Farm Stops in Northeast Kansas!
Are you looking for an opportunity for fun on a farm? Farm stops and agritourism comes in many forms, U pick pumpkin patches, vegetable gardens, flower farms, barns, farm to table and experience stops to name a few. The first week in October, I got the chance to see several amazing options during a press trip hosted by Kansas Tourism. I was one of three bloggers, and we, hit the road for some exciting ag adventures that you can enjoy as well!
During our trip, we bloggers were an active bunch! We participated in farm stops that included goat yoga, horseback riding, hiking, soap making, and more. We ate like kings, and sampled the freshest ingredients, just picked from the farm. Our most luxurious meal was at the impressive, Coffey Grounds Farm where Chef Jonathon Tullen prepared us a five-course meal!
Coffey Grounds Farm 5-Course meal!
Farm owner, Janet Coffey gave us a fun tour of the farm and led us into the former horse barn for our elaborate meal.
Janet said this the first year for the farm to table dinners. “We are off the beaten path, but everyone is learning about us. Once they come, they come again.”
Chef Tullen, with assistance from his helper Cullen, and mixologist Felicia, took good care of us. Felicia paired a drink with each of the five courses.
One of my favorite courses was the sweet Vidalia onion soup!
I stuffed in every single bite!
Coffey Grounds Farm Story!
Janet and her husband Don built their ranch in Stilwell, Kansas in 1989. Early on Janet added a small produce garden. It grew, and before she knew it, she had more than she could eat. She began donating their abundance of produce to a local church. Eventually, she started selling her produce along with flowers.
Coffey Grounds Farm was born!
As they share on their website, “… Janet’s dreams are realized. Coffey Grounds Farm is now a destination for community members and Kansas City families, offering event space, cooking classes, fresh food, and produce, farm-to-table dinners, and an ever-expanding pick-your-own vegetable and flower garden.”
Juniper Hill Farm
Our last evening during our agritourism trip, we had dinner at Juniper Hill Farm along with a table and farm tour!
Juniper Hill Farms is a beautiful place! Nancy Thellman shared they moved to the farm in 1999, as area as a place to just have a quiet oasis. Dr. Scott Thellman, her husband is a plastic surgeon that practices in Manhattan, Kansas. “We bought this place with no intention of being a true farm, but just couldn’t help ourselves,” she shared.
What they did not anticipate, was their son Scott’s fascination with farming. Young Scott learned about hay from his neighbors. Working on a local farm at 13, he started a hay business at the age of 15. After buying first a square baler, and later a round one, he moved into growing vegetables. With local support, and an ag degree from Iowa State, he was soon on his way. Today Scott’s produce is sold locally at farmer’s markets, Lawrence and Douglas County area grocery stores and whole foods markets in Kansas City locations.
Juniper Hill and dining!
After ending her tenure with local government, Nancy needed something new to do. “My daughter is actually the one who brought this pizza farm idea to me,” Nancy shared. “She sent me a copy of an article from the New York Times about a new trend on pizza farms”
Soon the family converted their 100-year-old horse barn, previously used to raise Arabian horses, into a pizza kitchen and produce market! Each horse stall was repurposed to look like a private room, and the patio features a cool woodfire oven. Customers enjoy patio dining with an amazing view of the countryside!
Using produce grown on the farm, they create delectable pizzas like the three we ordered and demolished!
Thursdays are pizza nights, and they also offer farm to table dinners as well. Another fascinating ag story is KC Pumpkin Patch!
K.C. Pumpkin Patch & K.C. Winery
The KC Pumpkin Patch and winery can be a fun stop for the family, or an adult one, depending on which location you choose. The Winery is adult only owner Julie Berggren, said so adults can sip and enjoy the atmosphere. The Pumpkin Patch though is a kid mecca, full of fun photo ops and adventures galore.
Their story!
The story of the KC Pumpkin Patch begins in 1988. Julie shared she, an Iowa farm girl who married 1st Lt. Kirk Berggren, an Air Force career man. This meant moving around the country. While exciting, for Julie being a farm girl, she was homesick for farm life. Each year she and Kirk would take their family to visit pumpkin patches and dreamed of having one of their own. That dream was realized in 2003. They opened the KC Pumpkin Patch in Gardner, Kansas.
Eventually moving to their current location in Olathe in December of, 2013, the current KC Pumpkin Patch was established. They offer over 60 farm attractions, including dinosaur attractions, pumpkin picking, pumpkin slides, a rock-climbing wall, cornhole, and pumpkin bowling. When they purchased this farm, they found grape vines and decided to try making wine with the 7 acres of grapes that is now the home of KC Wine Co!
We had a great time meandering through the pumpkin patch taking pictures, and seeing how the Berggren’s have used old iron like tractors, trucks and combines and integrated them into the farm!
While the Pumpkin Patch shared modern farming, a stop at Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Historic Farm Site offered insight into farming in yesteryear.
Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Historic Farm Site
The Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Historic Farm is the only working stagecoach stop left on the Santa Fe Trail. The site offers insight into 1860s farming, life on the Kansas frontier, and stagecoach travel.
The stagecoach offered a dining hall where riders could rest and eat. The Mahaffie home was a social center, as well as place of business and a farmstead.
The Mahaffie Story.
The Mahaffie’s arrived in 1857 and the stagecoach stop was open until 186 when the railroad arrived. One of the highlights of the visit is the chance to ride in a replica stagecoach
Besides the house, you can also visit the museum and farm.
The farm includes a neat barn that is believed to be the oldest structure on the property. Built with wooden pegs, the barn is open down the middle so wagons could pull through with a load of loose hay, sheaves of wheat, or ears of corn. A new educational barn has also been built where you can see antique agricultural machinery.
This covered wagon is one example of what pioneer travel was like.
Along with educational workshops, there are lots of fun animals, sheep and roosters and more!
What else?
This was an amazing trip; besides the agricultural stops, we stayed in amazing lodges in nature.
What an amazing trip at these northeast Kansas farm stops! Where have you been that you have celebrated agritourism adventures? Farm stops are the best offering insight and agri-tainment from the fields, the backroads, and the hills and hollers!
