This hasn’t been the best year for growing things. But if there’s one thing Joanne Roepke Bode has learned in her 15 years of vegetable farming, it’s how to be flexible.

Joanne Bode and her husband, Beany, grew up in rural Iowa, graduated from Iowa State University (ISU) and left to find their place in the world. Fifteen years ago, they returned to Beany’s family farming operation near Algona. They planted 1.5 acres to...