Get ready for GREAT FOOD – both growing and eating it – at the 2011 Urban Farms & Gardens Tour!

Urban agriculture is about feeding people good food – and the 2011 Urban Farms & Gardens Tour, a 12-day celebration of urban agriculture in Kansas City, offers several tasty opportunities to munch on locally grown food. Designed expressly to bring together growers and eaters, two of the events invite farmers and gardeners to celebrate the pleasures of cooking with locally grown produce. The Eat Out Local nights give a shout-out to the local restaurants which make amazing meals out of urban and locally-grown food. All in all, the week leading up to the tour is a going to be full of GREAT eating!

Sunday, June 19: Gather, Share, Feast! A local food dinner by Chef Celina Tio

Chef Celina Tio, owner/chef of JULIAN Restaurant, contestant on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters and recent runner-up on The Next Iron Chef, will host Gather, Share, Feast! A local food dinner by Chef Celina Tio at her restaurant. If you are a gardener or farmer, you won’t want to miss the opportunity to get your name on this celebrity chef’s menu as she turns produce fresh from your land into a delicious feast. Visit www.urbanfarmstourkc.com for information on how to contribute your produce to the meal. Call 816-214-8454 to make your reservation at JULIAN Restaurant for 5:30, 7:00, or 8:30 seatings – this is a great Father’s Day treat for your foodie dad!

Friday, June 24: Get Your Grow On! Cook-Off!

Want to show off your home-grown cooking? You can enter your favorite recipe in the Get Your Grow On! Cook-Off: A local food picnic on Friday, June 24^th from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Loose Park Pavilion. You can enter a Local Appetizer, Local Side Dish, Local Main Dish, or Local Dessert to be judged by Ethne Clark, Editor of the national publication “Organic Gardening,” Gordon Roe, publisher, tastebud magazine, Kansas City’s own eating-well magazine, and Mary Pepitone, writer of the Kansas City Star’s beloved food column, “Come into my Kitchen.” Only 30 entries will be accepted ($10 per entry) and the winners and runners-up in each category will win fabulous prizes! To enter your dish in the Local Dish Cook-Off, go to www.urbanfarmstourkc.com under the pre-tour events tab.

Share your food with others potluck style

If you don’t want to compete, you can still join the fun of the June 24 picnic! Chuck Robinson of the Garden Center Association of Greater Kansas City, co-sponsor of this event, says, “You can share your food with others potluck style, or just eat your own food and brag about how wonderful it is to other picnickers! This is a community event celebrating the wonderful food produced in our city.” The event is free for all picnickers.

June 20-23: “Eat Out Local” Nights

Restaurants are an important component of the local food system and many are joining the effort to support local food production, as well as the local economy, and to use the freshest, tastiest products on their menu. Many restaurants will be participating in “Eat Out Local” Nights in conjunction with the Urban Farms & Gardens Tour, on the evenings of June 20-23^rd. Katherine Kelly, executive director of the Kansas City Center of Urban Agriculture, which hosts of the Urban Farms & Gardens Tour, encourages resident to get out on the town. “You can eat local, eat well, and support the growing of good food in city neighborhoods.” Eat at any of the participating restaurants listed on the tour website and they’ll make a donation to the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture.

Urban Farms & Gardens Tour

We ALL eat, and more than ever in recent history, people are interested in knowing where their food comes from, who grows it, and how it is produced. The two day, self-guided tour allows you to go see Kansas City’s farms and gardens, meet the farmers, and ask them how they grow the food you eat.

The Urban Farms & Gardens Tour, hosted by the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, offers you exciting new ways to connect with the good food growing in the city. On June 25 and 26, thirty-eight urban farms and gardens across the Kansas City Metro will open their fields and garden plots for people to explore on the fourth biennial Urban Farms & Gardens Tour. Attendees are encouraged to visit as many sites as they like from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday to connect with the farmers and gardeners that feed our city with fresh, delicious, healthy food.

Information and details

For information about tickets and further event details visit www.urbanfarmstourkc.com, or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KCUrbanFarmsTour or on Twitter @KCFarmsTour. New information is coming in every week, so stay tuned for the latest updates! See complete list of pre-tour events below.