Extension
It Starts With Us
Author: Ronald Hustedde
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The Extension specialist accepted an August 2019 invitation to present a seminar about urban agriculture before about 20 US Congressional aides from around the country in Lexington, KY. The seminar was anchored in data from the FAO of the United Nations and in the US Census of Agriculture with special attention to urban counties in Kentucky. The data was also accompanied by case studies about immigrant incubator farms and the transition to commercial production; agricultural high sc
Author: Lindie Huffman
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Access to local fruits and vegetables are limited in Pendleton County. Despite the health benefits, only 2% of Pendleton County adults get the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables compared to the state average 8.0% of adults meetingthe daily fruit intake recommendation and only 6.3% of adults meet the daily vegetable intake. Nationwide, only 12.2% of adults meet the daily fruit recommendation and only 9.3% meet the vegetable recommendation. To help with this si
Author: Linda Brown-Price
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Many people do not know where their food comes from, other than the grocery store. In Kenton County there is a diverse population where many residents live in urban or suburban and settings. For the past 8 years the Kenton County Extension Service Office has held a Farm Harvest Tour for its residents. One of the goals of the tour is to educate the urban and suburban population in the county on the connection of food to land and enhance appreciation of the rich heritage of farmers for many
Author: Susan Fox
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Lyon County held its first Kentucky Proud Farm to Fork Dinner in September. Farm to Fork dinners promote and support local agriculture, promote consumption of a balanced diet including fruits and vegetables, and offer a sense of community in everyone coming together for a gracious evening and celebration of the fall harvest. This event was a collaboration of a local farm and three agencies: Magney Legacy Farm, Lyon County Extension, Lyon County Conservation District and Lyon County Farm Bureau.
Author: Daniel Allen
Major Program: Local Food Systems
It is important for farmers to work on educating the public about who they are, what they do and why it matters. Today 98 percent of the population is removed from modern agriculture, so connecting to consumers is important. This type of education is a transparent format which provides the public an opportunity to see what happens on the farm, ask questions and develop trust in farmers and the food produced. For the local food system the Kenton County Farm Tour can form lasting bonds betwee
Author: Chris Ammerman
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Individual life choices have moved demand for locally grown fresh produce, meat and eggs. The consumers focus has drifted away from the grocery store and toward the farm stand. Local farmers markets have become the consumer’s choice to provide safe, fresh and nutritious food for communities across the state, and Grant County is experiencing this trend as well.A farm to table dinner was planned as an effort to further raise awareness of local food systems and increase participat
Author: Joanna Coles
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The Kentucky Farms, Kentucky Flavor (KYF2) Project is funded by the USDA Specialty Crop Grant in partnership with SOKY Marketplace. The goal of the project is to increase the sale and consumption of specialty crops in South Central Kentucky. Promotional and educational videos were developed highlighting farmers, where to access crops and how to incorporate them into healthy meals.Each farm highlighted received $4050 worth of earned media from the promotion that reached over 56,000 individu
Author: Adam Leonberger
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The Franklin County Farmers Market is located in River View Park, which is on land owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, but maintained by the City of Frankfort. A recent planning process showed the farmers market moved to the other side of the highway offramp, but not everyone agrees that moving the market is necessary or desirable. They do agree that the market is important to the community and to local producers, who vend at the market.Increased local foods initiatives could boost the city&r
Author: Reed Graham
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Over the past decade, people have taken more interest in where their food comes from and what is in their food. In Breathitt and surrounding counties, interest in heritage skills has increased as a way to preserve skills of grandparents as well as extending their food dollar and taking pride in creating food for their family. This can be seen by the popularity of country ham programs for youth and adults in Kentucky.The Breathitt County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent Reed Gr
Author: Levi Berg
Major Program: Local Food Systems
2019 Henry County Harvest ShowcaseFor years, volunteers and agricultural leaders have hosted the Henry County Harvest Showcase, and the 201 Henry County Harvest Showcase was held for the 20th year. The Henry County Harvest Showcase is a festival which only features crafts, produce, and meat produced in Henry County by Henry County agricultural producers. For the 2020 Harvest Showcase, an estimated 3,200 individuals attended, and were able to purchase local produce from over 12 vendors, local cra
