Urbavore Urban Farm

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Kansas City, MO
Urbavore Urban Farm

Rebel Farmers, Adventurous Eaters! Celebrating local food, culture and community. Brooke Salvaggio and Dan Heryer. Former owners of the one and only BADSEED!
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An urban farmstead setting a precedent for sustainability while producing the best tasting food in the area! Follow us on Instagram!

• URBAVORE •

ur-ba-vore [ûr'bə-vôr] noun
(1) any animal that consumes urban-grown foods. (2) an organism that feeds from the energy, surplus, and/or waste of a city. Move over “100 mile diet” the new local food is but a bus ride away…. Welcome to U

RBAVORE in east Kansas City - one of the nations largest, most diversified urban farmsteads - a living, breathing organism that both feeds from and provides food for its urban surroundings. Born in 2011, URBAVORE is working to create and “edible oasis” that brings organic growth, sustainable life, and creative solutions to a city neighborhood. The farm uses “Beyond Organic” practices to produce heirloom vegetables, culinary/medicinal herbs, and edible flowers noted for their unique appearance and extraordinary flavor. The fruitful future of URBAVORE holds much more than annual vegetables:

Farmers, Brooke Salvaggio and Dan Heryer (aka the “Badseeds”), are hard at work creating a wholly sustainable, off-grid farmstead that includes an organic orchard, vineyard, heritage livestock, and alternative infrastructure. This 13.5 acre farm is but 7 miles from the BADSEED downtown storefront. Come and explore the unimaginable flavors of our extensive selection of “earthly delights” on Saturdays at Brookside Farmers Market on 63rd and Wornall.

11/07/2024

URGENT!!! My neighbor crammed the legal Right of Way leading to our farm/home with junk, a trailer, and a shipping container! He also parked his two trucks in a bottle-neck fashion on the street upon turning into the ROW. PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY & SAFELY when coming to snag your veggies this evening!! We’ve been trying to get the illegal obstructions removed since last Friday, but have not been successful. 🤷‍♀️ Really frustrated and concerned for the safety of my neighborhood and my veggie eaters.😫 This intentional endangerment of citizens has got to STOP!!!🙏

11/06/2024

Nothin’ like some Giant Japanese Purple Mustards to calm your nerves after a very tense election. Whether you’re celebrating or freaking out😂 (curled up in fetal position sobbing), there’s nothing like homegrown food to nourish the body and soul. Our online store is LIVE. Link in profile. Orders must be placed by midnight for Thursday afternoon pickup on the urban farm from 4-7 pm. Take a stroll in the fields while you’re here. It’s calming to be in nature and get back to the root of our shared humanity: dirt. It makes the world go round…🙏♻️🌎🌱💚

11/05/2024

It’s been a dirty day, but somehow we managed to vote!💪

11/04/2024

So much to sum up. Two entire growing seasons swallowed up by this INSANE ordeal. I need y’all to stay informed and ready to support us at our upcoming hearings. I try to be 100% transparent with y’all, and yet there are so many things I simply can’t say because our livelihood depends on the actions of 13 people on Nov. 21st. I can’t p**s them off…😬. But I also can’t allow myself to be completely fake or insincere. I don’t agree with how this entire process has gone down, and I don’t agree with the politics behind it. But I do hope that 13 well-informed elected officials will take this vote seriously and understand the facts & the merits of this case…which again is not a “case” at all, but the fate of our home and life’s work. *It is also the food of hundreds of families, dozens of jobs, and the climate resilience of the entire metro. IT’S NOT A LITTLE THING. Trying to stay strong.💪 Appreciate you all so much.💚🙏♻️✌️

10/30/2024

BEHOLD: Black Spanish Radishes!!! One of my favorite roots to grow. This ancient cultivar is said to have been fed to the slaves in Egypt while building the pyramids. According to historians, they received meager rations of black Spanish radish and raw onion. I don’t envy their diet or the harsh treatment they no doubt endured, but I can appreciate a vegetable with such “deep roots” and rich history! That’s why I love food - real food that is. It has a story to tell and it connects us to people & places that are essentially worlds away. These babies are available NOW in the online store. Link in profile. Other goodies include the debut of the SWEET POTATOES 🍠🍠🍠🍠 and the first of the fall Watermelon Radishes!

