Simone's Plain and Simple
October 29, 2005

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On a field trip to Iowa in the summer of 2005, Lynne and her producers set out to visit Simone Delaty at her farm in the rolling countryside south of Iowa City. Located high on a hill with views that make you want to move in, "Simone's Plain & Simple" was an impulse buy for Ms. Delaty, a French-born retired professor.

Her intention was to raise everything she ate. Then she started inviting people in. Eventually it evolved into dining at Simone's on weekends from March to December. Communal tables covered in French provincial cotton prints are set on the porch with that view in fine weather, or around the wood stove in the house when it's chilly outdoors.

It's not a toy farm, and there are no Martha Stewart touches. Rather, it is a working country place with a bread oven, a little orchard and garden patches, and geese wandering about. Simone herself is unmistakably French—the carriage, the expressions, the lovely voluptuousness to her movements, the general contentment about her.

For more information and dinner schedules visit Simone's Web site.

Simone's Plain and Simple
1478 470th Street SW
Wellman, IA 52356
www.simoneplainandsimple.com

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