The Buffalo Seed Company was launched by Dr. Matthew & Nancy Kost in October, 2018. Nancy is from the Altiplano of Bolivia and grew up growing quinoa, potato, and llamas in a resilient system that predates the Inca Empire. She has since acquired a bachelor degree in agronomy from Earth University in Costa Rica, and a Master of Science Degree in tomato breeding from The Ohio State University.
Matthew is originally from Kansas City and has returned after obtaining a Bachelor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Agroecology from The Ohio State University. Matthew has also worked in conserving amaranth and quinoa landrace diversity in Peru and arid adapted crops in the Greater Southwest. Matthew and Nancy have deep knowledge and wisdom of seeds, seed systems, evolution, ecology, and adaptation. Importantly, we have two little helpers that mean the world to us, Silveria and Thomas. The Buffalo Seed Company supplies growers with bioregionally adapting seeds to increase the resiliency and sustainability of our local food systems. While our local food systems are strengthening, the seed system underlying them are far from local. In fact, many seeds offered to growers are sourced from outside their bioregion and often times outside the country. It is time for us to integrate locally adapting, as well as adaptable seeds, into our local food systems and to secure a bioregional seed source that can withstand change. The Buffalo Seed Company has taken on this task as our contribution to push local food production in our bioregion to the next level, locally grown crops from bioregionally grown seeds. This is not a new idea, but the foundations of truly resilient and sustainable agricultural systems; this can be seen in every crop center of origin around the world. Return to Directory Home Page Italian Bed and breakfast and Sustainable learning center with a 10 acre organic farm We host a Farmers Market for free for local farmers. We are a B&B that supports local food. We sell honey, pickles and other food items. Just starting to grow elderberries. We are open to bringing children to learn about earth and soil with our addition of Casa Somerset Sustainable learning center. We do source from local farmers for dinners and cooking classes. 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. Hidden Mesa Farm is a small specialty farm growing on 2 acres of land in the Western part of Paola KS. Offering fresh homegrown and vegetables, herbs, flowers and transplants at local farmers markets in Ottawa and Paola KS. I have a passion for growing plants using only organic and sustainable methods healthy for the people animals and our planet. Established in the fall of 2021 our orchard and perennial gardens are still young. In 2023 I hope to add fruit and asparagus to our selection of offerings for sale. 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. Organically grown cut flowers and vegetables. Hand made decor during the fall season. Located at parking lot of HJ's Youth and Community Center of St. Andrews Episcopal Church. We are a fourteen-acre urban farm in southern Wyandotte County bringing people of all ages, abilities, and ancestries on-farm, hands-on connecting them to the land and soil, themselves, and their community. We scaffold our educational opportunities so that pre-k children can get outside, move around, and experience farm life; elementary-aged children can feel the joy of growing and eating fresh food; and tweens, teens, and young adults can begin to experience regenerative agriculture as part of the entire food system, and perhaps as a vocation having internalized the skills they need during their time visiting. We participate as a host farm in the Growing Growers program. We grow organic food and feed our own 40-member CSA, host a weekly on-farm pay-what-you're-able farmers market that accepts SNAP and utilizes the Double-Up Food Bucks program. 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. Experience the local flower difference. Our 10 acre farm is situated in Piper Kansas. We grow specialty cut flowers for our Kansas City community. 100% of our flowers are grown right here in Kansas in a pollinator-safe environment and availability is based on the seasons. Varieties are carefully chosen for their suitability for cut flowers and we harvest them at their peak ripeness so that you the customer get to enjoy their longest vase life. Sarah and Nicolás García both came to urban farming in roundabout ways. Sarah studied horticulture at JCCC in 2006-2008 and Nicolás studied how the world was broken at KU 2004-2008. While at KU Nicolás found peace in his vegetable gardens and guerrilla growing operations and after leaving KU Nicolás organized The Guild of Guerrilla Growers and later Anti-Hero Farms Edible Landscaping. In 2013 Sarah and Nicolás acquired the land they cultivate and established Treehouse Urban Farm in Waldo neighborhood of KCMO. They raise Indian Runner ducks, bees, native plants, berries, herbs, greens, mushrooms, and a rotating variety of annuals and edible flowers. 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! The farm is a beautiful organic urban farm that creates a place for neighborhood residents and businesses to connect with their food and with each other. Westport Commons Farm generates for and demonstrates the social economic and environmental value of urban agriculture to a vital and thriving community. Our goals are to: Increase community engagement in the growing and eating of good food. Grow organic fruits vegetables and herbs to feed the community Teach & demonstrate diverse models of urban food production Be a catalyst for increased urban agriculture and improved healthy food systems in the metro area Whispering Elm Farm is a small, bio-dynamic family farm located near Paola specializing in medicinal herbs and elderberries. We use cover crops, compost and focus on a wide variety of natives and other medicinals to build the soil and attract pollinators and allow our free range ducks to pest control. To extend our seasons and allow for winter harvests, we put in a high tunnel 4 years ago where we continue to experiment with a combination of annuals and perennials. Additionally, we keep bees and have several medicinal gardens, cut flower beds, two blackberry patches and field of American elderberries. We have been certified organic the last few years but are dropping the certification in 2021 simply because for our small farm, it isn't worth the expense and hassle. We are still 100% committed to organic practices so nothing will change in how we operate. We offer educational tours of our medicinal gardens, cut flower gardens, elderberries, tunnel and general infrastructure and are happy to share our journey with the organic certification process, transitioning from suburban life to establishing a homestead and our experiences with raising various poultry and bees. Our elderberries, fresh and dried herbs, honey, tonics, teas and other products are high-quality and hand-crafted in small batches to preserve medicinal qualities. We also offer a variety of wellness, gardening and beekeeping classes. Learn more and sign up for our newsletter at www.WhisperingElmFarm.com! We support healthy in every way. Well-rounded farm dedicated to overall health. The Young Family Farm is a family-run operation in midtown, Kansas City, Missouri. At the core of their work is the belief in social justice, community empowerment and collective action. In operation since 2010, the farm was more formally "established" in 2019 with the goal of providing healthy food options to residents in an area classified as a food desert and inspire community members to grow their own produce. |