Due to meetings this morning I only had a few hours to visit farms so I stayed close to the city. We have two new vendors who will be selling produce and vegetable plants at the Sunday farmers market both live in the Kansas City area, perfect stops for today plus one of them would like to start this weekend.

What a wonderful surprise I got today when I arrived at the Reeder’s home in Kansas City, Kansas. The Reeder’s operate a school from their home called “Little Sprouts” As part of the children’s education they teach them how to plant vegetable seeds and grow them into plants which are then put into the garden to be harvested. The seeds are started in a small greenhouse behind their home, they grow tomato, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage plants which they will sell at the Market.

The Reeder’s back yard was just beautiful! It made me want to go home and plant more flowers. In addition to the raised beds for their vegetables they also had a house for chickens and a few goats. The eggs from the chickens are for their own use and the goats are just fun. I just had to take pictures of all the children’s little rubber boots they wear in the garden, too cute! Once the boots are worn out they are used as flower planters and hung on the fence. What a wonderful place for children. Natalie told me the children love watching the vegetables grow and picking them to see who found the biggest one. Natalie will have vegetable plants for sale at the market on Sunday.

Marie Chang’s farm is on south east side of Kansas City, Missouri, not too far from what once was Banister Mall. Marie has recently moved to Kansas City from Joplin and is growing vegetables with her mother Neng. It was pretty muddy in their fields so I stayed along the edges but could certainly see they had a head start on getting their vegetable plants in. They farm 5 acres which is sectioned off for green onions, lettuce, bok choy, spinach, kale, beets, peppers and herbs. They won’t be ready to come to the market for a couple of weeks but I am sure we will see Marie very soon at the Sunday Market.

The Market will be very full of vendors this weekend with or without rain in the forecast, AGAIN!