Located east of West Branch, IA Draco Hill is the dream-in-progress of husband and wife team Paul Durrenberger and Suzan Erem and their daughter Ayshe Yeager. On this 75 acres of former farmland, pasture and woodlands on the Cedar River, we hope to rebuild and detoxify the soil, then show how we can grow food in a nature-friendly way.
We bought this land in 1997, built a home in 2010 and moved here in 2011 when Paul retired. We are restoring the steep farmland to prairie and forest, growing orchards, controlling invasive species, managing our woodlands and opening up opportunities for a cherished prairie remnant to reassert itself.
2024 Map
In 2014, after learning more about the plight of beginning farmers and outrageous land prices, we realized we could be contributing to the problem, so we launched an effort to put our land “back into production.” Inspired by the work of Mark Shepard and motivated by the complaints of the National Young Farmers Coalition, we renovated the old farm terraces that are overgrown with box elders and weeds to grow apples, pears, plums, berries and nuts. We hope that some time in the future, a beginning farmer can use the fruit and nuts to augment a larger sustainable farming operation at Draco Hill.
By 2014, we realized that what we could do on a single property would never be enough. After a year and a half of asking around Iowa and the country if land access for regenerative food farmers was an issue, and ideas for solutions, we helped launch the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust. We’re pleased to report that thanks to hundreds of hardworking people and generous landowners, SILT is off to a great start having already preserved 1,200 acres across Iowa.
We invite you to join us in this adventure at Draco Hill. We consider it all part of the karmic economy.
Aerial map of Draco Hill.
HISTORY
- We purchased Draco Hill in 1997 from a well-known farmer in Cedar County. We continued to rent the farm land to local farmers or the local FFA chapter over the next 13 years. The pasture had cows in it for another two years.
- In 1999, with the expert advice of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service, we planted a riparian buffer between the agricultural land along the river and the river itself. The purpose of these 3+ acres of trees is for their roots to filter some of the farm chemicals out before the groundwater hits the river.
- By 2004 it was clear the oak and walnut trees in the planting were being chewed off by the deer every year. Sycamores were growing fast and furiously though. We didn’t have the facilities to cage the trees so we let nature take its course. The root systems were doing their job even if the trees above ground looked like bushes.
- In 2008 the flood put all of our riverfront land under water.
- In 2009 builder Roger Laughlin of Laughlin Design in West Branch IA finished construction. We earned a 5-star-plus Energy Star rating from the EPA for the energy efficient design of the house.
- In the spring of 2011, our friends Lyle and Glen Waters prepared the farm ground on the north end of the property for a prairie planting and the ground at the south end for a tree planting. That April we installed a 3-D electric fence around 6 of the 7 acres that would be planted to trees. Later that spring Lyle planted the prairie seed and Kevin Kelly, from our local nursery, planted the tree seedlings.
- In the summer of 2011 we moved into Draco Hill full time. With only half of the summer left, we still started a small garden on the northwest side, and planted blueberry bushes and asparagus.
- That summer we added 3KW of solar. In 2012 we added another 3KW and that 6 KW meets most of our general electric needs for the house. (Heating and AC are provided by geothermal.)
- By summer 2012 we had expanded our garden on the south side of the house, expanded the beds around the fruit trees to include medicinal plants (an experiment to grow tomatoes up the cages didn’t work), and expanded beds along the curved patio to include strawberries and garlic.
- With the help of WWOOFers we also created berms and swales in key locations and tied in our roof drainage system to those gardens to help recapture rainwater, something on our minds with the worst drought since the 1930s hitting the state.
- 2013 was focused on growing vegetables more successfully, tending a new permaculture orchard built at a workshop in the spring and helping Morse Farm, an experiment in organic perennial farming, get off the ground.
- 2017 as Suzan’s work building the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust increased exponentially, and Paul suffered chronic medical issues, much of Draco Hill went into a holding pattern.
- 2019 we joined Hipcamp, a service that operates like AirBnb for campers, opening up three campsites along the Cedar River. Camping became particularly popular during COVID.
- 2020 COVID struck not long after Ayshe moved home from Japan. We spent the time together moving woodchips into the orchards, netting then harvesting honeyberry bushes, repairing our geodesic dome from the derecho, cleaning out the frog pond and other basic maintenance.
- 2023 Suzan retired from SILT to focus on the family and farming. We donated the farm in Morse in its entirety to SILT and scaled back on all other responsibilities while Paul recovered from ankle replacement surgery. Good health plus expanded orchards, new trails, new equipment for using organic matter to build soil and hosting Hipcampers even better were the goals for this year. All went well except we couldn’t anticipate the drought.
- 2024 This year we launch Draco Hill Nature Farm and hope hundreds of area residents will come to events throughout the year and enjoy this beautiful place with us. In the Spring we hosted a mushroom foray, eclipse party and chainsaw safety class. We’re looking forward to more fun all summer long!
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