Farming for families, not just markets
We’re Matt and Jennifer Vahldick, and we’ve spent the last two decades raising five kids, hundreds of animals, and just about anything that will grow here at Moxie Farms, a regenerative farm just outside Kansas City.
Two farmers, five kids, and a whole lot of critters
We chose to raise our five kids on a regenerative farm – close to nature, and close to each other.
Each of our children has carved out their own spot in this life:
Connelly is the engineer in the family; he helped build the early greenhouses and infrastructure during the farm’s early days.
Lauren catches what everyone else walks past, and has the gentlest touch with anything young, roots, or heartbeat.
Brody's the fix-it man: he can look at a piece of equipment nobody can make work and find a way through.
Zane is the outdoorsman with a million new ideas; he's also usually the first to notice when an animal's off.
And Shiloh skates her way through order-packing, loves dogs, and greets visitors like they’re the best thing that’s happened all day.
The younger ones are still here, right in the thick of the everyday farm work; the older kids scattered off to college and lives of their own, but get involved when they can.
Why we do what we do
Moxie Farms is a family operation in every sense. Between us, we know how to start seeds, raise healthy and happy animals, preserve the harvest, and read the soil.
None of that used to be remarkable; that kind of know-how got passed down without much ceremony, usually from whoever was standing at the stove or out on the tractor. But a couple of generations back, the handing down stopped: these days, most kids can name a dozen brands of snacks – but not one variety of tomato.
We wanted something different for our family.
Turns out a lot of other families want the same thing, so that's the work now: grow food worth eating, put people back in touch with where food comes from, and pass along skills and experiences that quietly slipped out of everyday life.
What Moxie Farms looks like today
Over the years, Moxie Farms has grown into the most diverse farm in the region.
Food is still at the heart of everything we do: through our Food Membership, local families fill their kitchens with grass-fed meat, seasonal vegetables, berries and fruit, fresh dairy and pantry staples – all produced here on the farm.
Regenerative, the way all farms should work
Growing a little bit of everything reflects how we think farms are at their best. In regenerative farming, each part supports the others: healthy soil grows healthy plants, which feed healthy animals and produce nourishing food, and the animals' manure goes back into the soil.
The result is an incredible diversity – both in what the farm produces, and how the farm works.
Growing with our community
One of the things we're proudest of is the relationships we've built along the way. For more than two decades, Moxie Farms has grown almost entirely through word of mouth: no ads, just members telling other families about us. On average, families stay with us for around twelve years, and our very first member is still with us today.
Over the years, several members have helped to fund expansions (new infrastructure, more land, added capacity). That's community-supported agriculture in its truest form: people investing in a farm they’re a part of, not just in a weekly box of produce.
We've been through plenty together since, from tornadoes, to the COVID pandemic. Through all of it, we kept producing food and taking care of the people who count on us.
Looking ahead
For most of our history, people experienced Moxie Farms through the food they took home. In 2026-2027, we're excited to open the farm in new ways.
Alongside the food we produce, we're creating opportunities for people to learn new skills, share meals together, and experience everyday life on a working farm.
Whether someone visits for a few days or has been picking up food here for years, our hope is the same: that they leave feeling more connected to their food, to the people who produce it, and to the land that made it possible.
We think that's something worth sharing, and we're looking forward to welcoming many more people to Moxie Farms in the years ahead.
Want to hear about the changes as they happen?