Climate committee takes field trip to Clay County regenerative farm

The Climate and Environment Council, the committee guiding the implementation of the Kansas City Regional Climate Action Plan, counts Hezel as a committee member for the 2026 cohort. And after several meetings where regenerative practices related to her farm came up in conversation, a group of committee members and MARC staff scheduled an in-person visit to the farm, located just outside of Kearney, Missouri, in rural Clay County.

About the farm

Prairie Birthday supplies sustainably-produced fruit, vegetables, herbs, eggs, honey and edible flowers to area residents as well as chefs at local restaurants — with a focus on food that preserves and protects the health of humans, interconnected species and the environment.

Scrapbook in hand, Hezel pointed out wildflowers in bloom, tall native grasses, arugla, chicory, wild violets, cucamelons, massive zucchinis and endless other features. She is quick to point to pictures in her book that show what the land looked like before. The meticulous work of reconstructing native prairie lands across her 14 acres is referred to as regenerative farming, as the work has involved replacing non-native plants with native ones that support the area's natural biodiversity, bringing back a similar ecosystem to what would have been there before landowners plowed fields for high-yield row crops and homeowners laid out massive yards of sod turf. Since 1993, the couple has worked to transform the acreage from degraded soil and non-native weeds into the marvel it is today. Compared to its prior life, the soil's organic carbon and water-stable aggregates increased up to 60% and 72%, respectively, between her production orchards and managed prairie land during a five-year study.

Caring for the land

A nurse by trade, Hezel spent a decade as a professor at the UMKC School of Nursing. Growing up on a farm, she was able to combine agricultural knowledge with her focus area of community health.

Hezel prides herself on adhering to a strict no-chemical rule when it comes to her tree and land management. Every weed is hand-pulled and every pest dealt with on-site. It amounts to a full-time job, but one she is happy to show up for each day. And her work has attracted notice from local restaurants like Novel, The Farmhouse, Local Pig and Rieger Hotel, and several more from Kansas City's past decade of farm-to-table renaissance.

The farm is noisy with thriving local insects and birds. Hezel adjusts what she grows on a trial-and-error basis, listening closely to what the ecosystem is telling her. This would be risky behavior for industrial crop harvesting operations but, for a specialized boutique farm like hers, it provides a new way of experimenting with time-tested methods. Her farm hosts an American Chestnut tree despite the ongoing chestnut blight, in the hope that if it survives, it will continue to thrive for a very long time. The ingenuity of the farm is also demonstrated through sun-hungry vined plants wrapping around trellis structures attached to solar-paneled roofs, shading her prized zucchinis below. One unlucky crop-munching bug was picked up and squished, a process Hezel repeats again and again until the problem is solved.

Growing knowledge

To help build a local appreciation for the artistic beauty of a sustainable food-growing ecosystem, Prairie Birthday Farm frequently hosts educational tours for students, chefs, healthcare professionals, farmers and health food enthusiasts. Hezel has conducted tours teaching participants about foraging for wild edibles, wild fruits of Missouri (like the paw paw sampled by the committee members), landscaping for food, soil painting, botanical ink dyes, and herbal and floral teas with medical properties.

The farm's namesake comes from a 1949 essay, "Prairie Birthday," by Aldo Leopold, which reads, "Tell me of what plant birthday a man takes notice, and I shall tell you a good deal about his vocation, his hobbies, his hay fever and the general level of his ecological education."