On Sunday, June 24, between noon and 5:00pm, you’re invited to visit up to twelve farms on a self-directed tour of urban and suburban farms in the KC Metro Area.  Farmers will walk you around their farms, there’ll be organized activities for kids and young people, we’ll even have live music and cooking demonstrations at some of the farms!  You’ll be amazed at the variety:  Lew Edmister’s farm at 17^th & Belleview is less than ¼ acre, but it produces a lot of vegetables, unique garden art, and character for the neighborhood.  Pov Huns’ farm is 4 acres with a stunning view of downtown KCMO, Asian vegetables, and a high tunnel producing bitter melon.  East Wind Gardens in Independence grows on several acres on the Drumm Farm Institute, a non-profit residential program for young people; their flowers and vegetables are just lovely!  Troostwood Youth Garden at 52^nd & Paseo has educational signage, raised beds, and young people growing and selling veggies.

Tickets for the event will be $5.00 for individuals, $12 for a family and can be purchased from any of the participating farmers and from KCCUA.  The event has already been sponsored by Boulevard Brewery, Planter’s Seed, J-14 Enterprises and Windswept Worm Farm.  However, we still need more sponsors, so let us know if your business would like to sign on!  We’re also looking for help organizing the event, let us know if you’d like to help out!  Email us at info@kccua.org or call 913-831-2444.

The Refugee Women’s Market Garden at Catholic Charities, KCK is up and growing!  2006 was the first year for the Somali, Bantu, and Sudanese women as market gardeners; they grew and sold vegetables at the KCK Greenmarket and for their own families.  That experience whetted their ambitions; they want the gardens to be more productive and they want to sell more in 2007.   Working with Sharisa McDaniel, the Catholic Charities staffperson who has been the lead organizer on the project, KCCUA provided advanced training for an expanded group of gardeners and has been working with them on production planning.  For the 2007 season, their goals are to do a better job with plant spacing and succession planting (to maximize yields out of their relatively small plots), to go to market more consistently, and to become better sellers of their farm products.   The women will be selling at the KCK Greenmarket on 6^th & Tauromee from 8:00-12:00 starting in June.

Last fall, KCCUA Board Chair Tina Hoover introduced us to the Cross Lines Cooperative Council, a non-profit organization that seeks to address poverty and hunger in Kansas City, KS.  They had a piece of land right next to their building, they were going to start a work training program, and they were considering putting in a garden as part of the program.  They had other assets as well including Dr. Glenn Hodges, a board member who is an experienced Master Gardener, an organizational focus on the root causes of hunger, and staff people excited about producing healthy food.  Over the winter, KCCUA helped them develop a plan for starting a garden to grow and sell fresh produce.  We did a series of market gardening workshops, covering everything from the soil to irrigation to how to display and sell at a farmers’ market.  Cross Lines also brought in KC Community Gardens to do the plowing and tilling of the land, which worked up quite nicely!   Participants in Cross Lines' Ready-to-Work program will be planting, weeding, harvesting and selling their produce, with the sales to be banked for them to help out with living costs upon completion of the season.  Produce will be availabe on site (the location of the Monday edition of the KCK Green Market) starting in June from 8am to noon.