July/Aug 2012

July/August 2012

Meet 7 local

Farmer Janes Fly or Drive?

Find your vacation footprint

Frugal ideas for a

greener office

$4.95 U.S.

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Publisher’s Letter

Greenability turns 5!

S

omehow, through the worst economic times in my lifetime and a historically challenging time for all publishers, we have thrived and will celebrate five years of publishing this year!

I extend a heartfelt thank-you to all subscribers and advertisers, community, business and civic leaders, and the fabulous team of creative people who make each issue possible. We love sharing your environmental stories and showcasing the many eco-champions who make Kansas City an increasingly greener place to live.

In this issue, we introduce you to seven women who are leading the local food movement by growing and selling organic food. We call them Farmer Janes, as they buck the traditional idea of farming and join a growing number of women nationwide who are starting urban farms. You’ll find a common thread in Katherine Kelly, a farmer who early on realized that to build a local food community, someone would have to teach urbanites how to farm. Through Growing Growers and Cultivate Kansas City, she has created a culture of farming that attracted all of the women farmers you’ll meet on these pages. The hardest part for us was selecting whom to feature from among the many cool women who grow food for local tables.

Many years ago, I went through the Growing Growers program and apprenticed with a fabulous farmer, Linda Hezel of Prairie Birthday Farm in Kearney, MO. As Katherine tells it, I’m the only “graduate” who launched a magazine – instead of a farm. Hats off to these creative, hard-working women.

For our Greenability Challenge story, we went looking for easy, inexpensive ways to green up an office. We found that the Kansas City Free Health Clinic employees are masters at it. They not only help

clean up the environment, but also have figured out how to get rebates and incentives to help them buy office supplies. We especially loved their art projects from recycled materials.

If you’re looking for an outdoor volunteer opportunity for your family, office mates or the kids, we’ve found nine organizations that could use your help. In the process, you’ll learn about watersheds, native and invasive plants, historic sites, growing food and native prairies.

We extend thanks to our guest commentator, Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and President Barack Obama’s principal environmental advisor. I met her recently when she was in Kansas City to tour the Green Impact Zone, and she agreed to share some of the president’s environmental priorities with our readers.

And finally, be sure to take a look at our interactive digital version of Greenability and keep updated with local green news at www.greenabilitymagazine.com. you’re there, sign up for our weekly e-newsletter, and we’ll keep you updated on green events and other local environmental news. If you are in the market for a green job, or your company is looking to fill a green position, take a look at Green Jobs on our website or at www.greenabilityjobs.com.

Happy summer!

Julie Koppen Publisher

julie@greenabilitymagazine.com

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Volume 6, Number 4 July/August 2012

Publisher Julie Koppen julie@greenabilitymagazine.com

OPERATIONS & Circulation MANAGER Mary Lynn Coulson marylynn@ greenabilitymagazine.com copy Editor Kim Broers

Photography Ami Freeberg Connie Harclerode Chad Hickman/ Blixt Photography Amber Rossman Cover Photography Chad Hickman/ Blixt Photography Advertising Julie Koppen

Writers Mary Lynn Coulson Christopher Khan Michelle Strausbaugh Nancy Sutley

julie@greenabilitymagazine.com

website management Tim Gieseking

Assistants James Gottsch Johannah Waldo Graphic Design Kim Tappan/Tappan Design Connie Saum

Copyright All contents of this issue of Greenability are copyrighted by The Koppen Group Inc., 2012.

All rights reserved.

Greenability July /August 2012 (ISSN 1938-5749) is published bi-monthly (6 times per year) for $24 per year by The Koppen Group, Inc., 3412 Coleman Road, Kansas City, MO 64111. Periodicals postage paid (USPS 2020) at Kansas City, MO and at additional mailing offices.

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Greenability

Contents July/August 2012

Features

11 15 35

9 outdoor places to volunteer Vacation footprint: To fly or to drive?

Local authors tout sustainable growing

Departments

4 37

From the Publisher

Commentary: Nancy Sutley, White House Council on Environmental Quality

38

Greenability Directory

Farmer Janes

17 Katherine Kelly: Cultivate Kansas City 19 Bev Pender: Soul & Soil Rainbow Gardens 23 Laura Christensen: Blue Door Farm 27 Sarah Hoffmann & Jacque Smith:

Green Dirt Farm

31 Jill Elmers: Moon on the Meadow Farm 33 Stephanie Thomas: Spring Creek Farm

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Creativity and frugality inspire a greener organization

KANSAS CITY’S MOST EXPERIENCED SOLAR ENERGY COMPANY AS A MATTER OF FACT,

WE DID THEIR

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Creativity and frugality

inspire a greener organization

Taya Hovan (left) and Amber Rossman of the Kansas City Free Health Clinic make weekly runs to recycle used office paper in area recycling bins.

W

hen the office operates on a shoestring budget, making greener choices not only helps the environment, but can be a plus for the bottom line.

At the Kansas City Free Health Clinic, the employee-organized Green Team wants to meet both of these goals. The non-profit provides free basic health care services and screening for more than 14,000 people in the metro area each year at two locations, 3515 Broadway and 6400 Prospect. Patients are either uninsured or under-insured, and the clinic operates as a safety net for care.

For the members of the Green Team, meeting the health care mission is easier with the savings they are able to produce and the sense of providing a healthier community with their efforts.

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Greenability Greenability

Greenability Challenge

As Taya Hovan, Green Team chair and staff accountant, tells it, this is a lesson in creativity, frugality and reducing the clinic’s contribution to the waste stream. It started in August 2009, when Hoven and others decided to get organized and step up the clinic’s commitment to the environment. Early efforts began with and continue to include staff members hauling recyclables to their cars and then to home curb recycling bins or the nearest recycling center. For three years, staff members have been taking out the recyclables on their own time.

Once a month, the 10-member team gets together to brainstorm ideas for the 100-plus employees and look for ways to engage more people. They’ve landed on the practical, the fun and the moneymaker-and-saver projects.

For fun, the team sponsors an employee art contest to encourage co-workers to create something useful or beautiful from items destined for the trash. For this year’s entries, Sherrie Cox, data management specialist, fashioned a light-catcher mobile from wristbands left over from the clinic’s annual Bloom Party fundraising event. Cole Overstreet, facilities operations assistant, created a phoenix-of-vices mosaic from cut-up Doritos chip bags, cigarette packages and beer boxes, displayed in a recycled frame. Kristen Paulson, case manager, and Juan Rivera, social worker, painted and decorated empty wine bottles for vases. And the nieces and nephews of Julia Murphy, grant writer, created a “Healthy fish is a happy fish” display from used ribbons and old magazine cutouts of flowers and fish. Murphy’s project was a dual learning experience for her young relatives: She helped them create a recycled art project and deal with the grief of losing their pet fish.

“It definitely got us all thinking about what we could make from our own trash,” said Hovan.

At the end of the contest, employees voted Murphy’s fish display the most creative. With each voter making a financial

4

simple, eco-friendly steps for the office

As the Green Team at the Kansas City Free Health Clinic discovered, making simple, eco-friendly changes is good for the environment and the budget. Here are a few ideas.

1

The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year (www.sierraclub.org), which accounts for 50 percent of office waste (www.epa.gov). With increasing options for handling business online, it’s easier than ever to reduce paper use. Convert documents to PDF format for digital filing and email sharing. Use cloud computing (www.dropbox.com) to share documents that need to be viewed or changed by several people.

2

Try software like Greenprint (www.printgreener.com) to preview documents and eliminate unneeded pages before printing. An analytical tool tracks paper, ink and cash savings.

3

Reduce office energy use by turning off lights. Artificial day lighting accounts for 44 percent of electricity use in office buildings, reports the Department of Energy (www.energy.gov). Turn off fluorescent tube lights if not needed for 15 minutes. (Turning them on and off too frequently reduces the bulbs’ lifespan, so the 15-minute rule is a compromise.) Switch out incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Only 10 percent of the electricity that incandescent lights consume results in light — the rest is turned into heat.

4 The Green Team attached recycled toothbrushes and old silk flowers to office pens. It was a great reuse of materials, and now fewer pens leave the office.

