant and spinach-like greens called lenga lenga.
Applegate is helping lay the startup farm program's foundation while he supports seven refugee families who are developing their business chops in a five-year program.
“Most of these refugees were farmers back in their home countries,” said Applegate, 30. “They know how to farm. They know how to plant. We’re just helping them reach different markets.”
Applegate's work to help refugees get established in farming in Iowa, using sustainable practices, and to expand the availability of locally grown food makes him one of the 15 Des Moines Register People to Watch in 2024.
Part of In Harmony’s mission is to provide disadvantaged farmers access to land in Iowa's often highly competitive and costly market, said Sharon Krause, who founded the nonprofit in 2021 with friend Gina Ross, who became In Harmony's first executive director.
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In Harmony is building the farmers’ business skills so they can ramp up their operations, moving from small urban gardens to In Harmony’s 3-to-5-acre plots, and eventually spinning off to run their own farms independently.
Next year will be pivotal for the initiative, said Krause, with Applegate playing an important role in building the farmers' success and boosting demand for their climate-friendly, locally grown produce thanks in part to a five-year, $1.4 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.
“It’s a year of action,” said Krause, who donated about a third of her roughly 220-acre farm, Dalla Terra Ranch, about 30 miles west of Des Moines, to launch the initiative. “These farmers are critical to increasing the local availability of fresh and diverse produce across central Iowa.”
Sam Applegate works 'in the trenches' to help farmers
Applegate, an Iowa National Guard soldier for nearly a dozen years, brings planning, preparation and hard work to every job, along with a deep desire to listen and understand farmers’ needs, said Jeremy Harder, a vice president at Hansen Co. Inc., which built the In Harmony campus.
Harder, Hansen's vice president of operations, said Applegate was well prepared for the role, with his combination of military experience and with years spent with his family serving on missions to Haiti, Ecuador and in large U.S. cities, painting, cleaning and providing other labor at schools, hospitals and churches.
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Applegate is always "thinking about what's next — how do we better serve the farmers," Harder said.
Krause said Applegate has worked over the past couple of years to get In Harmony ready for farmers, supplying water to the growers, building fences to keep out deer and other crop-destroying critters, and working with Hansen to build cleaning stations, refrigeration, storage and office space in 16 shipping containers ranging in size from 20 to 40 feet long.
“Sam sees the whole person in front of him — their skills, talent, expertise, knowledge and history," Harder said. "That's not always the way the world works for refugees.”
“He's a really, really intense listener. And he values what farmers say," he added. “He’s in the trenches, helping to make the property better, and he’s delivering on promises."
Passion for conservation leads Applegate to farming
The idea for In Harmony emerged when Krause started thinking about what would happen to the ranch once she was no longer part of it.
“The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be part of that transition and really experience the joy of what it would look like,” Krause said. Her husband, Kyle Krause, is CEO of the Des Moines-based Krause Group, which recently sold its Kum & Go convenience store chain to Salt Lake City's Maverik Inc.
“I wanted to make sure that the conservation work that we had started would remain,” Krause said, noting that about 90% of the table food Iowans eat is imported, despite the state being an agricultural powerhouse.
Applegate, who also was drawn to conservation and greater access to locally grown food, bought into Krause's vision. At In Harmony, the growers use organic practices, cover crops and strip tillage — an approach that minimally disrupts soil, helping to improve its health — and he manages the farm's native prairies and forest, he said.
With the help of the Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa, Applegate built 2 miles of trails this fall that will be open to the public.
"I've always had an interest in conservation," said Applegate, who ran a 5K every day in May to raise money for farm equipment at the nonprofit. "And that led me to farming."
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Overcoming language barriers to secure new markets
Key to helping farmers develop sustainable businesses is access to new markets as well as to land, Applegate and Krause say.
In addition to farmers’ markets, In Harmony growers this year sold produce to the Food Bank of Iowa, a relationship that will continue in 2024, spicing up the group's offerings, said Emily Shearer, Food Bank’s senior food acquisition manager.
Applegate also is working with Iowa grocery store chains to sell In Harmony and other farm goods.
Partnering with the Iowa Center for Economic Success, Applegate is helping farmers learn skills like how to negotiate contracts, obtain insurance, collect and submit taxes, hire and manage employees and develop relationships with everyone from suppliers to customers.
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Applegate taps translators to work with him and farmers and also relies on some of the farmers with better English skills to help further translate technical farming terms. He meets regularly with the group as well as with farmers individually to help them plan for next year’s crops as well as to get supplies lined up.
“It’s like going from high school to college,” especially given language challenges that some refugees experience, Applegate said.
In Harmony is working with Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation to identify pieces of land the Des Moines group manages that In Harmony farmers might be able to lease once they leave the nonprofit, Krause said.
Applegate offers what farmers need: 'A natural teacher'
Applegate is helping the farmers become self-sufficient, Krause said. For example, one farmer relied on Applegate to get parts for his irrigation project. Applegate initially got the pieces for him, but then suggested they go to Earlham’s hardware store, where he introduced the farmer to the owner and staff.
“Even though the farmer doesn’t have a lot of English skills, he can get his own supplies,” Krause said, adding that Applegate is “a natural teacher. And that’s what farmers need."
Many Iowa refugees had to flee their farms to escape war, turmoil and loss, Harder said. Applegate and In Harmony are helping them “recapture who they were before that life was ripped away.”
Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.
Meet Sam Applegate
AGE: 30
LIVES: Redfield
EDUCATION: Urbandale High School
CAREER: Iowa National Guard, 2012 to present, serving as both a reserve and full-time member. Applegate served full time from 2016 to 2021. He now serves as a reservist.
FAMILY: Wife, Tania; daughters Izabella, 12, and Kimber, 7
About the Des Moines Register's 2024 People to Watch
It's a Des Moines Register tradition to close out each year and open the next by introducing readers to 15 People to Watch — individuals expected to make an impact on Iowa in the coming year.
This year's nominations from readers and our journalists totaled nearly 60 people and posed hard decisions for staff members charged with winnowing them to just 15.
The final 15 include people in business and the arts, those who train the world-class athletes of the future, chefs on the cutting edge, farmers teaching refugees how to run their own farms, and people fighting for representation through cosmetics and medicine. We hope that you are as inspired by reading about them as we were in profiling them.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Refugees forced off their land build the skills to run farms in Iowa
