In 2003, we began growing organic fruits and vegetables on Rebecca’s family farm in rural, northeastern Clay County, Missouri. We focus on building the soil through biological farming methods, including extensive cover cropping. The farm is home to two farmers, two cats, 140 hens, two roosters and countless frogs, butterflies, birds and insects. Our infrastructure is focused on sustainable energy and includes a passive solar greenhouse, 30 gpm solar-powered irrigation system, electric tractor and utility vehicle, and a 20kW solar array. The 200+ acre family farm is planted in native grasses, good habitat for deer, turkey, quail, coyotes, and many other species of wildlife. We grow an acre of crops for our live culture fermented krauts, kimchi and pickles, as well as a large community garden for ourselves and our workers. A laying flock of 80 pastured hens provides eggs for the crew and customers at the farmers market. Our fermented foods are produced on the farm in our commercial kitchen and are sold through subscription, at the Brookside Community Market and local stores. In 2019, we installed an alley-cropping system of berms and swales with perennial plantings. This work is ongoing and next stages include planting more tree and shrubs along with the incorporation of a small flock of sheep. Our farm is 50 miles south of Kansas City in Adrian, MO. We offer grass-fed grass-finished beef & lamb, forest-raised pork, pasture-raised chicken and turkey. Our goal is to provide you with naturally raised wholesome food using regenerative farming methods that mimic the patterns found in nature. We use rotational grazing to raise our cattle and sheep. They are moved daily around our farm to new pastures and fresh forage. The chickens and turkeys live out on pasture in mobile coops. We move them every morning to a clean area of pasture where they can scratch and range for grasses and bugs in addition to their non-GMO feed. What is forest-raised pork? Pigs that live in the forest! This is the ideal environment for a pig. They use their snout to root around and turn up the ground uncovering food on the forest floor. They also have access to non-GMO feed. Good bacon comes from happy pigs! Green Gate Family Farm was started in 2010 by Ken and Kate. They have invested significantly in the infrastructure of their farm- a new added a new well and an in-ground irrigation system; established several new growing fields; installed lots of new fences and done fence repairs; built two high tunnels (both 30'x96') and a heated greenhouse (30'x46'). The latest project was to complete a significant upgrade and remodeling of the metal barn that now has new floors and walls (about 1200 square feet) and where they added electric power, running water, extensive fruit and produce handling and processing areas and equipment, and a walk-in refrigerator. Green Gate Family Farm believes strongly in a 'soil first' understanding and philosophy of farming and food production, and our annual soil tests have shown good improvement in our soils. We entered the transition period required for Organic Certification immediately in 2010 (this requires functioning under all the regulations of being organic, without calling your farm organic), and after the three year transition period was completed, Green Gate Family Farm was officially Certified Organic by the State of Oklahoma's Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry in 2013. We have remained Certified Organic and continued to strongly support the USDA National Organic Program since then. Our personal goals include safe, healthy food for our table, as well as for our customers, and a farm property that fits in with the ecology of the land we live on. We are striving to be a sustainable, ecologically friendly farm, and a successful farm business. We believe in building a strong food system and are proud members of the Kansas City Food Hub, a cooperative of farmers working together to sell into the regional food system. We really like to integrate our agricultural systems utilizing the resources that are available to us. Rolling Prairie is the original Midwest vegetable cooperative. The founding farmers joined together in 1994 providing a vegetable subscription service to Lawrence and Kansas City. More than 300 households receive a weekly bag of locally grown produce during the growing season. While not all of our farmers participate in the organic certification process we still follow the same natural ecologically sustainable organic practices for growing food we have used since we started over twenty years ago. Sharon Autry is farmer and steward of Herdsman House Farm LLC a small specialty crop operation located on the greater Historic Martin Farm on the south side of Hillsdale Lake in Miami County Kansas. She was raised in rural Missouri where she developed a deep appreciation for the relationships between humans and their natural world and humans in community with fellow humans. Sharon holds an MS in Curriculum and Instruction from Pittsburgh State and a BA in Anthropology