Ask any Iowan to name a quintessential food pairing for the Hawkeye state, they likely will say pork chops and sweet corn. Or maybe steak and eggs, now that Iowa’s the top egg-producing state.

But if two young Iowa farmers have their way, our list of favorite Iowa foods will soon expand to include farm-raised fish and native aronia berries. That’s right — Iowa-grown fish and berries.

A few weeks back, I was invited to a barn dinner hosted by Farm Bureau members Joe Sweeney of Alden and Andrew Pittz of Missouri Valley.

Pittz and his family started the state’s first aronia berry farm, Sawmill Hollow Farm, in Missouri Valley, along the Loess Hills of western Iowa. And this fall, Sweeney and his business partners broke ground on their new aquaculture farming venture, called Buckeye Fish Co.

Although the two young farmers live on opposite sides of the state, they...