Today I head south for my yearly visit to southern Missouri. Each year I receive more and more calls from farmers who live in this area. Many of them have relocated to this area from Minnesota, I am sure it is for the longer growing season and to escape the long cold winters. Deb Churchill, Property Manager for the City Market, will be co piloting for me today.
I always try to plot out my day ahead of time so the last farm I visit is on the way home. First stop today will be in Diamond, Missouri about two and a half hours south of Kansas City. A Mouacheupao has patiently been waiting for me to check her farm so she can start selling at the market. When we first pull into her drive I am thinking we have the wrong place, we drive past many commercial chicken houses before we spot the farm. A Mouacheupao shows us the three plots of land she has planted. The first section has a few rows of corn, onions and squash, she will be plowing up the unused section to plant another crop of tomatoes, hopefully by June 22nd. The second section is a little larger and planted with green and yellow squash, kohlrabi, cabbage, cucumbers, beets and a lot of potatoes. A has been gone for a few weeks visiting her son and was surprised how much things had grown and that her plants had not been watered. The last area is mostly flowers and an assortment of vegetables way too numerous to mention. A Farm will probably start coming to the market the end of June on the daily waiting list.
Next stop Seneca, Missouri which borders the Oklahoma border. James and Mai showed Deb and I one of their fields which is always very well maintained and pretty weed free. Deb could not resist taking pictures of the cow pies we had to maneuver around; you don’t see that in the city. In addition to the field we looked at they have a field at the back of the property and one down the road a piece. Mai told me they planted additional produce this year to sell to Freedom Hospital in Joplin. The only damage Lee Family Farm had the day of the Joplin tornado was hail damage to their plants, but it did not cause too much damage. The Lee farm grows a wonderful selection of produce, even one plant that no one can remember the name of. The leaves are used as tea or a great addition to chicken soup. They apparently planted it once and now it comes up sporadically in the field. The Lee family is at the market every Saturday in stalls 116, 117 & 118.
Back in the truck and head down the road to Anderson, Missouri and the farm of Ying and Nhia Xiong. I have been visiting their farm for three or four years and it gets bigger each year. The first time I visited this farm I had a terrible time finding it. You have to drive down a grassy lane, through a cattle gate and through the field before you come to the farm. Nhia has three separate fields located on either side of his property. When we arrived they were busy picking green beans, which from what I hear from all the vendors this is one of their least favorite things to pick. Nhia has lined all the rows with black plastic to help cut back on the amount of weeds they have to deal with. Everything looked beautiful and they also grow the “no name plant” and can’t remember what it is called. Ying and Nhia drives three hours to the market every Saturday and are located in stalls 84, 85 & 86.
We start heading east to Fairview, Missouri, I have two farms located here. Ton and Helen Cha have two locations they farm, the first field was planted but was not yet producing any produce. Helen told me Ton was busy working in the other location off highway 86. Ton was busy picking the lasts rows of spinach before he tills it and replants. The Cha Family farm is definitely battling the weeds, and in some areas I think the weeds are winning. Ton had a new hoop house that was full of tomato plants covered with tomatoes which should be ready to pick next week. In addition to growing produce Ton also has three turkey houses where he raises turkeys for Butter Ball. The Cha Family Farm comes to the market on the daily waiting list so their location varies week to week.
The second vendor who lives in Fairview is Mailor Vang. Mailor has been to the market a few times this year and will probably be coming again this weekend. Mailor has just added a new section of red raspberries to her field in addition to the 30 or so bushes she already had in last year, they should be coming on soon. As with all the vendors today the list of vegetables they raise are way too long to put in this blog. Although their farm was not as large as some of the others I visited today, she has a nice variety and things were looking pretty good. Like Ton, Mailor is also on the daily waiting list.
I want to check a vendor in Purdy, Missouri which I checked last year and really did not see much produce planted and what was planted looked really bad. I was a little scared to get out of the truck since I had two dogs standing at my door, one of which did not look to friendly. I could not get a hold of anyone in the hose so had to check things out from the road. Things looked much better this year. Mai Thor Yang has not come to the market yet this year but at least I know she actually has something growing this year.
Last stop in Sarcoxie, Missouri and a new farmer who contacted me on Wednesday, luckily I had already planned to come down this way. Cha Fue Lor is originally from Kansas City but moved to Sarcoxie about ten years ago. This is his first year planting produce on his 40 acre farm and has really done a great job. He is a little discouraged since he had planned to sell his produce at the Joplin Farmers’ Market, but since the market was destroyed in the tornado he has not had a market to sell at. I hope he does well at the City Market. Cha also grew the “no name plant” and can’t remember what it is called; I think it must be a secret. We were just getting ready to walk out of the field when Cha showed me a plant that looks like corn but is actually sticky corn and the ears are sometimes black, I can’t wait to see this at market.
By the time we got back to Kansas City we had driven 475 miles and had been gone for 13 hours. Boy I am ready to call it a day. I am not sure where I will be heading next Thursday but I am sure it will be a little closer to home.
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