Calibrate computers, printers and copiers to “energysaving” modes so they’ll “sleep” when not in use. Even in stand-by mode, some equipment uses the same amount of energy as a 100-watt bulb. Unplug or put them on a power strip that can be turned off when not needed. greenabilitymagazine.com greenabilitymagazine.com

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Greenability Challenge

Top: Julia Murphy involved her nieces and nephews to create a “Goldie the Fish” memory of their pet, who had recently died. She used it both to teach them about reusing and recycling common materials and to remember their fish. Bottom: Sherrie Cox used leftover reflective wristbands from a clinic fundraiser to create a decorative light catcher.

contribution, the contest also added $121 to the kitty for future office supplies.

The practical ideas for a more sustainable office are also the easiest to duplicate. Employees make scratch pads from paper that has been used on one side but does not contain confidential patient information.

Cutting and stapling paper is a simple task that can be done during staff meetings. They added a cover page with 10 simple recycling ideas that employees could use at work or home. They also collect used eyeglasses for re-purposing by the Lion’s Club and donate used cardboard to local schools for recycling fundraisers. A clinic volunteer nurse collects empty pill bottles for resuse during her mission trips.

The money-maker-and-saver projects include recycling ink toners at the local office store for a $2 rebate each, which over time has added a few hundred dollars to the clinic’s office supply needs. Since supplies often are not included in the non-profit’s grant funding, this has become a double bonus for the clinic. Employees also recycle old cell phones, digital cameras and laptop computers, which has netted about $400 in rebates.

“We wouldn’t have the office supplies we need if we weren’t recycling and getting rebates,” Hovan said.

Staff members spent a little money to buy ceramic mugs for all employees, but save monthly by not buying (or contributing to the landfill) Styrofoam cups and lids for the employees – a savings of $84 a month from the budget and 1,000 cups and lids each month from the waste stream.

“People have etched, colored and stickered their mugs to make them their own, and be able to identify them,” Hovan said.

This spring, the Green Team popped for a bulk purchase of wildflower seeds and then repackaged them into recycled bags as a gift (with planting instructions) for employees. They also asked employees to bring in old silk flowers and toothbrushes, and used them to decorate office pens.

This creative decorating ensures patients don’t accidently take a pen

Above: Kristen Paulson and Juan Rivera organized a group of employees to create vases from empty wine bottles. Some “vases” were covered in chalkboard paint and others were decoupaged with paper scraps.

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Greenability Greenability

home. The savings will be counted in pens – another office-supply bonus.

Amber Rossman, manager of HIV case management, is not a member of the Green Team, but appreciates their efforts in keeping her focused and accountable.

“It’s part of our mission to maximize our financial resources and create solutions for a healthy community,” Rossman said. “A healthy community is not just individual patient care, but a healthy environmental wellness for our entire community.”

The clinic often taps the resources of its 1,000 volunteers when it needs equipment and supplies.

“Many of our volunteers are in the medical community, so they help us recycle their old office equipment, or they donate pharmaceutical samples that might otherwise be put in the waste stream,” Rossman said.

This has resulted in the clinic receiving donations of used cubicles, desks, chairs, bookshelves, patient exam beds, pharmaceutical dispensing equipment, computers and copy machines. Nearly every piece of medical equipment and technology has been salvaged from another medical office. When these items are no longer needed at the clinic, they still have a life as a donation to a smaller community clinic. If no other agency needs the equipment, it might be sold to employees to help raise a few dollars, or donated to Habitat ReStore or Surplus Exchange.

The staff is encouraged to use energy-saving features on equipment.

Computers are turned off at the end of the day. Light fixtures use energysaving bulbs and are reduced in areas that receive natural lighting from windows. The clinic systematically removed the center bulb in each fixture to reduce energy use and glare. The building temperature is controlled by a web-based program and zoned for each area’s use.

“Our Green Team makes it easy to be more environmentally friendly by doing the research for the most eco-friendly option and then educating us when we need it,“ Rossman said. “That lets people like me focus on my job, while still feeling like I’m making good environmental choices.”

Left: Hovan helps collect and recycle used cell phones at Kansas City Free Health Clinic. Right: Prescription pill bottles are cleaned and donated to missionary clinics by staff members. greenabilitymagazine.com

10

Green Ideas

9

outdoor places to

volunteer

By Christopher Khan

Volunteer John Teeple planted spring kale in the Villandry quilt garden of the Heartland Harvest Garden at Powell Gardens. More than 25 volunteers work with three staff members to take care of the 12-acre edible landscape. Photo: Connie Harclerode

S

lather on the sunscreen and brave the toasty weather for a dogood adventure in one of Kansas City’s natural areas.

Volunteering outside is a great way to give back to the

community and make a meaningful difference in the parks and nature areas in the urban environment. Most program projects have flexible schedules, require minimal or no training and have no associated fees.

Tasks range from light labor, like litter pickup, to putting your back into constructing a playground or introducing kids to nature.

Here are a number of local volunteer opportunities that will get you outside for a cause.

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Greenability

1 Blue River Watershed Association

Water is a precious resource, and Blue River Watershed Association (BRWA) works to monitor and improve the quality of Kansas City’s water.

Throughout the school year, adult volunteers can help small groups of students learn to monitor and test water for pollutants such as phosphates and nitrates with easy-to-use water-monitoring kits.

Adults who want to help in their own community can be trained to monitor water at more than 50 sites around Kansas City.

Kansas neighborhood groups concerned about their local water can contact BRWA to make a difference. BRWA will help find a suitable creek area to claim, and then organize the group’s efforts to clean up and maintain water quality there. At least five people must be committed to working in order to qualify.

Other groups can contact BRWA to organize litter pickup workdays along area waterways. The organization will provide all necessary materials.

The BRWA office is located at 6601 Swope Parkway, Kansas City, MO. Contact www.brwa.net or 816-309-0980.

2 Cave Spring Historic Site & Nature Center

Help get city youths outside into nature as a volunteer at Cave Spring Historic Site & Nature Center. During summer months, adults can volunteer to teach groups of children about nature on guided hikes through the 36-acre site. Classes and hikes last for 20 minutes each, and schedules are flexible. No prior training or experience is necessary.

The nature center also features an heirloom, native flower garden with exclusively native flora that grew in the 1850s. Volunteer gardeners are needed for its regular care and weeding.

If you like the excitement of outdoor events, volunteers are always needed for garden sales and the annual October Pumpkins on Parade. Those with strong backs can help maintain the 5.1 miles of trail by cutting back encroaching brush and spreading wood chips for trail maintenance. And there’s always a project for skilled carpenters and electricians.

Volunteers must be age 13 or older and participate in the training program.

The center is located at 8701 E. Gregory Blvd., Kansas City, MO. Contact www.cavespring.org or 816-547-9679.

3 Youth Volunteer Corps of Greater Kansas City

The Youth Volunteer Corps of Greater Kansas City (YVCKC) partners with multiple organizations to get children involved at the Rosedale Community Garden, the Parkville Nature Sanctuary, Cultivate KC’s Gibbs Road Farm, and Grahovac’s Army of Volunteers. The youthful volunteers will learn to work in gardens and with nature, and acquire valuable team-building skills.

Students also can fulfill community service hours and make new friends.

Every month YVCKC volunteers at the Sanctuary of Hope, an inter-faith not-for-profit retreat, by helping fix and maintain nature trails and digging trenches to reroute piping for rain water. Volunteers are 11 to 18 years old.

The corps office is located at 1080 Washington St., Kansas City, MO. Contact the YVCKC at www.yvckc.org or 816-743-7900.

Prairie Foundation 4 Missouri The Missouri Prairie Foundation works to preserve and protect our natural prairie legacy. Volunteers help with restoration projects in 11 prairies covering thousands of acres throughout Missouri. This is an opportunity to learn about native plants while removing invasive trees and brush during scheduled workdays in the fall and winter. Other tasks include staffing booths at plant sales and other events throughout the year. With training, volunteers can help with prescribed prairie burns.

Contact the Missouri Prairie Foundation at www.moprairie.org or 888-843-6739.

Gardens 5 Powell Take some time to volunteer at Powell Gardens and get the added benefit of learning from an expert horticulturist. Volunteer gardeners help tend six themed gardens and operate tasting stations of gardengrown, seasonal food samples.