Author: Philip Konopka
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Lewis County is a rural county, however not all youth know where the food they actually comes from other than the grocery store. To help combat ag illiteracy the Lewis County ANR agent teamed up with the Lewis County 4-H Agent, Lewis County FCS Agent, Lewis County Program Assistant, Lewis County SNAP Assistant, Community Business, and Community Leaders, to take on the challenge of teach the 5th grade students where the food they eat every day really comes from. Our solution to the problem was to
Author: Ted Johnson
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Lee County Kentucky families have a median family income around $21,000.00 per year, poor health, and very little access to a wide variety of healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. We at the Lee County Extension Office have addressed this issue with the introduction of fruit and vegetable production utilizing raised beds. The last six years we have conducted over 40 programs, educating participants on construction, management, soils, vegetable plant varieties, disease and insect mana
Author: Judith Hetterman
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Consumers face the challenge of making smart food choices for their families. The demand for affordable. fresh and healthy foods is growing. Encouraging people to purchase local fresh fruits and vegetables to improve their families diet, as well as helping their local economy by purchasing local.This year, the Owen County Farm and Craft Market operated with a total of twenty active vendors. Twelve of those vendors offered produce and other agricultural products, five offered ma
Author: Chris Ammerman
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Vertical integration has caused turmoil across the dairy industry in Kentucky all the while the onslaught continues in attacks on animal agriculture both creating large amount of scrutiny among consumers in the grocery store aisle. Distraught family farmers in empty barns and images of animal abuse have shared across social media platforms painting the all aspects of animal agriculture in a bad light.The Grant County Farm Bureau Federation and the Grant County Extension Service partnered t
Author: Tad Campbell
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The Extension Services in Kentucky and Ohio along with Maysville Community and Technical College partnered to develop and implement Farm Family Night, a program offering over 30 educational sessions to all segments of the family. Nearly 700 members of agriculture families attended educational sessions during the evening due to sponsorship by Farm Credit Services, Hinton Mills, Rip’s Farm Center, Meadowview Regional Hospital, and Winchester Ag Services and many others. In addition to
Author: Linda Hieneman
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Extension programming has been suddenly required to shift from face-to-face contact with clientele to a mostly digital communication platform due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The Greenup County office has made significant changes to the way in which we connect with our community. While we have embraced the technology that allows us to connect with people using the internet, we recognize that not all of our Extension program consumers have the capability or the desire to use technology every
Author: Lindie Huffman
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Covid-19 put pressure on our food infrastructure system after flocks of citizens raided store shelves. Consumers began to question food supply and have interest in developing their own sustainable food production, thus an insurgence of interest in gardening and homesteading for sustainability emerged.The PC ANR Agent in response developed the Garden Starter Drive-Thru program and coordinating Facebook Live "Growing your Garden from the Ground Up" | 2020 Victory Garden Educational Serie
Author: Bethany Pratt
Major Program: Local Food Systems
At the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, there were many concerns around how community agriculture spaces, particularly community gardens, could or would operate. The Jefferson Co Horticulture Agent convened several phone calls with three other community garden agencies and facilitated a conversation about best practices and plans of action for community agriculture spaces.Prior to the group’s virtual meeting, resources on COVID-19 were gathered. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture issued
Author: Daniel Carpenter
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The 2020 Leadership LaRue Ag Day was held on March 12th 2020 with 12 participants from the LaRue County Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership LaRue 2020 Class. The event is to help educate our community about the changes that have occurred in agriculture over the past years and to highlight the positive impacts they make on our local economy. This behind-the-scenes look at local agriculture allowed community leaders the opportunity to meet the hard-working farmers and producers who keep the her
Author: Faye Kuosman
Major Program: Local Food Systems
An emerging concern in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic is that there might be instability in our national food system. This has created a surge of interest to purchase local foods. In response to this, the Woodford County Horticulture Agent worked with Master Gardeners and a group of community volunteers to create a website featuring foods produced in Woodford County called the Woodford FoodNet. The website will support local farmers and processors as well as expand buying choices for county r
