The Chamber’s June business spotlight is on Clayton Ridge Farm and Picket Fence Café, opened by Jane and Tom Augustyn on South River Park Drive in 1998.
Clayton Ridge Farm and Picket Fence Cafe offer farm-to-fork lunches prepared daily featuring fresh ingredients, along with gourmet salsas, sauces and mustards, and several brands of native Iowa wine. Catering for all types of events is also available. The couple has recently gotten interested in finding, repurposing and selling vintage farm and industrial items. Items are always coming and going so the displayed items change often.
Jane grew up working on a farm in Guttenberg with her family and learned about cooking and gardening from her mother and grandmothers, developing a talent for both. Tom grew up in suburban Chicagoland and attended college at Iowa State University. The two met when Tom visited Clayton County on a weekend trip, and the couple married in 1985.
Tom and Jane describe their business as an evolution of their personal interests. They were raising high quality hogs and always had a large garden, finding a niche in marketing through the Farmers Market around 1992. Tom and Jane both enjoy cooking, so they started cooking samples of their products to help sell them at the market. It didn’t take long for Jane to start preparing food by-order for people having parties and family gatherings. In the spring of 1998, the Augustyns decided to try a full-time location as an alternative to hectic Saturday mornings at the Farmers Market. Their goal is to celebrate and showcase fresh and local foods while helping to create a stronger local business community, so as much as possible of what the Augustyns sell and serve in their store, restaurant, and at catered events, is grown locally.
Clayton Ridge Farm and Picket Fence Cafe offer farm-to-fork lunches prepared daily featuring fresh ingredients, along with gourmet salsas, sauces and mustards, and several brands of native Iowa wine. Catering for all types of events is also available. The couple has recently gotten interested in finding, repurposing and selling vintage farm and industrial items. Items are always coming and going so the displayed items change often.
Jane grew up working on a farm in Guttenberg with her family and learned about cooking and gardening from her mother and grandmothers, developing a talent for both. Tom grew up in suburban Chicagoland and attended college at Iowa State University. The two met when Tom visited Clayton County on a weekend trip, and the couple married in 1985.
Tom and Jane describe their business as an evolution of their personal interests. They were raising high quality hogs and always had a large garden, finding a niche in marketing through the Farmers Market around 1992. Tom and Jane both enjoy cooking, so they started cooking samples of their products to help sell them at the market. It didn’t take long for Jane to start preparing food by-order for people having parties and family gatherings. In the spring of 1998, the Augustyns decided to try a full-time location as an alternative to hectic Saturday mornings at the Farmers Market. Their goal is to celebrate and showcase fresh and local foods while helping to create a stronger local business community, so as much as possible of what the Augustyns sell and serve in their store, restaurant, and at catered events, is grown locally.
The café is known for Jane’s pies, and her Triple Fruit Pie was featured in an article in the Des Moines Register as one of 100 things you must eat in Iowa before you die. The Picket Fence Café was also recently featured in a Facebook-sourced article of 10 highly recommended stops along the Great River Road.
“I love Guttenberg’s small-town atmosphere and being in a tourist destination. We get to live in a place where a lot of people work hard just so they can spend some weekends here!” says Jane of doing business in Guttenberg. For nearly 20 years, Clayton Ridge Farm has worked hard to accommodate their customers’ tastes and desires for fresh, wholesome, and great tasting food.
“I love Guttenberg’s small-town atmosphere and being in a tourist destination. We get to live in a place where a lot of people work hard just so they can spend some weekends here!” says Jane of doing business in Guttenberg. For nearly 20 years, Clayton Ridge Farm has worked hard to accommodate their customers’ tastes and desires for fresh, wholesome, and great tasting food.
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