Training is provided, and volunteer schedules are flexible.

Powell Gardens is located at 1609 NW U.S. Highway 50, Kingsville, MO. Learn more at www.powellgardens.org or contact Connie Harclerode, volunteer coordinator, at 816-697-2600, ext. 304. greenabilitymagazine.com

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7 Kansas City Zoo

Removing invasive plants is an ongoing volunteer job at many area parks, including this project at Penn Valley Park.

6 Kansas City Parks &

Recreation Department

With more than 219 parks in Kansas City, MO, there is no shortage of ways to keep your hands busy outdoors with Kansas City Parks & Recreation. Groups can adopt a trail in their community or an entire park through the Partners in Park program. Volunteers clean up litter, cut back encroaching brush, clear invasive vegetation, and tend a garden or prune shrubs.

The park maintenance staff provides all supplies.

Individuals can volunteer as recycling ambassadors to teach park-goers how to recycle during their stroll through the park. Find a park near you or contact K.C. Parks & Recreation at www.kcmo.org/parks or 816-513-7509.

Get to know the animals as a volunteer at the Kansas City Zoo. An assignment with Team Habitat means working with all departments and can include cleaning exhibits, gardening, cleaning up brush or painting. Volunteers do not handle animals, but assist with all support areas of the zoo. Projects vary by group composition and weather, but the majority of the work is outdoors working on the grounds. Volunteers frequently help with special zoo events on weekends and can work with children on Second Saturdays. The program requires 30 hours of service.

Volunteer applications are accepted year-round, but applicants must work 15 hours (five work days) to be considered for next year’s program. Youths aged 14-15 must be accompanied by an adult, but those above 16 are considered adult volunteers.

There is a $30 materials fee for adults and a $15 fee for youth volunteers for both programs.

The zoo is located at 6800 Zoo Drive, Kansas City, MO. Information is available at www.KansasCityZoo.org/Volunteer or by calling 816-513-5728.

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Greenability

Tree Alliance 8 Heartland Volunteers with the Heartland Tree Alliance (HTA) do their best to make Kansas City greener – literally. HTA is dedicated to taking care of KC’s community forest and trees on public property by hosting workdays across the metro area.

Volunteers educate the public on how to properly care for the trees in their own yard and how to plant a tree in the right spot. They also mulch, prune, water and remove stakes and wires from trees at various locations across the city.

Group sizes vary for event locations, and workdays are held spring through fall. Groups or businesses interested in volunteering are encouraged to contact Heartland Tree Alliance to help schedule their own workday.

The minimum age is 14 with adult supervision and 18 without.

The HTA office is located at 1427 W. 9th St., Suite 201, Kansas City, MO. Learn more at www.heartlandtreealliance.org or 816-561-1061, ext. 115.

9 Johnson County Parks & Recreation Volunteers at Johnson County Parks & Recreation have great freedom in choosing what kind of work they want to do. The county has more than 5,100 acres of developed parkland spread over eight parks, plus 87 miles of trail.

Volunteers contribute thousands of hours helping care for the parks each year.

Grounds maintenance help is needed in the gardens, for litter pickup and cleaning up park lake shorelines. Schedules are flexible and can include individual work or groups working directly with the park administration to complete a major project. Projects can include designing and building mountain bike trails, building playgrounds and removing invasive plants.

Opportunities exist year round, and the park provides all materials. Age limits for volunteers vary by park.

Find a park near you by contacting Johnson County Parks & Recreation at www.jcprd.com or by calling 913-894-3321.

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14

FLYOR

DRIVE?

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ummer vacation season is upon us, and Kansas Citians are traveling to nearby lakes and far-away beaches and mountains. As you plan your getaway, keep in mind these tools for determining the environmental impact of your mode of transportation.

The Sightline Institute, a non-profit research organization, offers a carbon dioxide emissions comparison of major modes of transportation on its website, www.sightline.org. Its calculations show the differences in emissions per passenger mile for driving, flying, rail transit and bus travel.

For example, if a family of four plans a one-way trip from Kansas City to Palm Beach, FL, the 1,398-mile trip by air would account for emissions of an estimated 4,928 pounds of CO2, compared to 1,503 pounds of CO2 if they drive a vehicle that gets 24 miles per gallon. To calculate the same trip on Amtrak, check the carbon calculator on www.amtrak.com and you’ll find that the miles traveled by train total more than that of driving, because the route is not as direct. With more miles traveled, the family’s carbon footprint by train totals 1,880 pounds of CO2.

Logic would lead the reader to conclude that it will take the collective effort of many travelers to actually reduce the carbon footprint of air travel: If one less family takes a plane, the flight still emits the same amount of carbon. But if enough people eschew air travel that one less plane takes off, there is a significant carbon savings.

If you decide that driving is the way to go and plan to rent a car, check out the 2012 Fuel Economy Guide, presented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. The guide provides consumers with information to help choose a more efficient vehicle that saves money and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Users can compare miles per gallon and environmental ratings for new and used cars, and view an estimated annual fuel cost for each vehicle listed. Visit B:7.25” (14’ 6”) www.fueleconomy.gov to start comparing vehicles.

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16

j grow food, farms and community Stories by Michelle Strausbaugh Photography by Chad Hickman

For most 21st-century Americans, a farm is a rural, romantic idea. A farmer is a white-haired guy in overalls perched on a tractor. And food comes from

Katherine Kelly owns Gibbs Road Farm and helps others learn how to grow food through Cultivate Kansas City.

a grocery store. The disconnect is understandable, with less than one percent of the population claiming farming as an occupation today, amid a culture where many meals arrive in greasy paper sacks via the fast-food lane.

But this special section is not about where farming has been. It’s a peek at where farming is

Cultivate Kansas City and Gibbs Road Farm

going. A number of local women own their own farms on small acreages in and around Kansas City.

Nationwide, they are part of a growing trend that

he word “grow” might have more shades of meaning for

has seen a 30 percent increase in female farmers

Katherine Kelly than for any other female farmer seeding the

in the last decade. Women now run 300,000 farms,

ground in and around Kansas City.

which is 14 percent of total U.S. farm ownership.

The executive director of Cultivate Kansas City (formerly

The local women featured here — “Farmer

known as the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture)

Janes” — represent a lively, updated version of

knows the farmer’s life firsthand as owner of Gibbs Road

who farmers may be and what they may bring to

Farm in Kansas City, KS. But today she tills the intangible,

our tables.

creating an environment that fosters the growth of a relatively

17

Greenability

new community of small farmers while changing landscapes,

predominantly women, which seems fitting given that

mindsets and lifestyles.

growing plants is a nurturing process, Kelly said.

“My job came out of my experience of being an urban farmer,” Kelly said. “I had co-founded the Brookside Farmers

“You’re creating a setting for something to grow and become what it wants to become.”

Market and the Growing Growers program. I started getting

Many women in agriculture are motivated by that same

connected to what was then a nascent corps of urban farmers.”

love of growing food for their communities, and most of them

It became very clear how different it was to be an urban

have a strong feeling that we need to change our relationship

grower than a traditional, rural farmer, she said.

to food, she said. Not so very long ago, obtaining food was

Urban residents go day-to-day, month-in-month-out,

not primarily a commercial transaction. Making some money

with almost no awareness of food in its native state, Kelly

at it matters, but “we run hard and fast on commitment to

explained. “This is not the norm in human history.” The

changing the world.

generation now in their 60’s and 70’s remembers everyone gardening and sharing what they grew, picking apples at an

“We don’t view each other as competitors. We by and large look at each other as peer learners and resources.”

orchard on the edge of town or at least having relatives who

Kelly worked on others’ farms for five years and ran

lived further out and grew their own produce. “There was

Full Circle Farm on the same spot that is now Gibbs Road

much more of a direct connection.”

Farm. Her two acres still produce a variety of certified

“But we’re not going back to being a nation of rural farmers. And that’s tragic — we’ve lost a really important connection to what we eat … our essential sanity around our relationship to food.

organic vegetables, and she has a full-time farm manager, Alicia Ellingsworth.

