September 25 – Fresh Produce: Kansas’ Orchardists, Market Growers, and Truck Farmers

Presented by Cindy Higgins, Kansas Humanities

Historical presentation highlighting commercial specialty crops, agriculture experimentation, horticultural “royalty” marketing, and the evolving local foods movement. We will hear about Kansas’s nationally-known heritage apple; the crabapple king’s downfall; the successful grow-secrets of freed slaves, entrepreneurs, and early suburbanites; the state’s connection to exotic fruit introduction; the 1960s counterculture influence on today’s market mainstays; future outlooks; and county-specific produce projection.