and Spanish from Southeast Missouri State. After many successful years working for Kansas City Kansas Public Schools, National Park Service and Kansas City Art Institute, she got down to the business of realizing her life-long dream of becoming a farmer. She began farming in 2018 as a Growing Growers KC apprentice at Moon on the Meadow Organic Farm in Lawrence Kansas. Sharon's farming education continued at KC Farm School where she was farm director from March 2019 through November 2020. In September of 2019 she relocated from mid-town KC to rural Miami County Kansas to establish Herdsman House Farm LLC in March of 2020. She received a Certificate in Sustainable Agriculture from Johnson County Community College in May of 2020 and has been engaged in specialty crop production using sustainable farming practices for four years. Sharon is committed to conservation and community. Her farming practices are focused on building soil health and imitating the patterns and preferences of nature. Her marketing goals are to provide equitable access to safe healthy nutritious local food to her community. Farming is the thread the calling that weaves together Sharon's passions for environmental stewardship community building social advocacy art history teaching and learning. Marla and Brian Biggs began this first generation farm just outside of Paola, Kansas in 2013 with a small herd of Scottish Highland cattle. At Hedgewood Farms, our mission is to provide premium quality pastured beef, pork, poultry, eggs and produce, practicing humane and sustainable regenerative farming. We provide families with real, healthy, and delicious whole food choices. Hand raised, and home grown. We are passionate about providing food that sustains the land and feeds families the healthiest most nutritional food possible. We are helping save the planet with regenerative farming. Our cattle are Scottish Highland, South Pole and Angus and they are 100% grass fed and finished. Our hogs are raised on woodland forage and our broilers and egg layers are raised on pasture to help restore land health and encourage biodiversity. Poultry and hogs are supplemented with 100% organic grains. Our farm includes a small market garden that follows organic practices. We invite you to visit our website and become a Hedgewood Farms family subscriber. Subscribers have priority access to all our products. When supplies are low, we reserve inventory for you first on standing order items. Delivery is free within our delivery radius with a minimum order amount. The best way to ensure you can feed your family high- quality whole foods year round. Find us at these markets in 2022: Lenexa Farmers Market, Brookside Farmers’ Market. Pat & Rachels Gardens mission is to establish a healthy, sane business which produces excellent quality food for the Olathe and Greater Kansas City area and to share our ideas and research so others may benefit. The Leek family has been gardening and cooking good food for years. Gardening and farming is a way of life and a wise teacher. Though I supported my family as an educator and not as a farmer, home-grown food and the rural life allowed us to provide a healthy environment for our children. We lived in Ft. Scott, Kansas for twelve years on a forty-acre farm where we raised all but three of our children. We also raised chickens and pigs and milked everyday. Our team of Belgian draft horses, Will and Appetite, completed our little farm. We moved to Olathe, Kansas in 1988 where we put up our first hoop house and small greenhouse. Son Tom and I started a gardening business on two acres following Eliot Coleman’s lead and his work with hoop houses. Our first wholesale buyer was the Community Mercantile in Lawrence. After I retired from teaching in 2012, we expanded the business when my son Ernest purchased a ten acre farm for us to work. Naming it after two of my children who died in 2008 and 2013, Pat and Rachel’s Gardens was born. We earned our USDA Organic Certification in the spring of 2013. Our daughter, Esther, and her husband, Rob, helped grow the business. Daughter Jane served as assistant manager of this organic business in 2017. Jane, who speaks Italian as well as Spanish liked to say “we are SOL, solar, organic, and local.” “Sol” is also the Latin word for the sun. The baby of the family, Angie, an interior designer for BRR Architecture, helps us with design, marketing, and social media. In 2018 we welcomed Catherine Sercer who brought her expertise in growing vegetables to be our farm manager. Her hard work and attention to detail have improved the variety and quantity of our offerings. She begins her fourth year with us this season. We sell at the Overland Park and Brookside Farmers’ Markets and serve others through our Organic CSA. In addition to our Certified Organic Farm, we have a Certified Organic, state licensed kitchen where we produce a wide variety of popular products. Having a doctorate in curriculum and instruction trained me in the value of research. We have been an active partner in