She’s still up at 4:30 a.m. — not heading out to the fields but attending to e-mail, paperwork, budgeting, participating

“However, this is the way people live their lives now, so

in meetings, training farmers and working with groups trying

let’s figure out a way to bring food back into their daily lives.”

new things. “Veggie Scripts,” for example, is a pilot program

And so Kelly works through Cultivate KC on many ways

to give physicians access to produce they can prescribe to

to combat a continual barrage of fast-food images and

low-income patients needing to make diet-related changes

introduce a healthier expectation and reality. Cultivate KC

for better health.

intends to put residents in touch with frequent reminders of

“We deal with an incredible array of tasks and issues,”

nature’s offerings through farmers markets, school gardens,

said Kelly, who is funded by income from vegetable sales

front-yard growers and urban CSAs.

and contract fees, plus foundation and federal grants.

“That reminds and reconnects you and changes your

She applies skills in budgeting, marketing, community

mental and emotional lifestyle and landscape,” Kelly affirmed.

relations and strategic planning she gleaned working for

That means encouraging and educating people to grow

other nonprofits like Harvest America and the Unitarian

food in scale-appropriate levels for their specific situation.

Universalist Funding Program.

It means connecting in the community with community

Although her hands aren’t getting as dirty with these

supported agriculture (CSA), farmers markets, school and

responsibilities, her bottom-line reward is still about the

community gardens and nonprofits teaching people about

food. It’s in the satisfaction of imagining hundreds of families

fresh foods and how to cook them. It means helping farmers

sitting down Saturday night to share a meal of the fresh

learn about strengthening distribution channels for their

farmers market produce they found that morning.

products and how to make some money at it.

The people getting into urban farming now are

“I love that my life is feeding other people,” Kelly said. “That’s a really amazing role to play and a gift to give to the world.” greenabilitymagazine.com

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Bev Pender of Soul and Soil Rainbow Gardens is known at farmers markets for her unusual vegetables and for donating unsold produce to those who don’t have access to fresh food.

Soul and Soil Rainbow Gardens he Earth was not rich with promise from the vantage point of Bev Pender’s wheelchair back in the mid-1980s. Bleak was more like it. She sat nearly helpless on her screened-in porch looking out over vacant lots in Kansas City, KS. In 1984, she was waylaid by a virulent staph infection and wound up in a coma for three months. She officially retired from General Motors in 1985, where she had worked the assembly line for years and landed a job as one of the first women supervisors. She was coping with brain damage. She was facing years in a wheelchair and years of rehabilitation.

“After I came out (of the coma) I was going to be a vegetable,” Pender said.

“I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t eat except through a feeding tube.”

About all she could do was pray. “Help me out,” she prayed, pledging never again to take even the most seemingly insignificant aspect of life for granted.

Not anything, ever. “Even the bugs,” she added.

When the days grew warmer, she was wheeled into her garden. She picked up a chunk of dirt and prayed again. If God would get her out of that wheelchair and able to work, she would devote herself to growing and sharing whatever she produced. The appearance of three rainbows arching above the garden answered her that day. So the name of her farm originated with “my

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Greenability

soul, His soil, and three rainbows.” Soul and Soil Rainbow Gardens represents the promise she made. Her prayers were answered. She recovered to grow food again and share it.

“That’s how the neighbors started eating. My pot of gold was others coming and just enjoying the vegetables,” Pender said. She distributed apples, cherries, tomatoes — all of the fresh, healthy bounty from her soil and toil.

“I always did organic. I just didn’t know what it was,” she said. She’d learned those ways from her aunt and uncle’s lifelong practices, such as warding off bugs with ashes from fireplace wood instead of pesticides.

“I’ve always had a garden, since I was a little kid,” Pender said — except for the time when she was required to live differently. Her then-husband enforced grocery-store gleaning only. “It was just making me sick,” she said. When that husband was out of the picture, she tore up the flower beds and put in food.

Now 62, Pender has lived at her Kansas City, KS, house since 1969 and grown food there for herself and countless families for ages. She never had wads of money to invest, but took advantage of city tax sales of vacant properties.

“I just scooped them up and started growing on them.”

She now owns eight lots totaling more than two acres.

Her first-step venture outside the neighborhood came when she stumbled across the Indian Springs Farmers Market.

The next week she got a table, set out a few vegetables and sold them all.

She’d been growing on her own and selling for 10 years when she met Katherine Kelly, the executive director of the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture (now Cultivate Kansas City). That led to 10 years of working on projects like the Juniper Gardens program for refugee growers. She resigned two years ago as vice-president of the board, but they’re still calling her for assistance.

Meanwhile, back in the garden, Pender started specializing in heirloom vegetables seven years ago. She also conducts vegetable-growing experiments with a different vegetable each year. It might be exotic artichokes, Asian greens, or native produce of any country from Germany to China. That greenabilitymagazine.com

20

leads to searching for recipes so customers will know how

years, Pender has narrowed her commitment to Wednesdays

to cook them. It also leads to setting some local trends in

at the Kansas City, KS, Farmers Market and Mondays at the

merchandising.

Juniper Gardens Market.

She knows other growers buy her experiments so they

She’s been encouraged by others to go for the higher-

can save the seeds and try it themselves. Those yellow and

price venues, but she has her own market strategy focused

orange watermelons she introduced a few years ago began

on getting food to the people who can’t afford the high-end

to appear at other vendors’ tables, too.

markets. She’ll sell a vegetable for a dollar or two instead of $3 a pound.

But that’s OK. She’ll always have something new.

“I gotta have an edge, introduce something to the market

“But on the inside I feel good, because I was there one

that nobody else has,” Pender said. “That’s why I have

time. I don’t care about the money. These people need to

long lines.”

eat like anybody else. Their children need to eat. I don’t take

In addition to the ordinary and exotic vegetables, Pender

anything home.”

has 18 fruit trees. She has a customer base for her canned

What Pender doesn’t sell each week, she gives away or

goods. She raised and sold chickens and eggs for eight

delivers to seniors and disabled residents at a downtown

years and is working to restore that aspect of the business.

KCK high-rise.

She operated a CSA for two years and is considering that

back on planting, but the more I cut back, the more I get. I

again as well.

While she covered four markets a week for a number of BT_AD_GRN_FINAL.qxd:Layout 1

“Every year I have more than enough,” Pender said. “I cut

3/26/12

4:53 PM

guess it’s the rainbows.”

Page 1

Every timber has a story Old barns, abandoned warehouses and fallen oak trees all have their own stories.

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Greenability

Getting a new one?

We'll take the old.

We accept new and used appliances and furniture that are in good, useable condition.

For large, pre-approved loads we offer a free collection service. Or drop off your tax-deductible donation at ReStore KC. For a complete list of acceptable items visit www.restorekc.org or call (816) 231-6889.

greenabilitymagazine.com

22

Find Laura Christensen of Blue Door Farm on Saturdays at the Brookside Farmers Market or the Liberty Farmers Market. Photo by Ami Freeberg

Blue Door Farm lue Door Farm of Kansas City, KS, was not born of laser-like focus or a gung-ho, change-theworld mindset.

It was founded along Laura Christensen’s more meandering path, as was her current role as coordinator of the Growing Growers program in Kansas City.

While she was finishing a biology degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2006, a friend mentioned the Growing Growers apprenticeship program. Christensen thought it sounded enjoyable. She wanted something interesting to do over the summer, so she called up, signed up and showed up to work at what is now the Gibbs Road Farm. Christensen’s childhood summer visits to her grandmother’s tiny property in West Virginia had stayed with her. In the back of her mind was the desire to have a few acres of her own someday, maybe in five or 10 years, she thought.

The apprenticeship was a way to test the waters (and the soil) to see if she truly wanted to grow vegetables for a living. When she arrived at a “yes,” she took a step back to repeat the program with a more focused intent.

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Greenability

“There was a lovely clarity of purpose as an apprentice,”

But she’s not the only farmer who experiences it in

she said. And the Growing Growers model seemed doable.

that fashion. Others farmers also talk about the emotional

“I like how this system works,” she thought. “I think I could riff

roller-coaster.

off this system pretty well.”