10/29/2024

Very WINDY harvest morning!!!💨 Not sure how long these luscious greens will stay crisp! We’ll stop when things begin to feel limp. I hope y’all are ready to eat some glorious green stuff this week. The kale and mustards are STUNNING and the rainbow chard is glowing. Love this time of year.🥰 We’ve invited City Leaders to visit the farm and compost operation. We hope some of them will take us up on that offer before the vote which has been moved to Nov. 21st. Please stay tuned!!! Dan and I are struggling to stay positive, and endless uncertainty keeps creeping in on our ability to focus. This is the time of year when I should be making hardcore plans for next year…production plans, seed orders, supply orders, employment advertising, garlic planting, etc. It’s totally bonkers not knowing the status of our livelihood??!!😬

10/27/2024

Nerding out over “breakfast colors”! Our pastured eggs and breakfast sausage really hit the spot with our Carola potatoes and poblano peppers!🤤 Our newest batch of honey from hives on our land managed by coupled with dried cayenne peppers makes a really great fall centerpiece! I’m one of those people who thinks anything looks good in a mason jar.😂Love watching the light shine through the honey. Food, especially when you produce it yourself, is so freakin’ beautiful!

10/26/2024

Never a dull moment…🤪. Dan and I had finally escaped the farm to drop Sol off at a B-Day party and walk Kaiser at Lake Jacomo when we were immediately notified by a neighbor that our herd of hogs were roaming near the crop fields at the front of the property. That didn’t seem “typical” to him and he just wanted to let us know!! Well, he was right. It wasn’t typical for the hogs to be roaming over acreage of income in the form of veggies.😬 They had escaped their lovely pasture and gone for a stroll. We raced back to the farm to find a group of our (nice) neighbors gathered outside our front fence admiring the voluptuous animals saying excitedly “we never get to see them up close”.😂 I hated to break up the show but (with the help of more neighbors & crates of winesap apples🍎) we were able to herd them 800 feet or so back to their pasture where you can see them relaxing now. Amazingly, no crop fields were trampled or destroyed😅, and after Dan and I put extra security measures up I’ll be calming my nerves with a beer! 🍻 Cheers to wrangled hogs, and helpful neighbors. I’ll be sending packages of bacon to their houses soon.🤣🥓🥓

10/23/2024

It’s been a minute since I talked up my gorgeous Red Wattle & Mulefoot hogs!! This batch is a lot of fun. Incredibly sweet animals, with a loquacious streak! Really, I’ve never had a batch of hogs who “talked” so much. Whenever you come near they start grunting and chattering excitedly, begging for attention. It’s really something else. We raise about 20 to 25 heritage breed hogs on pasture every year. We feed our beloved piggies certified organic grain as well as loads of produce from the fields. The hogs rotate around the farm and if you come to pickup goodies tomorrow evening, you’ll find them in the back half of the peach orchard on the northwest side of the property. You are always welcome to visit with them, but DON’T TOUCH the electric lines surrounding their pasture!😬 These sweetums will go to the processor in mid December. It’s a very sad time for all of us on the farm, but it is also the reality of eating meat. As a vegetarian/vegan for many years I definitely understand meat-free diets, but I also understand forming deep & meaningful relationships with your food, even when it hurts to say goodbye. Growing/eating meat is loaded, and to each their own. One thing I know for sure is that these animals are an integral part to this farm, this ecosystem, and to my personal life as a human who spends every waking minute out here. I don’t take these animals for granted and I have the utmost respect for them. The online store is stocked with the best Bacon you’ll ever eat, succulent Italian Sausage, and Chops galore - all from last season’s harvest. Hoping to get the walk-in freezer cleared out before this next batch gets harvested. Please eat-up KC!! Factory farmed pork is one of the most inhumane types of animal farming out there. It’s horrific. If you gotta have your bacon and chops, spend a little extra and give the animals a good life. They are worth it and so is your health! Shopping link in profile.

10/23/2024

Mmmmm! It’s soup season!! Kat is whipping up Braised Pork & Pumpkin Soup as well as nourishing quarts of Pork Broth, and Caramel Spiced Apple Blondies!🤤 I’m drooling. Pork, veg, and apples from the farm. Pumpkins from a local patch. For a full array of our offerings this week, as well as Kat’s “ Humble Homestead” culinary creations, visit the online S-T-O-R-E at the link in profile.😘

