New Roots for Refugees is an incubator training farm program that empowers newly arrived refugees to start their own small farming businesses. Sixteen refugee farmers grow on individual quarter-acre plots, where they cultivate familiar ethnic vegetables as well as a wide variety of vegetables popular in the US. Refugee families remain in the program for four years, during which time they learn to adapt their farming and business skills to the climate and marketplace in Kansas City. These farmers sell their produce at farmers markets across the metro area, through CSA subscriptions, and occasionally to restaurants or other retailers.
New Roots for Refugees farmers sell independently at over 15 markets across the KC metro area.
New Roots CSA shares are available at farmers markets where New Roots farmers sell. We also offer a limited number of workplace CSA deliveries.
New Roots CSAs begin in late May or early June, depending on when our farmers first attend farmers markets. Other details TBD- we will update when more information is available!
Spring: green peas (sugar snap, shell, and snow), beets, green onions, spinach, lettuce, arugula, kale, swiss chard, asian greens (like bok choi and tatsoi), collard greens, carrots, radishes, kohlrabi, cilantro, dill, parsley, chinese cabbage, garlic scapes
Summer: heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, various types of eggplant, okra, cucumbers, onions, green onions, green beans, mustard greens, summer squash, basil, corn, burmese sorrel, yard long beans and noodle beans, asian cucumbers, edible gourds
Juniper Gardens Training Farm is a beautiful 8-acre piece of land in the heart of an industrial area in Kansas City, Kansas. Our farmers bring decades of agricultural knowledge, customs, and practices with them from their home countries. With 16 farmers from different ethnic groups in Bhutan and Burma putting all those years of knowledge into practice, visiting Juniper Gardens is truly a unique experience. In addition to vegetables common in the US, our farmers grow a wide variety of produce that is unfamiliar to consumers in this country- chin baung (Burmese roselle), opo squash, noodle beans, Thai eggplant, water spinach, blue Burmese pumpkins, Thai chili peppers- there's always something new and interesting being harvested in their gardens!
