A life spent helping things grow.
He is a mentor first. The farm is where he proves what he teaches.
Near Keota, Iowa, Levi Lyle has built something larger than a farm — a body of work in mentorship, writing, teaching, and stewardship, rooted in a single conviction: that the same principles which restore tired soil can restore tired communities, tired leaders, and tired lives. For more than two decades he has worked at the intersection of land and people — teaching science, coaching individuals toward purpose, writing about meaning, and demonstrating regenerative agriculture on a working Iowa farm that doubles as a living laboratory. Twenty years after leaving education, he has returned to the classroom — teaching high school science in the community where his children are blooming.
A note from Levi
Close mentorship, blossoming into a network of lifelong relationships, results in steady improvements. I am led to believe this care and nurturing by others must surely be given back in the form of public service — where love, just like a magic penny, comes back to you amounting to still more, a lesson straight from my favorite childhood Sunday-school song.
And so, twenty years after leaving the profession of education, I again took a high school science teaching position, now in the community where my children are blooming. This is a step toward fulfilling my desire to express who I am — a soul which has been bettered by the stewardship of others who showed care and believed I had promise, especially in my youth.
I wonder about the roots of what one might call a sort of epigenetics now innate within my DNA — as an Iowan and as a Midwesterner. I can say for sure the endeared qualities of honesty and work ethic, in cooperation with a curiosity to always seek to integrate knowledge across the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM), are like the nectar of a lotus flower carried upon wings.
This portal is who I am and the reason I am here. Have a look — I look forward to engaging with you, where cross-pollination and magic pennies are currency.
The record, year by year
The ground stops being tilled
Levi's father, Trent, commits the family farm to no-till — the patient foundation everything since has been built on.
Cover crops join the system
Cereal rye and cover cropping begin building soil biology and setting the stage for what comes next.
Learning organic from the inside
Before transitioning his own ground, Levi becomes an organic inspector, visiting farms across Iowa — and watching too many lose the weed battle and quit.
A roller-crimper, made by hand
Studying Rodale Institute and University of Wisconsin research, Levi builds his own chevron-pattern roller-crimper — about 1,300 pounds, front-mountable — when none could be had in Iowa. He rents it to neighbors.
First organic corn harvest
Sixty acres certified. The system he designed — no-till, cover crops, roll-and-plant — proves out on his own ground.
Levi's Indigenous Fruit Enterprises
Aronia, honeyberries, tart cherries, and pawpaws — native fruits chosen for diversity and sustainability, pressed into the farm's flagship juice.
Carbon advocacy & electric weeding
Levi speaks across Iowa on carbon as a crop and takes his Weed Zapper field to field for his neighbors' headlands.
Back to the classroom
Twenty years after leaving education, Levi takes a high school science teaching position in the community where his children are blooming — giving back the care and mentorship that shaped him.
Research, writing, and the long view
Joint organic no-till research with Iowa State and UW–Madison; two published books; a farm run in decades, not seasons.
You cannot force a thing to grow. You can only create the conditions in which growth becomes possible — and then you tend it faithfully.
Measured in decades, not seasons
Levi's work points toward a larger purpose: to become a trusted regional and national voice connecting mentorship, leadership, agriculture, stewardship, and community development into one body of work — and to influence how Iowa and rural America think about the care of land, leaders, and the generations still to come.