10/22/2024

FALL UPDATE!!! Both field talk & crisis musings.😂 It’s officially “golden hour” on the farm…when the fields are half alive, half dead and the sun casts a golden glow over muted tones of green, crimson, tangerine, and goldenrod. It’s simply stunning, and by far my favorite time of year. The frosty frost killed the summer crops, but the cool weather crops are just beginning to come into themselves. The purple mustards, mizuna, and kale (all direct-seeded FYI) are looking mighty fine, the leeks are dry as hell but stately, and I even managed to get a nice stand of winter carrots germinated thanks to irrigation which is an anomaly around here. The fall/winter roots (our famed watermelon radishes, scarlet turnips, & purple daikons) are sizing up nicely and I’ll start pulling some this week for your enjoyment.😋 Sweet Potatoes are 75% dug (Otis & Kaiser like the remaining field of vines for epic play fighting😖) and the amaranth/celosia flower heads are ready to be collected for seed. Baby chicks are THRIVING, pigs are PHAT, and our adult hens are still laying like mad. Biggest upset this fall is several fields worth of spinach FAILURE. It’s just too unseasonably hot & dry and I’ve spent countless hours & seeds attempting to triumph - but alas, no fall spinach friends.🥲 I am seeding for winter though!🤞🏽As for our uncertain future, well, compromises/negotiations are underway…sort of. I can’t divulge too much info at present but we are having conversations. Whether those conversations will result in a “whole” farm and composting business is yet to be determined. The Master Plan Development (hopefully in its full form) will come before council on Nov. 14th. We are hard at work behind the scenes advocating, educating, & worrying🤪!! While you live our nightmare through a post from time to time, please understand that this is CONSTANT for us. It absorbs every facet of our lives and there are very few moments when it is not top of mind. We will be forever changed, and our family sorely affected (kids have absorbed a lot and it has created behaviors & trauma)…😔just being honest. Please stay engaged. I don’t have a specific ask at present, but please stay tuned.🙏

10/20/2024

Post wedding celebrations!😂 Sol is taking full advantage of the leftover dance floor and Otis is too! It was a spectacular evening and at some point I’ll post photos of the actual event. The couple that got married here came all the way from New York City because this place is so special to them. I find that quite touching. The neighbor who would like to see this place spontaneously combust waited outside in their driveway with three cops present for no apparent reason. The party was completely legal and nuisance free. The cops just stood there with nothing to do. I doubt you support your tax dollars being wasted this way, but I’m sure you support two people celebrating one of the most special days of their life on a farm that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion!! Cops weren’t necessary but LOVE🌈 is!! Proud to grow food, community, and resilience in an era of uncertainty and division. 💚♻️🫶

10/18/2024

Beautiful evening on the farm.🥰 Excited for two special people to celebrate their marriage here soon!💚

10/16/2024

Beautiful arugula harvest happening this morning. Wanna munch with me? Visit the order link in profile.💚

10/16/2024

What a gorgeous HARVEST thanks to so many hardworking volunteers!!! If it hadn’t been for the generous efforts of 15 or so volunteers, thousands of pounds of food would have been ruined in the frozen fields this morning. Head to the online store (link in profile) to get your hands on the LAST of the summer crops like Beans, Peppers, Okra, Cucumbers, and Summer Squash. Fall crops like MEAN GREENS are in abundance as well as tasty roots. Eat up KC!! Supporting local farmers and community food systems is critical to the health of our planet, our bodies, and our climate resilience. If you EAT, you play a part in the food system - one that can be exploitative and devastating, or one that can be healing and regenerative!!💕🌎💚🙏

10/15/2024

Beautiful group of volunteers out in the fields today!!💕They are clearing pepper plants so we can focus on digging sweet potatoes. We won’t get everything done before the frost’ but we’ll be waaaay better off than we would have been if these awesome KC WOMEN hadn’t donated their time. All girls…yup! Our farm and composting business and even our volunteer folks are 99% female. Pretty freakin’ cool.💪

10/13/2024

Tons of sweet potatoes need to come out of the ground before Tuesday night. 🥶 Every bit of help will help! Sign up on our sign up genius. The link is in stories and in the Volunteer highlight on our profile. As always - THANK YOU!!! 🍠🍠🍠

Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/index.cfm?go=w.manageSignUp #/50462895/slots/

10/12/2024

The great sweet potato harvest begins! Some wear soccer cleats, some go barefoot, but whatever style you rock, you gotta keep moving to beat the first frost!!! We’ve got thousands of pounds of sweet tots to get out of the ground before Tuesday evening. We’ll be at it all weekend of course (between soccer games that is🤪). I went straight from the sweet potato field to a soccer game out in Leawood today. Needless to say, I don’t fit in with the other moms…😂

Address

5500 Bennington Avenue
Kansas City, MO
64129

Website

http://www.urbavorefarm.com/

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Videos

Update on Thursday’s hearing!

