Jeff Hafner shows some of the bagged flour products for sale at Early Morning Harvest.
Early Morning Harvest grows plants with nutrient-rich water for the plant roots and waste water from fish.
By Rich Wicks | Panora Times, February 2025
A few miles southeast of Panora, Early Morning Harvest is both a nationally known farm and a well-kept secret. Owner Jeff Hafner recently provided a tour and told about the farm’s history and products.
“We started about 12 years ago, but I’ve been farming my whole life. Early Morning Harvest started as two hobbies, but they are no longer hobbies. They’ve become a business,” Hafner said. “It’s 1,500 acres certified organic, which includes the pasture and forage for 200-plus cow/calves.”
An interesting feature at Early Morning Harvest is the use of hydroponic and aquaponic practices. In a nutshell, hydroponics means growing plants without soil by having nutrient-rich water available for the plant roots.
A greenhouse is full of vegetables.
“In the hydroponics greenhouse, we raise strawberries, herbs, spinach, onions in here. We’ll start harvesting strawberries the first of May,” Hafner said. “In the aquaponics greenhouse, the waste water from fish fertilizes the plants, and the plants clean the water for the fish. We raise lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, herbs, peppers and tomatoes.”
The aquaponics also produce fish (tilapia) that can be sold.
“We also have free-range chickens and an organic flour mill,” Hafner said.
Although Early Morning Harvest is generally considered an organic farm, not everything is technically organic.
“Everything is at least organic practices. The row crops and the mill are certified organic,” Hafner said. “The chickens, the greenhouses and stuff we just follow organic practices.”
When asked what visitors are surprised about, Hafner said the amount of flour sold by the farm usually far exceeds expectations.
“People don’t realize the amount of flour that we push out across the Midwest and across America. We did close to 40,000 bags of flour (4 to 5 pounds each) last year,” Hafner said. “We have a website, and we’re on Amazon and eBay, too.”
Frozen meats are available in the Early Morning Harvest store.
“We give a lot of tours here, home school tours or FFA groups and things like that,” Hafner said.
The farm offers a wide selection of stone-ground flours, meals, cereals and mixtures, which are milled at Early Morning Harvest from their farm-grown wheat, oats, rye, buckwheat and corn.
The farm’s products have found their way onto local grocery store shelves throughout the area.
“We sell our products at Hy-Vee, Hometown Foods, and probably to most of the Fareway stores by the end of the year,” Hafner said.
The farm currently employs 14 people to handle the various tasks, including bagging flour, milling flour, distribution and paperwork. Early Morning Harvest is located at 2425 Willow Ave., just southeast of Panora. Store hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays. The store at the farm sells local meats, jams, jellies and barbecue sauces, and the family sells both clover and buckwheat honey in one-pound and three-pound jars.
Because the farm is succeeding in its niche, no significant changes are planned.
“No, I don’t think so,” Hafner said. “We’ll just keep plugging away.”
However, Hafner knows the annual busy season is just around the corner.
“The first of March, this place will explode,” he said.