So when a landowner contacted Cultivate Kansas City

“It can break your heart or it can make you feel just wonderful.”

offering to lease land to a grower, “I was ready to roll,” she

“I feel rich when I know I’ve got product in the field. It

said. That was in May 2007, a bit late in the season to plant

gives me a kick every time I hand over a CSA bag. They look

and be ready for a farmer’s market — but not too late. Picking

almost giddy, and that makes me happy,” said Christensen.

up her pace a bit, Christensen hired someone to plow her

A good market day that puts money in her pocket doesn’t

leased plot, laid out a spreadsheet to help her plan, and had

hurt her mood either. “I really want to make this work as a

plants in the ground and to market by late June.

business, move it beyond an expensive hobby,” she said.

While she can’t completely recall her earliest vegetable

Farming is no way to make quick and easy cash, she

choices, she thinks it likely lettuce, chard, kale, squash,

stresses to each crop of apprentices (10 this year) enrolled in

zucchini and cucumbers were in the mix. Her personal

the Growing Growers program.

favorites are potatoes and Swiss chard.

Today, Tuesdays find Blue Door Farm’s CSA delivering to the homes and offices of approximately 20 Johnson County

But for those who are after more subtle, simpler rewards, farming can be the perfect occupation. “I just really like being alone in my fields,” Christensen said.

subscribers. She also sells on Saturdays at the Brookside

“I love the fact that so many people get into farming

Farmers Market and the Liberty Farmers Market. Her Growing

because they want to see change in the world” toward

Growers responsibilities added off-farm income when she

healthier food and better access to it, she added. But trying

took over for then-coordinator Katherine Kelly as the liaison

to save the world creates a great deal of pressure. “I love that

between apprentices and host farms. A few part-time hours

[motivation], but I hope someday you can get into farming

with Kansas State Research and Extension adds a small sum,

just as an ordinary business.

too, as Christensen transitions to full-time farming.

“It’s very difficult, especially at this scale,” she said. It wasn’t

“On some level, I really just love growing potatoes and digging them up and feeding people with them.”

until this year that she was able to expand to her second acre, five miles up the road from the first.

While she typically hires a part-time seasonal employee, she has the full-time challenges of any small business owner — “weird hours, stress, always putting out fires.”

“In farming, specifically, you’re always dealing with really changeable weather conditions,” she explained. Then there are never-ending issues with insects and the lack of a formula for predicting the farm’s yield. “My motto on my farm is …

We’ll see.”

Not that Christensen is complaining. She expected long hours and hard work. One aspect did surprise her, however.

She notices “odd, emotional highs and lows” that rise and fall as the farm’s conditions vary. “I wasn’t thinking of farming as really great drama,” she said. greenabilitymagazine.com

24

helps urban farmers get started Creation of the Growing Growers program nearly 10 years ago exponentially increased the community of urban farmers in the Kansas City area, as well as multiplied resources to keep them growing.

While selling at the Barstow Farmers Market, Katherine Kelly, now Cultivate Kansas City executive director, saw that demand for product outpaced supply. She began her efforts to increase market venues and teach potential farmers how to be effective.

Growing Growers developed training programs for farmers and would-be farmers who signed on as apprentices to work on others’ farms and participate in a curriculum of workshops.

The apprentices work on a local farm to get firsthand, practical experience and one-onone training from a farmer. Kelly’s farm, the Gibbs Road Farm in Kansas City, KS, usually

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Greenability

apprentices two to four participants every growing season.

The program educates and inspires 10 to 20 apprentices per year. For some, the process results in starting a farm or working at someone else’s farm. For others, it has led to policy work, starting a master’s degree in sustainable agriculture, or integrating new knowledge of food into school curriculums. No matter the outcome, apprenticeships have profoundly changed more than a few lives, Kelly said.

The program is a collaboration between Kansas State Research and Extension, University of Missouri Research and Extension, Lincoln University Cooperative Extension, the Kansas City Food Circle, Cultivate KC and the Kansas Rural Center. To learn more about participating in Growing Growers, email Laura Christensen, program coordinator, at christensen.lh@gmail.com, or visit www.growinggrowers.com.

URBAVORE urban farm get to know your community farmers Saturday Afternoon Farmstand, 2 - 6 PM

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Above: Sarah Hoffmann makes the award-winning fresh and aged cheese at Green Dirt Farm. Left: Jacque Smith rotates the sheep to a new pasture every day at Green Dirt Farm.

Green Dirt Farm reen Dirt Farm in Weston, MO, is a happy half-and-half arrangement for the sheep-milking, cheesemaking duo of Jacque Smith and Sarah Hoffmann.

The two women teamed up to create a more sustainable lifestyle for themselves and their families, Smith said, and they developed a balance of responsibilities to suit each of them. Hoffmann is the cheese maker. Smith tackles hands-on training and manages the farm: the dairy, office, and all things administrative. “My job is to make sure the farm is running smoothly.”

Both partners’ families have houses on the property. Green Dirt Farm encompasses about 200 acres for grazing, some of which is rented pasture or spots where they have grazing agreements with neighbors.

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Greenability

Before 2002, Hoffmann was a physician/stay-at-home mom with small children. Smith was just graduating from the

makes the cheese on site). Most dairies ship their products to Wisconsin for processing.

University of Missouri-Kansas City with a studio art degree

Green Dirt Farm cheeses have taken top prizes in American

and discovering how competitive that field would be. At the

Cheese Society competitions. The cheese is sold locally at

same time, she was becoming more aware of the agricultural

the Overland Park Farmers Market, City Market and Liberty

food circle.

Farmers Market, plus a dozen retailers, including Dean &

“I met my business partner and we really hit it off … and creating a business is such a creative process, so it feeds that desire in me,” Smith said.

Smith admits she had a “romantic view of farming.”

Now she knows the nitty-gritty. Unpleasant things happen, including coyote attacks and the illness and death of animals.

Even so, it’s turned out to be a satisfying reality.

“I’m really connected to it. I also have a tougher skin. Life is a full circle,” she said.

DeLuca, The Better Cheddar and Whole Foods. It is also distributed to St. Louis, Chicago and New York.

“Eeewww” is how most people feel about the mold and bacteria ingredients Hoffmann uses in the cheese-making process every day.

“I’m fascinated by them,” she said. “Ninety-nine percent of bacteria, molds and yeasts in the world do good things for us.”

One of those benefits is turning milk into cheese. In

When they started out, the partners asked themselves

Hoffmann’s “Cheese Kitchen,” a gravity-fed hose transfers

many questions. What did they want to produce? How would

the prized liquid from the dairy parlor where the animals

they add value back to that product?

are milked into vats that warm it to the right temperature.

Hoffmann already had some experience with sheep as a hobby. Making cheese from sheep’s milk turned out to be their answer.

They started their “slow, work-in-progress” in 2000 with

Then the fermentation process begins with the addition of cultures, primarily bacteria, plus yeasts and molds.

Hoffmann has a fine-tuned appreciation for fermentation, a process used for thousands of years to make cheese,

land that had previously produced row crops like corn, soybeans and tobacco. “We did it one step at a time,” Smith explained. They attended entrepreneurial training, apprenticed at different farms, took cheese-making classes and learned by trial-and-error.

In the beginning, both women took part in every aspect.

They started making cheese in their home kitchens. Hoffmann liked the cheese-making process most. Smith was more interested in dealing with the animals. In addition to cheese, they began offering grass-fed lamb to chefs and farmers market customers.

Green Dirt Farm held its grand opening in 2008 as a USDA Grade A dairy and cheese manufacturing plant. Today, it is one of only 130 U.S. sheep dairies and one of about 20 “farmstead” operations (where the farmer owns, milks and

greenabilitymagazine.com

28

bread, cured meat, beer, wine and a host of other food and drink.

root bed. Each plot has 90 days of rest between grazings.

Grass is essential to the diet of animals, for the health of

“It’s a whole world — it’s my favorite world,” Hoffmann

the animal, the environment and the taste of the product,

said. And she’s lived in a different world, having come

Smith said. But it takes years to grow grasses, to clean and

from the practice of medicine. She studied chemistry as an

amend the soil and let it rest. There was a point when she

undergraduate. Then, as a Peace Corps volunteer in West

wondered what she’d gotten into.

Africa, she developed a strong interest in tropical medicine, came home to attend medical school, completed an internal medicine residency and eventually became an infectious disease specialist.

“Meanwhile, I had grown up on a series of small farms and I wanted my family to experience that as well,” Hoffmann

“But it’s so rewarding, and it’s been so much fun, and I’m so proud of where we are now,” Smith said.