Reposting from IG Natalya Pinwheel Lowther

Please SAVE THE DATE: Sept. 17th, 1:30pm, KCMO City Hall, 26th Floor, Neighborhood Planning & Development Committee. We’ll be presenting our Master Plan Development re-zoning proposal (again, like we did last week at CPC). They will hear public testimony and we need all the support we can get!!! In the meantime, PLEASE write your district reps! Specifically this committee consists of four council members: Eric Bunch, Nathan Willet, Ryana Parks-Shaw, and Melissa Patterson Hazley. If these are your reps, your voice in particular matters. These four people will make a recommendation to the full council for a final vote on the plan (this final vote could happen as early as the 19th)!! Please please exercise your democracy at this time and tell our City Leaders that this farm and its future is CRITICAL to a climate resilient KC, and brings so much good to the neighborhood and greater KC Community. We have taken great care within this re-zoning plan to heartily address the concerns of a few of our neighbors. Majority of the Brown Estates Community is on board. We have to move forward with logic and clear objectives. We believe this plan is the answer to resolution for all, and continued evolvement of our City’s climate goals. THANK YOU for all your support thus far!♻️💚🌈

Quick Update concerning our CPC Hearing!! They recommended the plan 5 to 1!!!💪It was tense, but we are so happy to be past this hurdle and on to the next. Please save the date for Tuesday, Sept.17th at 1:30 pm for a Neighborhood Planning & Dev. Committee Hearing at City Hall. We’ll present again and they’ll take testimony. Just like CPC, it is critical that we get this committee’s recommendation. It may proceed to full council two days later…we’ll have to wait and see! HUGE THANKS to neighbors and supporters for showing-up. Don’t think we would have succeeded without you!!😘

Our flower bouquets are loaded with high-quality organic seeds that you can sow in your own gardens for drought-tolerant blooms all summer and into fall!🥰

Link in profile for deets! City Hall, CPC Hearing 10th Floor, 9am tomorrow morning! SAVE URBAVORE!!💪

CONCERT AT THE COMBINE CANCELED!😖 Listen to my long explanation if you’d like. Ticket & sponsorship reimbursements will be made by tonight at midnight unless you reply to the email (sent by @thegarden_kc_diy) before that. Big thanks to the organizers who have been working on this for the past 6 months. Big thanks to the musicians who were lined up to play. And big thanks to The Combine for attempting to be a badass venue for this cause! Life is crazy, y’all. Hate carries a lot of weight. We’ll keep keepin’ on, and stay tuned for another opportunity to celebrate and support!♻️💚🙏🎶

Look for the links in Stories and Highlights! Brooke and Dan are very grateful for all the support you all have provided! - Emily (Brooke’s friend and social media support)

Farming is a constant lesson in humility every single day! While this year has been hard on us in much bigger ways than the “daily” on the farm, that “daily” has also taken unexpected twists and turns and we feel like we are hanging on for dear life. Our entire water system is one emergency after the next. We have a complex off- grid water system that uses sand, gravel, and UV light to provide chemical-free purification to pond water. We have two ponds for this purpose. We also have a grey & black water recycling system that uses a similar “chemical free” system to purify water after it has been used. Pretty freakin’ cool (when it works🤪). In addition to our potable off-grid water system and various storage cisterns, we have a municipal water line that runs down the center of the farm, which is hooked up to a giant carbon filter that keeps chlorine and other tap water contaminants from diminishing the biology in our soil, bodies, and livestock. Well…where to begin…the main pump for our off-grid water system is busted, our front pond has a leak in the pipe that comes out of it and thus won’t hold any water, the $5000 dollar carbon filter for the municipal water line had a giant branch fall on it several weeks back and is in need if heavy repair, and as in a few days ago our potable line sprung a leak and now requires Dan to expose over 10 feet of pipe under are gravel driveway that is buried more than 4 feet deep and part of it is under a shipping container😬😖😩. You have no idea what ridiculous measures we are going through to have water right now. We can’t hire this fix-it stuff out because it is unconventional & complex and would cost a fortune. Dan is the only guy who knows how to “f$&k” with this crazy sh*t!!! Sometimes our legal nightmare seems easy compared to the “on the ground” problems. Cheers to farmers everywhere. It ain’t for the faint of heart!💚