It’s called Iris Aisle and this bucolic patch of rural Iowa somehow escaped growing corn and soybeans to become a truly unique business enterprise.
This, however, is a story about the unique dreams of its artistic owners.
Earl Ramey, 55, is a tattoo artist, his wife Raelyn, 34, is a wedding photographer, and they once had an ironclad, foolproof plan for their future.
The Rameys would load up an RV and take their talents on the road, he putting ink on flesh and she capturing images through the lens of her camera. After their adventure on the road, the couple wanted to find a rural place to settle down and establish a small events space, leaving Des Moines, where they had lived for more than a decade in the rearview mirror.
They never made it to the road because their dream got in the way.
Sometime before they were to set out, Earl Ramey discovered a 4.5-acre property nestled in the rolling hills and intermittent forests of Madison County southeast of Winterset, not far from the historic Holliwell covered bridge.
He thought he had found their paradise.
She just didn’t see it.
“He brought me out here four times and I didn’t like it,” she recalls.
She says one last effort to convince her that “this was THE place” followed a huge snowstorm in 2018.
And finally, she could see it, the unlocked potential of this modest acreage with an old farmhouse and grove of cedar and spruce trees.
It WAS the place they had been yearning for, after all.
“I was standing in the center of a dreamland,” Raelyn Ramey wrote on the couple’s website.
“We walked around the property while our 2-year-old was in awe of the giant trees filled with snow and quickly we started to point out where we thought The Conservatory might go, where we pictured the tiny little cabins sitting, and where the twinkling lights would hang. It was a done deal from there,” she wrote.
Business includes growing herbs ― and herb
Foregoing life on the road, they purchased the property. But the harsh reality of rustic, rural living soon set in.
Picturesque as the land might be, the old farmhouse, built in 1904, was a different story. The siding and roof were in poor condition, and the couple originally planned to raze and replace it. So dire was its condition that they initially lived in the RV.
“I know one thing, I don’t ever want to be living in an RV again,” Raelyn Ramey said.
Eventually they were able to see the potential in the farmhouse and have been able to “restore it to its original character,” as they put it on their website, transforming it into a comfortable home.
That’s how Iris Aisle came to be, an eclectic and diverse business offering a venue for weddings and other events, Airbnb cabin rentals, a tattoo parlor and a small herb farm.
Oh, and there’s also the other kind of herb: the cannabis-growing operation, launched in 2020. By mid-September, the 2025 hemp crop stood 7 feet tall, with stalks as big around as small saplings. The sheer magnitude of the plants was matched only by the size of Earl Ramey’s smile beneath a faded John Deere cap as he talked about the season’s bumper crop.
Iris Aisle has its own processing facility capable of producing about 500 bottles a year of THC oil from 450 plants. Labeled “Tincture of Iris Aisle Holliwell Cannabis Oil,” some is sold through local retailers, but mostly purchases are direct sales.
“A lot of times people want to see where it comes from. This is one of the few places where everything is done on the property,” Raelyn Ramey said.
‘One of the top five smartest people I’ve ever met’
A native of northeast Indiana, Earl Ramey, a former biker, traveled with Easy Rider magazine doing tattoos on the road in the 1980s. He eventually found his way to Des Moines, attending conventions where he specialized in portrait tattoos. He also is a former owner of the Liar’s Club, a now-defunct night spot on Court Avenue in Des Moines.
He said his goal in attending the conventions was to remove the stigma associated with tattoos.
“I have the same goal with cannabis as I did with the tattoos: Remove the stigma,” he said.
When it comes to growing hemp ― a kind of cannabis and close relative of marijuana with a less potent content of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the plants’ psychoactive compound ―he is a tireless advocate. He can quickly recite the nuances of its legality in various forms, both state and federal, even calling up videos on his cellphone of debate on key legislation to illustrate a point.
The THC-containing oil expressed from hemp has become a popular alternative remedy for everything from chronic pain to anxiety and insomnia, showing up in goods from gummies to beverages. Ramey has become a recognized expert at growing and producing it within the limitations of the law.
