Reminiscing and reconnecting: RAGBRAI riders welcomed by family with Iowa century farm

MT. CARMEL ― The 50th anniversary of RAGBRAI gave a family who live along the Day 2 route a chance to show off something even older: their Iowa century farm.

A project of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and the Iowa Farm Federation, the Century Farm program recognizes properties that have been in the same family for at least 100 years.

Four generation of owner Rick Grote's family have lived on his. He and a pair of his aunts who grew up there, Judy Olberding and Alice Hamilton, gathered under an awning near the road as the legion of riders passed by Monday and invited them to stop and experience some real Iowa heritage.

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Grote said he wanted to answer questions like "Why do you grow corn? What products do you use corn for? What do you use soybeans for?"

His aunts reminisced about growing up on the farm, one of two century properties in their family. They grew up in the original farmhouse, which burned down in 1960. Grote now rents the house that replaced it in 1961.

Though the farm is old, "It's changed a lot," Hamilton said.

"Our playhouse is gone," Olberding said. "Our old barn is gone."

A water-filled culvert where they once pretended to swim reminded them of an ambitious project.

"We were going to dig a swimming pool," Olberding said.

Grote, meanwhile, was reconnecting with memories of his own as a rider who grew up across the street from him in Carroll, but now lives in Seattle, saw the century farm sign and stopped by to reconnect.

"This is amazing," Grote said.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa family shows RAGBRAI riders century farm near Mt. Carmel