Author: Chelsey Anderson
Major Program: Local Food Systems
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, staff at the Cumberland County Extension Office wondered how they were going to reach clientele. After seeing and hearing about other counties offering to-go bags with all sorts of activities in them, the Family and Consumer Science and Agriculture and Natural Resources Agents along with the SNAP-ED assistant decided to give them a try. The first bags (20) were prepared on March 30th for no contact pick up on the office porch. Each week since, the staff have prepa
Author: Lynn Blankenship
Major Program: Local Food Systems
With a Farmers Market season opening of the first Friday in April annually, Metcalfe Co. Farmers Market is among the first of the seasonal Farmers Markets each year, to open in the Mammoth Cave Area. As this Agent was preparing to offer the SR and WIC FMNP voucher producer training's in Early March, via zoom for the first time ever due to COVID - 19 meeting restrictions, I was looking for guidance on whether markets would even be allowed to operate during the pandemic crisis. On
Author: Corinne Belton
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Rooted In Shelby is a volunteer-conceived and implemented program designed to promote the sale of horticultural, agricultural and other products produced by Kentucky Proud enterprises located in Shelby County. Areas represented can be anything grown or produced in Shelby County, including but not limited to, meat, dairy, equine, fruits, vegetables, grains, sod, honey, and artisanal farm products. A recognizable logo is used in conjunction with the Kentucky Proud logo to indicate a product&
Author: Corinne Belton
Major Program: Local Food Systems
As in other communities, Shelby County is seeing a renewed interest in local foods, homegrown food production and small farming. The county has seen steady growth in land ownership in the 1-49 acre range and farms reporting sales in the $1-$2500 range numbered 656 in 2012. To support these new farmers, and to allowing networking among new and existing farmers, the Hort & Ag Advisory Council formed Rooted in Shelby in 2014. Rooted in Shelby is a program designed to promote the sal
Author: Trent Adkins
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The 2019 City to Farm Tour was held on September 14th, 2019 with well over 70 local business leaders/ Pulaski county chamber members in attendance. Extension partnered with the Somerset-Pulaski Co Chamber of Commerce to plan the event. The event is to help educate our community about the changes that have occurred in agriculture over the past decades. This behind-the-scenes look at local agriculture allowed community leaders the opportunity to meet the hard-working farmers and producers who keep
Author: Ted Johnson
Major Program: Local Food Systems
We at the Lee County Extension Office have worked with two producers for the past 4 years developing off the farm beef sales. We have educated producers on cross breeding, feeding, and marketing off the farm beef. The goal was to sell more local beef and increase our local food supply. This goal was to also keep more of our money local. We have worked with two producers at this point of the program and they are now selling over 25 head of cattle off the farm ready for slaughter. They have report
Author: Jamie Dockery
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The Fayette Extension Horticulture program has held a Growing Community event for the last 12 years to promote vegetable gardening to under served audiences. Traditionally this has taken the form of short training sessions offered on a Saturday in May with the reward for attending 4 session being a bag of gardening resources, seeds, and transplants. It has always been very popular. The Covid pandemic left us unable to follow our usual training approach. We decided to just give away the garden ki
Author: Dayna Fentress
Major Program: Local Food Systems
UK FCS Extension worked with the Hardin County Fairboard, Central Hardin FFA, Farm Credit Mid-America, and a committee of volunteers to plan the second annual Farm to Table dinner at the Hardin County Fair.Last year, 250 individuals gathered at the Hardin County Fair for the first ever Farm to Table dinner. The dinner showcased Kentucky Proud produce and meats, while supporting a local charity. We were able to give $4,000 to two different charities in our community, Feeding America’s BackP
Author: Jonathan Oakes
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Russell County has always had a strong heritage in vegetable production, whether it be commercial or home garden production. Our main garden is located at the extension office. This year, in conjunction with Russell County Health Department and Russell Springs First Baptist Church, we were able to start another community garden in Russell County. The new community garden provides low income families, minorities and Senior Citizens with the opportunity to help grow their own foo
Author: Daniel Allen
Major Program: Local Food Systems
On-line Agriculture Programs Offered for the First TimeMany things have changed within Extension Service because of the COVID19 pandemic. The biggest change came in the way we offer educational programs to our residents. Kenton County offered agriculture classes on-line as a way of continued service to the residents in Kenton County. There were 6 classes offered in spring and early summer to over 40 farmers. Topics included Backyard Poultry, Farm Ponds, Fencing Basics, Forest I