Robin Pruisner, chief of the Entomology and Plant Science Bureau for the Iowa Department of Agriculture, calls him “one of the top five smartest people I’ve ever met.”
“He’s like one of the only hemp growers making money,” she said.
Iowa’s hemp laws fell under Pruisner’s jurisdiction until January 2025, when the state ceased licensing hemp growers and turned that responsibility over to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“He’s obsessed (with growing hemp) and he studies it all the time. He is one of the rock stars when it comes to testing to make sure his plants are under the (THC) limits and he knows everybody,” she said of the highly regulated industry and Ramey’s key input into those rules.
Ramey is quick to point out the advanced classes he has taken on growing hemp and manufacturing cannabis products, earning a food processing license he proudly displays in the meticulously clean room at Iris Aisles where the THC oil is produced.
While the November bill that ended the government shutdown added new limitations to federal hemp laws, creating an existential crisis for some hemp-based businesses, the only impact it will have on Iris Aisle’s products will be in their packaging, he said. Since the Rameys’ tinctures already conformed to stricter Iowa laws, containing 0.3% or less of THC, they can still be sold, though they now must be packaged in individual doses instead of 1-ounce bottles.
State Rep. Ray Sorensen, R-Greenfield, has worked with Earl Ramey on legislation affecting hemp and said there is no one who understands the issues better than Earl Ramey.
“I work with a lot of constituents who are passionate about the issues important to them, but I mean, Earl is on a level all his own,” he said. “He is just such a unique guy anyway. Just all tattooed up, you know? You’re judging a book by its cover and you’re thinking he doesn’t know anything about politics or law and then he just sits down and recites code he has memorized even from years ago, like clear back into the ’50s and ’60s.
“You’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy is incredible,’” said Sorensen, himself an artist known for his Freedom Rock murals across Iowa.
In the complicated world of hemp regulation, he said, Ramey has become a source of information in addition to being a constituent.
Another Iris Aisle specialty: elopements
Raelyn Ramey’s passion for photography was as strong as Earl Ramey’s interest in growing hemp, spurring development of the small events venue.
“I knew what couples were looking for. I had seen their frustrations and expectations that other venues couldn’t meet,” she said.
The Rameys built what they call The Conservatory, a 20-by-40-foot greenhouse that serves the dual purpose of hosting events and, during the winter months, growing plants, including the seedlings for the next season’s hemp crop. There also are two cabins near The Conservatory that can be rented through Airbnb but also serve as dressing rooms for wedding parties.
Raelyn Ramey, originally from Ankeny, said she and her husband carefully sited the buildings in a way that would not disturb the forest.
“Everything was designed to fit in the trees. No trees were removed to build any of this,” she proudly states, standing in a spot between the shaded buildings.
The Conservatory can host up to 75 people, she said. Their intent from the beginning was to have a smaller venue.
The COVID-19 pandemic actually helped their wedding venue business, she said.
“When COVID hit, it sparked interest in smaller weddings,” she said. The venue has also seen an uptick in elopement interest in recent years.
She said Iris Aisle hosted its first elopement in April 2021 and its first full wedding that June.
Iris Aisle hosts about 20 weekend weddings a year and about 20 of the weekday elopements ― small ceremonies, quickly arranged, with a licensed officiant on call and the Rameys available as witnesses.
The uniqueness of a small events venue/tattoo parlor/hemp farm is not lost on Sorensen, who pledges to continue fighting for legislation that will keep the Rameys in business.
“It means we kind of keep chipping away and finding ways that we can help them exist,” he said. “I’m trying to protect their little corner of the world, and it’s a really neat little corner of the world. It’s a very cool business for southwest Iowa. I’m really proud to have it in my district.”
Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Wedding? Tattoo? Cannabis products? Winterset’s Iris Aisle has it all
Reporting by Kevin Baskins, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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