“We have a very strong perspective about being good stewards of our land,” Hoffmann said. “That’s our big goal, our mission, to make sure everything we do makes us good stewards of our land through all of our practical choices.”

said. She was looking at two microbe-related paths that, in

They’re still in the process of improving the pasture,

retrospect, she saw were connected. Cheese making is all

but the farm is functioning on its own, starting to get to

about microbiology and chemistry, after all.

the “sweet spot,” Smith said. It employs 14 full-time and

“It wasn’t intentionally planned. It was serendipitous, the

seasonal workers including a marketing director, farm hands,

way it worked out,” she said. “I couldn’t have chosen a better

dairy milkmen and maids, sheep caretakers, cheese-making

path for myself, even though I didn’t know it.”

assistants and drivers.

Raising grass-fed sheep in a sustainable way is a goal for both farmers. The animals are rotated to a different section of pasture every 24 hours to prevent erosion and protect the

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Greenability

They were milking 108 sheep this spring and expect to have 200 lambs by the end of lambing season.

offers grants to farmers The Get Growing KC campaign is accepting applications for Get Growing Mini-Grants, a program funded by the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City. The program’s goal is to provide start-up or expansion funding for community-based organizations, urban farmers and individuals with projects focused on local food production, education and distribution.

In the first round, the grant committee awarded funding to 15 projects from a pool of 28 applicants. Visit www.getgrowingkc.org to see the selected projects and follow their progress throughout the season.

“Reviewing these grant applications was a real privilege,” said Katherine Kelly of Cultivate Kansas City. “There is such an incredible array of new farms and community gardens being started in the metro area. Every one of the applications

represents a powerful story about an individual or an organization stepping forward to address the food needs of their communities.”

Get Growing KC is a two-year collaboration between Cultivate Kansas City, Kansas City Community Gardens and Lincoln University Extension Program. Their goal is to help get people growing good food in each Kansas City neighborhood, with a focus on communities with the least access to healthy, local food. The program provides free technical assistance for home and community gardeners, urban farm business development and project planning.

The next deadline for grant applications is August 1, 2012. Application information can be downloaded at www.getgrowingkc.org or by contacting Get Growing KC at info@getgrowingkc.org or 816-226-7979.

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30

Jill Elmers of Moon on the Meadow Farm sells food to 150 members of her CSA and at the Lawrence Farmers Market.

Moon on the Meadow Farm any people keep “life lists” of experiences and goals they hope to accomplish someday. But too often, they never get around to doing them. Jill Elmers had one of those lists, and it included working on an organic farm.

Her desire for working with the land didn’t materialize, however, until she hit her limit on boredom.

Elmers had a perfectly good occupation as an acoustical consultant with a local firm in Lenexa. She used her electrical engineering degree to create sound and audiovisual systems for corporate facilities, stadiums and performing arts centers.

“I got tired of my job – I tend to get bored easily,” she said. “I quit.” Her employer didn’t want to lose her, though, and successfully persuaded her to take the summer off instead, which is when the life-list wish began to mesh with a new reality.

Elmers started working on Wakarusa Valley Farm south of Lawrence, which led to being offered a lease on part of an acre there, which led to farming other leased parcels, which eventually led to the creation of Moon on the Meadow Farm. Along the way, she redesigned her own career: part-time farmer and part-time acoustical consultant for her former company.

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Greenability

Elmers started farming “seriously” in 2004-05 and leased

Elmers calls herself the “oddball” in her family, the un-

the land she now owns on the eastern edge of Lawrence.

ambitious one whose goals are not career advancement or

She bought the 3 1/2 acres in July 2006 and named it after

making tons of money. She craves a simpler life. She’d always

one of her favorite camp songs about falling in love with the

loved activities that connected her to the outdoors, although

land. Then she backed up that romantic image by educating

growing up in a middle-class neighborhood in the Dallas

herself: learning from others, attending workshops and

suburbs didn’t call for a green thumb. Still, her father enjoyed

reading – abundantly. She found that asking copious

growing flowers, and her grandfather took her to a farmers

questions usually leads to finding someone with an answer.

market every Saturday for produce and the fish merchants’

“I’ve always been really committed to being outside on

scraps for his garden compost.

the land and doing those kinds of activities,” she said. “I’m a

She doesn’t seem so odd outside the family. Like-minded

believer in supporting the local economy, and I saw what we

growers around Kansas City can find each other in part through

could do locally. We really think we can provide everything

the Growing Growers educational and apprenticeship

we need on a local level.”

program. In 2010, Elmers teamed up with Tom Buller, a former

She appreciates the community and camaraderie of

Growing Growers apprentice, to purchase 34 acres near her

fellow farmers and thinks it’s as important today as it was a

property just 11 blocks from downtown Lawrence, all of which

generation or more ago.

will be certified organic by the end of the year.

“It may have looked like just shooting the breeze, but the older generation of farmers was networking down at the coffee shop, too. They talked about what went wrong that week.”

Moon on the Meadow Farm is entering its fourth season as certified organic land. Elmers chose organic certification as a personal goal, influenced in part by the fact that everyone she had worked for was certified.

“Sustainable farming just makes sense to me,” she said.

The engineer/farmer believes the stringent requirements of “organic” are little-known outside the farming community –

The two formed Common Harvest Farms as a parent

standards such as crop rotation, buffers against contamination

company over their individual farming operations. Elmers

from other fields, and the complex assessment necessary for

has her portion, Tom and Jenny Buller of Buller Family Farm

Earth-friendly pest management.

have theirs. And they cooperate on other projects such as

Typically, in the heat of the summer, Elmers has five or six part-time employees to help with the work. To supply

their effort to branch out by growing grain, a relatively rare product on farmers’ market tables.

food to a 150-consumer CSA, she makes variety a priority.

It’s a life that suits Elmers.

Elmers is always experimenting, often with vegetables like

“I think probably my favorite aspect is watching a seed that

Brussels sprouts that are tricky to grow in the Kansas climate.

looks like nothing grow into a gigantic plant that produces

In addition to her CSA, Elmers sells her produce at the

fruit, and bringing produce to market and seeing people get

Lawrence Farmers Market on Saturdays.

excited about the tomatoes or the radishes that we picked

“The challenge is fun,” she says.

that very day.”

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Stephanie Thomas worked as a metal machinist, yoga teacher and nutritionist before starting Spring Creek Farm.

Spring Creek Farm nce upon a time, Stephanie Thomas’ working day

“People didn’t know where to get good food,” she

was more gray than green. A metal machinist, she built

said. “Now I think a lot of people are fed up with the

printing presses and fork trucks for a living.

state of the food available.”

Today, her full-time occupation involves seeding six-

In 2005, Thomas discovered the Growing Growers

packs of tomatoes to produce the juicy fruit of summer

program. The timing was perfect; she signed on as an

on Spring Creek Farm south of Baldwin City, KS.

apprentice.

Thomas has always been drawn to holistic pursuits.

“We [she and husband, Tom Maiorana] had the land,

She taught yoga, published and sold a resource guide

but we weren’t doing anything with it,” she said. “It all

called The Natural Choice and always loved growing

fell into place when Katherine (Kelly) was able to use me

plants.

as an apprentice.”

“I’ve had a garden ever since I was 18,” she said. “I’ve always had my hands in the dirt.”

She earned a nutrition science degree and became a nutrition counselor, which she found to be an increasingly frustrating occupation.

33

It was almost a direct shot from nutritional counseling to tilling the ground, with a two-year interlude to build a house on the 20-acre property.

Spring Creek Farm produces 90 varieties of produce and is best known for onions, sweet potatoes, sweet

“It was really obvious people were eating less and

corn and melons. Thomas sells her produce to

less quality food,” she said. She was seeing more

The Community Merc in Lawrence, at the Saturday

Crohn’s disease, more allergies, more diabetes, more

Lawrence Farmers Market and at Cottin’s Hardware

weight gain.

Farmers Market Thursday evenings in Lawrence.

Greenability

She also sells wholesale to Baker University and various

Thomas also helped start a community garden in Baldwin City and offers space for Baker University student farmers to

restaurants.

