ia: The best of Iowa arts and culture

Heads up: It's that sparkle-jolly-twinkle-jingly time of year again.

The best and brightest: 20 light displays across Iowa

The longest night of the year hits next Thursday, but look on the bright side: Travel Iowa rounded up 20 luminous attractions across the state. Check out these three in Central Iowa:

Winter Wonderscape Light Show, Ames: With its first outdoor walk-through holiday light show, Reiman Gardens invites you to explore a brightly immersive light display on the 17-acre site. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening from 5 to 8 p.m., visitors can walk through brightly lit tunnels, meander through fantasy lights falling like stars, view massive disco balls twirling to laser lights and a wide array of other sparkling wonders. Insider tip: Buy tickets in advance.

Lights at Kennedy, Fort Dodge: Lights at Kennedy is a fun holiday tradition that invites the community to enjoy lighting displays sponsored by various local businesses and organizations. The drive-through light show at Kennedy Park is choreographed to music, so viewers experience some multimedia holiday cheer. Admission is free, but freewill donations are appreciated.

Merry-N County Christmas, Knoxville: Head to Marion County Park for a free-will drive-through display. Tune into the local radio station KNIA/KRLS 93.5 for holiday tunes to accompany more than 75 light and decoration displays, including an illuminated historic village, all presented by Thrive Knoxville and the Marion County Historical Society.

Preview all 20 light displays at traveliowa.com.

Iowa's own Donna Reed of Denison starred with Jimmy Stewart in the 1946 classic "It's a Wonderful Life."
Photo: Herbert Dorfman / Corbis via Getty Images

See 'It's a Wonderful Life' in Pella Opera House

One of the lessons George Bailey learns in "It's a Wonderful Life" is how much he loves his small town.
So why not watch the 1946 classic on a big screen in a small town, specifically the beautifully preserved Pella Opera House? Tickets for the Dec. 21 screening are just $5, which includes popcorn.

The annual Geminids meteor shower peaks tonight, with up to one or two meteors blazing across the sky every minute.

Gaze at the stars in Cedar Rapids

Things are looking up — way up — at the Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids. Embrace the winter darkness and enjoy out-of-this-world views of the night sky during the Winter Night Sky Explorations on Dec. 21, when the winter solstice and new moon make it the longest, darkest night of the year. The center will provide binoculars and telescopes to search for comets and constellations. Registration is required, but if it's full, hey, you can always go DIY in your own backyard.

The Pearson Lakes Art Center has offered cultural programs in Iowa's Great Lakes since 1965. Photo: PLAC

Enjoy some lakeside listening in Okoboji

Sure, you've seen Okoboji in the summer, but it's beautiful in the off-season, too. Luxuriate in a few classic carols and contemporary holiday songs in the "Lakes Area Christmas" program Dec. 21 at the Pearson Lakes Art Center. The concert features local musicians Jessica Schable, Jennifer Johnson, Brian Moore, Tyler Pedersen and Terry Klein. A few seats are still available, so grab your seat soon.

Kwanzaa takes its name from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza," which means "first fruits of the harvest."

Celebrate Kwanzaa in Keokuk

The Keokuk Association for Rights and Equality presents an educational event at 11 a.m. Dec. 27, the day after Kwanzaa begins, at the Keokuk Public Library. The group will teach visitors about the history and traditions of the seven-day holiday, which is celebrated by African Americans and others among the African diaspora. The event also will include some crafts and games. Find more details online.

Lost Lake Farm makes small batches of soft and firm cheeses, including Iowa Alpine (front) and Burrnt Oak (unwrapped in the back). Photo: Joelle Blanchard

Taste the terroir at this dairy farm in Jewell

Corn and soybean fields surround the lush regenerative pastures of Lost Lake Farm a mile northwest of Jewell. An unassuming white house sits across the drive from the milking parlor and barn-red building that houses the cheesemaking and aging rooms.

Kevin and Ranae Dietzel bought the place in 2012 and earned a license to sell their cheeses in 2016. They tend a mixed herd of dairy cows, pigs and two children. Kevin is the cheesemaker but shares all the other farm duties with Ranae, who works mostly from home as a data research scientist for Syngenta.

Kevin makes the cheeses on site in a spotless modern room, turning out everything from nutty, semi-hard Iowa Alpine cheese to spreadable, whole-milk quark. The Minnesota native studied biodynamic farming in Germany and, after three years of work and two days of grueling tests, became a state-certified agriculturalist (or, as they say over there, a “staatlich anerkannter Landwirt”). Back in the States, he earned a biology degree from the University of Minnesota at Morris, where he met Ranae and married her in 2006.

When Ranae was studying for her master’s degree at Cornell University, they lived on an acreage and bought their first cow, Honey. (It sounds like a fairy tale, but that’s how their cheesemaking started.) Honey produced more milk than the two of them needed, so Kevin started learning how to make cheese.

Learn more about Lost Lake Farm in the story from our 2024 ia magazine.

Iowa Stops Hunger is an ongoing Business Publications Corp. initiative to raise awareness about food insecurity in Iowa and inspire action to combat it.

Spicing up systemic change

Writer: Brianne Sanchez

“What does it take to go from being a food consumer to becoming a food citizen?”

That was the question the urban farmer April Clark asked a group of about 60 guests who’d gathered for a free community meal hosted by Cultivate, a Des Moines-based nonprofit that focuses on growing local food connections. The question provided some food for thought, something to chew on with the potato dumplings and locally sourced cabbage salad during the Cultivate Your Plate event this past summer.

Cultivate is one of dozens of partners in the Iowa Food System Coalition, which works to improve Iowa’s food landscape. The coalition recently launched a comprehensive plan, called “Setting the Table for All Iowans,” which identifies priorities to create a thriving, sustainable and equitable food system. Although the group built on earlier work, much has changed since the last statewide plan was released in 2011.

“The issues around social and racial equity and climate change are two factors that are shaping the conversation in a new way,” said Jan Libbey, the coalition’s coordinator. The new plan “stimulates imagination, it builds capacity, it informs policymakers and organizes shared measures for greater impact.”

Learn more about Cultivate and other initiatives re-imagining the Iowa food system to help food land on the plates that need it in the full story online.