the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program of the USDA. This grant program encourages new ideas to be tried and research findings to be shared. See more about our research under the Processing + Research tab on this website. JCCC Open Petal Farm was started on two acres of campus in 2010 to provide a learning lab for students in the Sustainable Agriculture program. It has since grown to 3 acres and added a mixed fruit orchard, 300 blueberry bushes, a student designed edible forest, a moveable high tunnel, a solar storage shed, a coolbot refrigerated trailer, and numerous other projects. Produce is sold through Rolling Prairie, CSA and on Saturdays at the Overland Park Farmers Market. For over a decade, New Roots for Refugees has empowered families from the refugee community to start farm businesses by growing and selling produce through farmer’s markets, wholesale, and the New Roots Farm Share. At the Juniper Gardens Training Farm, farmers are given a quarter-acre plot to grow vegetables such as tomatoes, beets, spinach, green onions, lettuce, eggplants, and more. Farmers bring agricultural expertise from their home countries and continue to learn more about growing sustainably in the Midwestern climate. Over four-years, farmers are assisted with crop planning, farm troubleshooting, farming equipment, business finance, record-keeping, markets applications, and customer recruitment. Each year, the program passes more responsibilities to each farmer to maintain their business. By the fourth year, farmers have taken on the totality of the business expenses and have practice maintaining their customer base. You can support our farmers by finding New Roots stalls at farmer's markets around the KC area, subscribing to our Farm Share CSA program, or buying wholesale for your restaurant or organization. We are a small family owned 2 acre operation farming organically since 1981. We have been making organic soaps and bath care products since 1985. We also teach several old world arts and crafts skills including pottery. We only use sustainable practices in our business. We grow many heirloom and specialty hard to find fruits and veggies along with herbs and orchard fruit. We also have been growing many organic micro greens since 1996. We also have a wide variety of specialty organic soaps, salves and souffles made from only the finest ingredients. We are a regional finalist in 1984 with Robert Rodale’s Organic Magazine Contest, a host farm with Growing Growers KC since 2005, a SARE grant winner 2008 Project titled, ‘Incredible Crop Yields From Small Urban Spaces,’ have shown our gardens with KCUrban Farms and Gardens Tours 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018, and an Entrepreneur Showcase Slow Money Speaker 2005. We have an urban farm located in Kansas City, MO where we are trying to change the area one person, one family, one community at a time. We grow everything organically on our farm with a wide range to choose from including tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, beans, eggplant, herbs, garlic, peas, mushrooms, greens, strawberries, blackberries, elderberries, cabbage, kohlrabi. beets, turnips, arugula, spinach and so much more. We also make over 50 different jellies and jams using local produce that we grow or harvest within 75 miles. We also have a new line of spice blends this year, some using ghost pepper and habaneros. We not only grow and sell at local farmers markets but we are working with Agape Grow at Beaumont and teaching gardening, cooking and canning classes" Linda Hezel Ph.D., R.N. began as Farm Steward at Prairie Birthday Farm 20 years ago to regenerate its soil and reconstruct the native landscape that would have graced the fourteen acres prior to European immigration. While producing flavorful, nutrient dense ingredients, it also serves as a teaching laboratory where Linda shares the science, craft and art of artisanal food growing with chefs, farmers, gardeners, nutritionists, naturalists, artists and others to promote regenerative agroforestry practices and an understanding of healthy food for nutritional wellness. Teaching others to grow and eat nutrient-dense, organic food follows the 2008 American Nurses Association resolution for nurses to serve as role models and educators by participating in and promoting nutritious foods from sustainable local food systems so as to improve eating habits, increase patient and public health, and support the long-term social, economic, and environmental well-being of workers, communities and global health. The farm is host to poultry and honeybees as well as over 866 trees and shrubs, 36 flowers, 25 fruits, 40 herbs, 15 vegetables and more than 140 native plant varieties that yield a complex array of ecosystem services (carbon sequestration/storage, pollinator/wildlife food/habitat) all year without synthetic chemicals or season extension structures. Sacred Sun farm is committed to nurturing our deep connection to the Earth by tending and mending our relationships through food and play. By conscious observation