At first, Thomas had little interest in pursuing completely

bring compost for their community garden.

“We want to work with like-minded people,” she said, “and

organic farming methods.

“It’s much easier than I expected, and the benefits are

they’re young enough that they keep us learning as well.”

much greater,” she explained. “I expected to learn to grow

She had already been raising meat birds just for their CSA

commercially, but I didn’t expect how quickly I would be

subscribers, and will expand and make the chicken and turkey

convinced to grow organic.” It’s more trouble and more

“meat birds” more widely available to bring in more income.

expensive, she said, “but the benefits far outweigh not being

“It takes a lot to make money solely doing vegetables,” said Thomas.

a good steward of the land.”

In addition to having her hands in the dirt, Thomas

The fact that it all takes a large investment of time is a given.

described the bonus satisfaction of being a host farm for

A rewarding farm life can be exhausting. But as the farm has

Growing Growers, hiring one or two apprentices to work

grown, Thomas’ husband has become more involved, too.

alongside her and the farm volunteers each year.

When his job migrated overseas without him, he decided to

“That is so satisfying, to have these people – not necessarily

devote his energy to the farm.

my generation – they’re generally younger than me, and

“Still, it’s so hard in the summer with 16-hour days that I ask

they’re really seriously interested in making a difference,” she

myself ‘Why do I do this?’ But I get a good feeling knowing

said. “They want to learn how to grow and really be mindful

I’m providing good food,” Thomas said. “I think everybody

about it. They’re a lot of fun, and they’re the future.”

wants to do good.”

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greenabilitymagazine.com

34

By Mary Lynn Coulson

From grilling veggies to choosing native plants,

A Little Bit of Wild

four books published by local women explore

by Kate Corwin

growing plants for personal and environmental health. The authors share personal stories of transformation and resources for finding local food, cooking with organic produce and growing native flowers.

Feeding Our Families

by Katie Boyer Newell Diagnosed with a chronic disease at a young age, Katie Newell found relief from painful symptoms by altering her diet to include only fresh, whole foods. In Feeding Our Families, the local author presents easy recipes that use only pure, wholesome ingredients, with a focus on seasonally available produce.

Once a fast-food junkie, Newell researched holistic and alternative medicine and found that many people with chronic pain had found relief simply by changing their diets. This led her to learn to cook, and eventually to write about it on Healthnut Foodie, a blog where she shares her story of feeding her family nutritious, organic food.

“I now believe that food is both a medicine and a gift,” writes Newell in the book’s introduction. “Since the creation of life, food has been celebrated throughout the world.

The combination of celebration and sustainability is the foundation of Healthnut Foodie.”

Feeding Our Families is filled with quick tips and descriptions of the health benefits of each ingredient included. Newell shares her love of real food and her commitment to feeding her family healthy food in the hope that others will do the same. Copies of the book are available at area farmers markets, local businesses or from the author at www.healthnutfoodie.com.

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Greenability

Interested in incorporating native plants into your yard or garden? A Little Bit of Wild is a good place to start.

Written by Kate Corwin, a native Kansas Citian and an avid native gardener, this guide begins with the story behind the author’s dedication to native plants.

After filling her yard with colorful, exotic flowers one summer and spending most of her time watering those high-maintenance plants, Corwin’s commitment to environmental sustainability led her to consider native plants.

Since native plants are accustomed to the soil and climate in our region, they don’t need fertilizer or pest control. Most native plants don’t even need extra watering, and thrive in tough Kansas City clay soil.

Not only are native plants easier to take care of, they provide food for native wildlife such as birds, insects and butterflies. An added benefit is that the long root systems of native plants retain water that would normally run into the sewer system.

A Little Bit of Wild A Little Bit of provides resources and Wild detailed information on Kate Corwin plants native to our region that are suitable for growing in your yard or garden.

Descriptions and growing instructions accompany photographs of each featured plant.

Sales from the book support Green Works in Kansas City, a local non-profit organization founded and directed by Corwin to engage urban youth in environmental stewardship and the green economy.

Through this program, youth learn to care for the environment, participate in internship opportunities and gain marketable skills to help build their careers.

The best native plants to bring your garden to life!

The Gardener and the Grill

Missouri Harvest

by Karen Adler and Judith Fertig

by Maddie Earnest and Liz Fathman

Kansas City authors Karen Adler and Judith Fertig, also known as the “Barbeque Queens,” take a “seedto-sizzle” approach to cooking. The Gardener and the Grill presents 125 fresh recipes for everything from appetizers and sandwiches to pizza, sides, soups, salads, entrees and desserts.

“Garden to grill cooking emphasizes sustainability, freshness, taste and color,” explain Adler and Fertig.

Vegetarians and meat-lovers alike will benefit from the authors’ philosophy of wholesome and conscientious cooking. The cookbook features many recipes for grilled seasonal vegetables from the garden, and also includes meat recipes.

The Gardener and the Grill encourages readers to be involved in each step of food creation, from planting to plating. In addition to instructions for grilling savory meats, the authors show how selecting vegetables according to season maximizes flavor and minimizes cost.

A resource for both new and experienced locavores, Missouri Harvest takes readers on a tour of Missouri’s options for eating and shopping locally.

The handbook describes individual farms and ranches, categorized by product type, and identifies where the products are available. The authors also provide ideas and suggestions for preparing local Missouri finds, including recipes contributed by featured growers.

Local authors Earnest and Fathman define features that make Missouri unique in food production. From farmers markets to grocery stores, country stores to restaurants, Missouri Harvest provides a definitive guide to local farming and eating. Well-known farmer and author Joel Salatin writes the forward to this volume, connecting the book to the “farm to table” movement.

Your Company Name and Color Logo Here

greenabilitymagazine.com

36

Commentary

Energy

White House commits to clean energy future

By Nancy Sutley

I

n his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama laid out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last – an economy built on American manufacturing, skills for American workers, a renewal of American values – and, importantly, American clean energy.

On a recent trip to Kansas City, I visited a remarkable organization called MindDrive that is a testament to this vision. MindDrive has developed a teaching program that engages urban students in creating new clean-energy technologies. When I toured their facilities, I could see the product of their hard work: a fully operational electric

pump, and cut oil consumption by 2.2-million barrels a day.

We’ll continue to develop our oil and gas resources in a responsible way. We also need to develop clean American energy and industries for the 21st century.

Whether by cutting through red tape to unlock offshore wind development in the Great Lakes, or promoting safe and responsible development of our natural gas resources, we are working to support American innovation and grow an economy fueled by homegrown and alternative energy sources that are not just good for our prosperity, but also for our health and security.

We will keep moving forward with critical investments

and smart policies to keep the clean energy jobs and industries of today and tomorrow here in the U.S. and Kansas City.

car built by the students. I also heard how this work inspired them to achieve even more when several of the students told us how, as a result of the program, they now have plans to go to college. Programs like these are not only helping drive the country toward the clean energy future we know we need to lead the world in the 21st century – they are also preparing our students for those 21st century jobs.

The president is committed to an all-of-the-above energy approach that doubles down on clean energy – and already we are making great progress. We invested $90 billion in the Recovery Act that supported hundreds of thousands of jobs, and put the U.S. on track to double renewable energy generation in this country by the end of this year from 2008 levels. We have also put in place new fuel economy standards that will nearly double fuel efficiency over the next decade, save American families $1.7 trillion at the

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Greenability

We will continue to focus on building a nation where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules. What’s at stake is the very survival of the basic American promise that if you work hard, you can do well enough to raise a family, own a home, and put enough away for retirement. President Obama has pledged that he will not back down from the promise of clean energy. We will keep moving forward with critical investments and smart policies to keep the clean energy jobs and industries of today and tomorrow here in the U.S. and Kansas City.

Nancy Sutley is Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and President Obama’s principal environmental advisor.

GREENABILITYDIRECTORY BUILDERS/REMODELERS

EDUCATION

Bennett Home Improvement & Building

Flint Hills Technical College

708 NW R.D. Mize Road Blue Springs, MO 816-564-1251 cell 816-229-4711 office

3301 West 18th Ave. Emporia, KS 620-343-4600

www.homeimprovementandbuilding.com

Flint Hills Technical College offers a new Sustainability Studies program and AAS degree to prepare students for advanced degrees and employment.

