Stafford Co. Museum will host “Fresh Produce: Kansas’s Orchardists, Market Growers, and Truck Farmers,” a presentation and discussion by Cindy Higgins at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, at 100 North Main in Stafford. Members of the community are invited to attend the free program. Contact the Stafford Co. Museum, 620-234-5664 for more information. The program is made possible by Humanities Kansas.

In Kansas, agriculture is king. Our roots are connected to the land and crops harvested from the soil. This historical presentation highlights Kansas’s commercial specialty crops, agriculture experimentation, horticultural “royalty” marketing, and the evolving local foods movement. Learn about Kansas’s nationally known heritage apple; the crabapple king’s downfall; the successful gardening 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.

Cindy is a journalist and historian of Kansas industry before technological mechanization dramatically changed work and labor in the early 20th century.

“Fresh Produce: Kansas’s Orchardists, Market Growers, and Truck Farmers” is part of Humanities Kansas’s Speakers Bureau, featuring humanities-based presentations designed to share stories that inspire, spark conversations that inform, and generate insights that strengthen civic engagement.