Madison County, Iowa: Farm Junk Paradise and Covered Bridges

I love love LOVE farm junk and antiques. I get giddy at the idea of farmhouse kitchens with old pie safes, primitive-style cabinets with glass doors, lots of antique nick-knacks, etc. (NOT to be confused with "Country Kitchen" decor: lots of periwinkle, gingham and apple motifs). But where I really want to go within your lovely farmhouse property is straight out to the deepest cob-webbed corner of the barn to uncover "farm junk".

That's exactly what I got to do on my trip to Old Crow Farm in late August. Old Crow is an amazing oasis in Southern Iowa where Jordana and her husband Kasey showcase the best kind of "farm junk": salvaged and re-purposed items that would probably be laid to rest in a landfill, if they hadn't rescued it. 

 

Discarded and un-needed items become creatively re-visioned as functional artistic pieces. Considering that Iowa once had 200,000 barns at it's peak, and now that number has plummeted to 50,000, this girl wonders if all those barns' contents ended up in a landfill. It reassures me that Jordana and Kasey are rescuing some of those items and putting them to use somewhere else. Although you are looking through  goods inside of their barn, farm junk isn't the only brand of salvaged goods. Many items have an urban and industrial feel as well, creating a nice balance. If you're not in the neighborhood of Southern Iowa anytime soon, check out their Etsy shop. If you do make it to Madison County, you can check out some their famous covered bridges. That was the selling point of the trip to anchor my mother as a co-pilot!