Bennett Home Improvement installs “green” technologies that will enhance your home’s value while saving you money and protecting our environment.

www.fhtc.edu

Johnson County Community College

SunSource Homes Inc. 7832 Rosewood Lane Prairie Village, KS 816-783-3863

Center for Sustainability 12345 College Blvd.

Overland Park, KS 913-469-8500

www.SunSourceHomes.net

www.jccc.edu/sustainability

Sun Source Homes offers net-zero design/build construction services, solar PV system design/installation, net-zero energy design, architectural services and sustainable remodeling.

Want a new “green” career? Explore JCCC’s sustainability programs and train for a career in the growing “green” industry.

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The program’s foundation is rooted in courses that apply to a wider range of job opportunities in industrial maintenance and electrical work.

For information, call Dan Eberle at 913-469-8500, ext. 3388, or visit www.jccc.edu/solar-technology.

Johnson County Community College

816-483-0908

12345 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS 66210 www.jccc.edu greenabilitymagazine.com

38

Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) 600 Broadway, Suite 200 Kansas City, MO 816-474-4240

www.marc.org MARC is a non-profit association of city and county governments and the metropolitan planning organization for the bi-state Kansas City region.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY cfm Distributors, Inc. 1104 Union Ave. Kansas City, MO 816-842-5400

www.cfmdistributors.com Cfm Distributors is the Midwest’s employee-owned provider of sustainable heating, cooling, and refrigeration solutions for home, office and industry.

EnergyWorks KC 816-531-7283 www.EnergyWorksKC.org www.kcmo.org/EnergyWorksKC EnergyWorks KC provides resources to help you make smart, easy, energy-efficiency improvements to your home or business to save energy and enhance comfort.

The Hayes Company

Heartland Utilities for Energy Efficiency (HUEE) www.HUEE.org

HUEE promotes energy efficiency through Atmos Energy, Independence Power & Light, Kansas City Board of Public Utilities, Kansas Gas Energy, Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative and Metropolitan Energy Center.

Metropolitan Energy Center 3810 Paseo Kansas City, MO 816-531-7283

Metropolitan

ENERGY CENTER

www.kcenergy.org

The mission of the Metropolitan Energy Center is to help create resource efficiency, environmental health and economic vitality in the Kansas City region.

Small Step Energy Solutions Shawnee, KS 913-708-8004

www.smallstepenergy.com Small Step Energy Solutions specializes in home energy auditing and green energy building consultations for both new and existing homes.

FINANCIAL SERVICES First Affirmative Financial Network

Kansas City, MO 816-444-6352

913-432-4958

www.thehayesco.com

First Affirmative Financial Network is an independent, fee-only, fiduciary investment management firm specializing in socially and environmentally responsible investing.

The Hayes Company offers Home Performance services for energy efficiency through energy audits, insulating, duct sealing, weatherization and HVAC balancing.

www.firstaffirmative.com

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Greenability

816-444-6352

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UMB Financial Corporation

LAWN & GARDEN

1010 Grand Boulevard Kansas City, MO 816-860-7000

ALL-N-1 Landscape

www.umb.com UMB offers complete banking, asset management, health spending solutions and related financial services to personal, commercial and institutional customers nationwide.

2350 Franklin Rd. Lawrence, KS 913-814-9200 (KC) 785-856-5296 (Lawrence)

www.ALL-N-1-Landscape.com ALL-N-1 Landscape specializes in designing and creating affordable, low maintenance, beautiful, healthy and sustainable landscapes, customized to your needs and dreams.

GREETING CARDS Posty Cards, Inc. 1600 Olive Street Kansas City, MO 816-231-2323

Missouri Organic 7700 East 40 Highway Kansas City, MO 816-483-0908

www.postycards.com Featuring Sustainable Sentiments® locally grown, green greeting cards. Build client and employee relationships with environmentally inspired cards for birthdays, holidays and other occasions.

HOME IMPROVEMENT Elements of Green

www.missouriorganic.com Missouri Organic offers a convenient and affordable facility for customers to drop off green waste and purchase quality compost, topsoil and mulch.

LITTER REMOVAL

1919 Wyandotte Kansas City, MO 64108 816-842-0500

Adopt-A-Highway Litter Removal Service of America, Inc.

www.elements-of-green.com

sarah@adoptahighway.net www.adoptahighway.net

800-540-8694

Kansas City’s source for sustainable building, remodeling and finishing solutions like cabinets, countertops, flooring, tile, paint, solar and cleaning supplies.

Sponsor a section of Kansas or Missouri highway and promote your business through Adopt-A-Highway, a litter removal service.

Habitat ReStore

LOCAL & ORGANIC FOOD

www.restorekc.org

www.goodnatured.net

L

Good Natured Family Farms is an alliance UY LOCA of more than 150 family farms that raise animals humanely and care for the Earth in a sustainable way.

B

Habitat ReStore collects quality, new and used building materials and sells them to the public at a discount. Proceeds benefit Habitat for Humanity home building.

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Jim Horlacher MBA, AIF® TreeHuggerJim@FirstAffirmative.com | 913.432.4958 | www.firstaffirmative.com First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC is an independent Registered Investment Advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Jim Horlacher is an Investment Advisory Representative of First Affirmative Financial Network.

greenabilitymagazine.com

40

Hen House Market 13 locations

www.henhouse.com Hen House is locally owned, specializes in Buy Fresh Buy Local food, and offers customers a seasonal Community Supported Agriculture membership.

RENEWABLE ENERGY Brightergy Solar 1617 Main Street, 3rd Floor Kansas City, MO 816-866-0555

www.brightergy.com

MOVING SERVICES Vic’s Moving and Storage 113 E 13th St. Kansas City, MO

www.vicsmoving.com Kansas City’s favorite local mover since 1991 now offers a 100-percent “green” move with zero-carbon emissions with bicycles.

PHOTOGRAPHY Blixt Photography 210 W. 5th St., Suite 102 Kansas City, MO 816-442-7389

www.blixtphoto.com Blixt Photography is the boutique-style studio of Chad Hickman and Ryan Hill, specializing in editorial, wedding and portrait photography.

RECLAIMED MATERIALS Beaver Timber Inc. 3133 Merriam Lane Kansas City, KS 913-831-2518

www.beaver-timber.com Beaver Timber provides reclaimed, recycled, restored and salvaged wood building materials for architects, builders, contractors, designers and homeowners.

RECYCLING Deffenbaugh Industries 2601 Midwest Drive Kansas City, KS 913-631-3300

www.deffenbaughinc.com Deffenbaugh is Kansas City’s hometown hauler for more than 50 years and the first to launch weekly residential and business recycling.

The Surplus Exchange 518 Santa Fe Kansas City, MO 816-472-0444

www.surplusexchange.org The Surplus Exchange responsibly recycles electronics locally and offers pickup from metro commercial locations. Visit the Tech Shop and furniture showroom.

41

Greenability

Brightergy is the region’s most experienced solar design, installation, financing and leasing firm with hundreds of commercial and residential installations across the Midwest.

FreeEnergy 816-461-8877

info@FreeEnergyCorp.com www.FreeEnergyCorp.com FreeEnergy is a full-service sustainability company. We design and install solar PV, solar thermal hot water and geothermal GSHP.

Larsen & Associates, Inc. 785-841-8707 Contact: Jessica Pryor

www.larsenenvironmental.com Larsen & Associates provides geothermal installation services including loop installation, line purging and charging, pressure grouting, thermal fusion and drilling.

SunSource Homes Inc. 7832 Rosewood Lane Prairie Village, KS 816-783-3863

www.SunSourceHomes.net Sun Source Homes offers net-zero design/build construction services, solar PV system design/installation, net-zero energy design, architectural services and sustainable remodeling.

WORKSHOPS & RETREATS Arborview Stables 50 SW 1971st Rd. Kingsville, MO 816-699-5115

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www.arborviewstables.com Promoting individual growth through non-mounted activities with horses and interaction with nature. Offering workshops, counseling, retreats and team-building events.

Do you want your green business or service to be seen by environmentally conscious readers?

List it in the GREENABILITY DIRECTORY. For information, contact Julie Koppen 816-931-3646 or julie@greenabilitymagazine.com

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