BadSeed Market closing in February; annual Holiday Fiesta still on

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BadSeed Market, the downtown Friday-night farmers market that opened in 2007 by husband-and-wife urban-agriculture pioneers Brooke Salvaggio and Dan Heryer, will close February 26.

Salvaggio and Heryer had established a loyal clientele with their produce and fresh eggs, and BadSeed has also been a busy marketplace for other local vendors. For anyone playing bingo with words like organic and heirloom, this was where you had a winning card. Heryer tells me that there are several reasons why he and Salvaggio have decided to close down the market at 1909 McGee, but the primary one is that Salvaggio is five months pregnant with the couple’s second child. (In a newsletter linked on BadSeed’s Facebook page this week, Salvaggio writes: “In so many ways Dan & I have become the poster children for ‘local organic’ but if you ask me we really oughtta be the poster children for “unplanned pregnancy.”)

“We decided that we needed to prioritize our family life,” Heryer tells me. “And BadSeed was only a small part of our business.”

Salvaggio and Heryer will continue to operate Urbavore, their 13-acre urban farm in Raytown, and they plan to sell their produce at the City Market and other local farmers markets. “I don’t know where, exactly, yet,” Heryer says. “We plan to apply for space in the Brookside market, but I don’t know what other farmers markets we’ll join.”

“Brooke recently wrote in her newsletter that there are signs that interest in farmers markets is waning,” Heryer adds. “We saw a bit of a fallout in our market as well. This will be very bittersweet. BadSeed has been a very big part of our life for nearly 10 years.”

BadSeed will continue to operate on Fridays, from 4 to 9 p.m., through February 26.

And its annual Holiday Fiesta Market is still on. From 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, December 18, the store will sell grass-fed beef and lamb, all-natural pork, free-range eggs, mushrooms, sheep’s-milk cheese, aged goat’s- and cow’s-milk cheeses, rustic breads and baked goods, winter vegetables, sweet potatoes, jams and jellies, freshly milled flour, micro-roasted coffee, soap and body products, and handmade crafts.