BUFFALO, N.Y. — For Chef Daleron McKinnon of Denver N Dallas BBQ, the Massachusetts Avenue Project is a lot more than an urban garden on Buffalo's West Side.
It's also home to the community kitchen where he operates his catering company out of.
"For a chef, it's a dream come true," he told 2 On Your Side. "I have a farm outside, like a few footsteps away. When it comes time to cook, it's fresh garlic, fresh lettuce, tomato, there's honey, there's chickens, and there's eggs, and it's right there. It's organic. You know it's fresh, you know here it came from."
Right now everyone at the farm is getting ready for a big open house this weekend at their annual seedling sale, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
"We've been doing a seedling sale for over ten years which is wild," farm manager Katherine Pfohl said. "We have over 70 varieties of seedlings available we have medicinal and culinary herbs, flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, cucurbits, and eggplant."
The nonprofit farm operates a market every Thursday starting in June, as well as a mobile market truck.
"We are where the people are. There's a lot of education that happens here from us and through a lot of our partners, so it's an epicenter," Pfhol said. "People are coming, they're walking by, there's a passive education that's happening in a city, and again this connection to the land that maybe otherwise isn't happening in an urban setting."
The seedling sale will feature thousands of seedlings for $4 a piece, as well as vendors with connections to the Massachusetts Avenue Project, or "MAP," like Chef Daleron.
"I'm going to be right out front, the smoker's going to be going, you'll be able to smell the food for a block," he said.
- For information about the MAP Seedling Sale, visit the Facebook event page
- For general information about MAP's programs, visit https://www.mass-ave.org/
- For updates regarding MAP's Farmhouse Market and Mobile Market Truck, subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://bit.ly/3QtODk0
- For Denver N' Dallas Barbecue, visit Chef Dale'ron McKinnon's website.