and feeding the soil, we grow nutrient dense vegetables, grains and medicinal herbs for our community while also supporting the abundant prairie that surrounds us. We strive to provide a diverse variety of vegetables for our Farm Share (CSA) throughout the majority of the growing season, along with bringing an abundance of colorful veggies to the Brookside Farmers Market. This year will be our first time offering a Medicinal Herb Farm Share, offering fresh herbs to folks who use them for their personal care and supporting their family's and client's health. My name is Blake Bahora I run 700th Homestead Company a small scale naturally grown produce and proteins farm in Pleasanton Kansas. I started my sustainable farming journey in 2019 when I was determined to raise my children on clean and flavorful foods. My then goal to feed my family grew to include friends and eventually other families I didn't know personally started wanting in as well. Now my farm includes a small CSA program as well as farmers markets to help make local food more accessible. Specializing in the weird and unique I love introducing people too fun varieties of staple food to help even the pickiest of eaters fall in love with fresh local eating. We are a 5th generation farm which focuses on taking care of the land & our animals. We are veteran-owned & operated. We specialize in grass-fed beef, pork, lamb & chicken. CSA available. You can also find us at the Overland Park Farmers Market Saturdays (year round) and at the Park Place (Leawood) Farmers Market Saturdays in season. We offer Home Delivery on Thursdays right to your door or office. CSA Subscriptions available. We raise poultry for meat and eggs in open-air, floorless moveable coops on our mixed species grassland pasture. We process and package all of our meat and eggs here on the farm in our KDA approved, PL 90-492 inspection exempt processing facility and in our own clean farmhouse kitchen. We are currently building a new handling facility to allow us to expand our production. This new facility will move all of our egg and meat handling and packaging out of our farmhouse and into its own professional space, which will include walk-in freezer and cooler, mechanical egg handling, and storage space for all our packaging and handling equipment and supplies. It will also eventually include a certified kitchen and a finished attic space with residential quarters for live-in seasonal apprentices, interns, laborers, and other farm educational visitors. Our mission is to reconnect urban and rural life by providing our non-rural community members with the best food we can produce and with opportunities to get hands-on experience and education about small-scale regenerative and sustainable food production in northeast Kansas. Our orchard is growing sustainably. We offer blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, paw paws, apples, pears and peaches in season. In addition, we offer value added products: currently salves, soaps, jellies, vinegars and tea blends. he most important thing about the farm is the land. Trying to bring the land back to where it should be. Co-owners Laura Christensen and Katherine Kelly have many years of farming experience and in 2019 started 2 Birds Farm on 20 acres in Kansas City, KS. At 2 Birds Farm we love growing great vegetables, eating tasty food and appreciating the wildlife, wild weather and wild challenges of farming in our area. We sell our vegetables through a CSA that offers home and office delivery of shares and at the Brookside Farmers' Market in Kansas City, MO. We currently have about two acres of open field, three high tunnels and a greenhouse in production on the farm. We also have a small flock of happy hens that provide eggs. In April and May we use our greenhouse to produce a wide variety of vegetable bedding plants for home gardeners. We offer more than 50 varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, greens and more. From heirlooms to hybrids to varieties suited to containers or square foot gardening, we have you covered. The Natural Farmacy KC is a sustainable, organic-practice urban farm operated by Dhan Rai, a graduate of the New Roots for Refugees farm business training program. In addition to selling at the Overland Park Farmer's Market, the farm also offers a CSA farm share program that includes full and half-season share options, supplies wholesale accounts, and now also produces cut flowers for sale to the public. The Natural Farmacy sites are located in the KCK urban core and have been a great opportunity to connect with the community and make productive use of under utilized vacant land and bring fresh produce to our neighbors. Farmer Dhan is excited to bring his years of agricultural experience from the field to your table! We have sold our meat direct since 2006. As of 8-10-2020 we also have Barnard Processing which completes our Farm To Fork operation. Our meats are all dry aged and processed under USDA Inspection. Our goal has been and remains to connect awesome farmers with happy eaters! |