Chapter 16THE COFFEY SHOP
Iowa is an orderly state. The rows of crops run straight and long. Tightly strung barbed-wire fences surround the livestock yards and fields. The many unmarked country roads crisscross the rolling hills, farmlands, and small towns. There is nothing haphazard about Iowa farming. There is, by necessity, a distinctive rhythm to rural life. Growing crops and raising livestock takes precise tending: the planting, the harvesting, the feeding, and the selling. Farmers cannot afford to guess. They plan and measure, and nature does the rest.
In early fall, the farmers delivered mountains of yellow corn to the Coffey Farmer’s Co-op for sale. Trails of golden corn spilled from the wagons as the tractors pulled the harvest to the co-op silos in town, while the Hy-Vee grocer
