Fall Farm and Food Conference
Starts Tomorrow with Farm Tours
Greetings!

Thanks for registering for DAY 1 of the conference.
If you are no longer able to attend, please email Mercedes.

Tomorrow we kick-off the Fall Farm and Food Conference with FIVE FARM TOURS!

Plan to arrive between 8:30-8:45 AM.
Please park across the street from KC Farm School at Gibbs Road at 2433 S. 42nd Street, KCK 66106, then walk over for coffee, pastries and gathering before the farm tour that starts at 9:00 AM.

  • Once at KC Farm School, we will encourage social distancing and masking as we are in close proximity on the farms.
  • We have one inside restroom available. The next restroom opportunity will be at The Farmhouse.
  • Please bring your reuseable coffee cups & water bottles.
  • Closed-toed shoes are always recommended on farm tours.
  • Dress in layers and be prepared with temperature swings. No rain is in the forecast.
  • To be most considerate of our urban farmer hosts, if you are able and comfortable, find another participant or two and carpool – your car may be left at KC Farm School for the duration of the day.

Click the button below for a map of all the day's stops and keep scrolling to learn more about each farm.
KC Farm School
9:00 AM: KC FARM SCHOOL
Lydia Nebel, Farm Director, leads our tour of Gibbs Road Farm and Common Ground. KC Farm School at Gibbs Road brings individuals of all ages, ancestries, and abilities on-farm, hands-on connecting them to land and soil, food, community, and opportunity. We grow food and teach others to grow food with programming for ages four and up, through Let's Grow Wyandotte, and as a Growing Growers host farm. Our on-site farmers market on Wednesday afternoons, May through November, brings multiple other producers, local musicians, and our neighbors together. Food and our programming are always pay-what-you're-able because we know that if we all share what we have, we can all have what we need. We sit on fourteen acres in Wyandotte County, Kansas, are converting to no-till at Gibbs Road Farm as we begin to embrace new opportunities at Common Ground.
Ki Koko Farms
10:30 AM: KI KOKO FARMS
Pay Lay is originally from Burma and belongs to the group known as “Karen”, which has its own distinct language and culture. She lived in a refugee camp in Thailand with her sister Beh Paw before being resettled in the U.S. in 2007 with her family. Pay Lay and Beh Paw began gardening with New Roots for Refugees and finished in just three years- she grew up farming before moving to the United States. Together Pay Lay and Beh Paw bought a 2.5 acre piece of land in KC, KS. Ki Koko Farms means “two sisters” in their native language – two sisters, two businesses, one farm. Both grow both traditional Burmese and American vegetables. Find Pay Lay’s Ki Koko Farms on Facebook.
11:45 AM: LUNCH
Crossing the border, we grab lunch-to-go at The Farmhouse, 300 Delaware St, Kansas City, MO 64105. Restroom available, but we won’t be dining in.
Urbavore
12:30 PM: URBAVORE
Farmers Brooke Salvaggio and Daniel Heryer's Urbavore is a biologically diverse farmstead set on 13.5 acres in KC's urban core. Their energy-independent systems for food production, waste, water and shelter redefine sustainability to build community and ecology. The farm produces such crops as strawberries, blueberries, asparagus, gourmet potatoes, heirloom tomatoes, hard-neck garlic while enhancing the land and building rich soil. Two hundred laying hens run on pasture, fertilizing fallow vegetable fields while feasting on juicy bugs, grasses, and certified organic grain. They also raise 20 heritage breed pigs each year. Learn more about what they're doing.
YOUNG FAMILY FARM
2:00 PM: YOUNG FAMILY FARM
The Young Family is deeply passionate about its work to grow food with organic practices and they use no-till, spin-farming techniques. The farm’s presence in a food desert and area where the median household income is under $30K.means most of the community residents don't have easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables. The Youngs have found that the community enjoys trying new produce and seeing the family grab their veggies straight out of the ground. Find Young Family Farm on Facebook.
WOODLAND CITY KC
3:15 PM: WOODLAND CITY KC
Neil Rudisill ’s Woodland City KC is a half acre micro farm that operates in the urban core of KC MO The farm was modeled off of Elliot Coleman & Jean Martin Fortier who have developed production methods, management styles and effective tools that make small scale production profitable. Woodland City operates on a 30” permanent bed system with minimal tillage. They have high tunnels, caterpillar tunnels and other season extension tools on the farm. The post harvest area has two walk in coolers using cool bot technology and a wash station with stainless steel sinks.
CONFERENCE PARTNERS & SPONSORS
For the past five years Kansas Farmers Union participated in the Local Food Safety Collaborative with National Farmers Union and FDA. The program offers farmers training in proper food safety procedures when growing, handling and distributing produce to consumers.

This year Missouri Farmers Union is joining us to host a bi-state urban farming conference and we’ve teamed up with KC Farm School at Gibbs Road in planning the two day event!
The conference is offered at no charge thanks to funding from the FDA, the HHS, KS-SARE, the Kansas Rural Center, and Growing Growers KC, and Missouri Farmers Union.

And we want to give a shout out to our conference partners for the assistance they provide in planning, presenting, and getting the word out on the Fall Food & Farm Conference: Cultivate KC, Kansas Specialty Crop Growers Association, KC Healthy Kids, KC Young Farmers Coalition, K-State Research and Extension, University of Missouri Extension, New Roots for Refugees, and the Kansas Beginning Farmers Coalition.

This event is supported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $25,000 received from National Farmers Union Foundation with 100 percent funded by FDA/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by FDA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit FDA.gov.