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. We have over 1/4 acre deep mulched or back-to-eden style, no dig/no till garden. We love to grow garlic and onions but we dabble in a little bit of everything. I plant intensively and even inoculated my walking paths with wine cap mushrooms. I run an honor system farm-stand at the end of my driveway that is always open May-October. I am a stay at home mom of 3 and I spend a lot of my time in the garden with my children. My market garden was established in 2015 and it just keeps getting bigger and better. We are master beekeepers and have been in business for more than 34 years. We love keeping bees and love the way it keeps us in tune with the natural world around us. We strive to make as many products as we can with our honey and beeswax. We love to talk bees with people. 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. The Happy Hen Homestead is a small, family-owned farm established in 2015 with a mission to offer health and wellness education, programs and products to the KC community. Integrative healthcare is offered for mothers & pre-crawling infants by Well Bellies & Babies. Therapeutic NaturePlay therapies & programs are available all year round by Well Wilderness Kids Therapeutic Nature Play Center. Many other holistic health & wellness practitioners also offer their services from the farm. Farm fresh chicken & duck eggs, fermented beverages/tonics are available for purchase in addition to fermentation workshops to learn how to create your own gut-healthy products at home. The Happy Hen Homestead resides on 10-acres in south Olathe with opportunities for children of all ages to learn more about health & wellness in a sustainable & nurturing environment. 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. 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. |