Author: Joanna Coles
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The SoKY Marketplace, Warren County Fiscal Court, Warren County Cooperative Extension Office, and other community partners are working together to promote agriculturally related businesses, create jobs, improve access to healthy locally grown specialty commodities, and provide educational classes to strengthen the regional food economy of Southcentral Kentucky. These organizations have worked together to successfully launch a downtown weekend farmers market, weekday consignment farmers market, a
Author: Linda Hieneman
Major Program: Local Food Systems
According to the USDA Local Food Systems report direct to consumer sales have increased from 1997 to 2007. This supports the idea that more people would prefer to connect with the individuals who grew their food. Nationally, there are more programs to help individuals purchase food directly from local growers. The Greenup County Extension Service collaborates with the local Farmers Market and Artisans to build a strong community market. Greenup County Extension Agents p
Author: Chris Ammerman
Major Program: Local Food Systems
As the impact of the pandemic is still being felt across the Commonwealth, the challenges of continuing to provide relevant data to the citizens of our community increased as the lockdown started. Continuing to conduct farm visits and serve clientele was listed as essential business. The opportunity to use individual client meetings to serve others in the form of social media posts became evident. Using a GoPro camera and hand held mount educational programs offered by the Grant
Author: Don Sorrell
Major Program: Local Food Systems
With no or limited options for face-to-face meetings and activities during the COVID -19 pandemic, the Campbell County agriculture agent made changes to two existing programs in order to serve two underserved audiences. Care Mission and Brighton Center are examples of two social service agencies in Campbell County who serve the needs of families and youth who often struggle with the basics of food, clothing and shelter.Care Mission is located in the southern part of Campbell County a
Author: Marlee Kelley
Major Program: Local Food Systems
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Bullitt County Public Schools Food Service Program found themselves preparing and delivering over 6,000 meals to children qualified for the free and reduced lunches throughout Bullitt County. As they began the process, the Food Service Director identified the need for a fun but educational flyer to be include with the meals. Since the foodservice employees were focused on preparing the food, the Bullitt County Extension Service offered to provide that educ
Author: Shawn Wright
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Introduced a new producer to plasticulture strawberry production. She and her children were interested in adding a new crop to their existing market that would come in early and increase traffic to the stand. In addition she also had opportunity for wholesale contracts. Myself and the RCARS crew assisted her in field preparation, planting, fertilization, pest management, and winter protection. She was featured in the local newspaperhttps://www.nolangroupmedia.com/jackson_
Author: Paul Vijayakumar
Major Program: Local Food Systems
In compliance with mandatory USDA and FDA regulations for the prevention of health problems from low-acid and acidified canned foods, Dr. Paul Priyesh Vijayakumar (Process Authority) and his colleagues in the Food Systems Innovation Center offer the Better Process Control School to provide certification to supervisors regarding thermal processing systems and acidification and container closure evaluation programs. The UK-FSIC, in partnership with FDA and the KY State Department of Health (DPH) o
Author: Leann Martin
Major Program: Local Food Systems
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Feeding America, Kentucky and Logan County have a significant number of children and adolescents that fall under the classification of overweight or obese (16.1% overweight and 20.0% obese adolescents and 16% overweight and 15.9% obese children ages 2-5 years). There is also a large percentage of youth that do not eat the recommended number of fruits and vegetables daily (49.3% at vegetables less than 1 time a day and 51.7% ate fru
Author: Melissa Morgan (Newman)
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream started as a “food truck” (actually a cart and a tent) in 2013. From there, their quality products were offered at local festivals, weddings, & corporate events. The company continued to grow as they added a wholesale division and currently have two stores in the Lexington area. Along with this growth came increased regulatory requirements such as nutritional and allergen labeling. To be able to sell ice cream products legally in the U
Author: Melissa Morgan (Newman)
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Hall’s Original Snappy Beer Cheese is recognized nationally as one of the primer Kentucky based food products. Originally developed in the early 1960s and served in local restaurants the Hall’s product can be purchased at many Kroger and Sam’s Club stores. As any good entrepreneur knows the key to success is to not stay stagnate but to continue to be innovative and that is why the folks at Hall’s approached the Food Systems Innovation Center (FSIC) for assista
Author: Gregg Rentfrow
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife has two programs, Field to Fork, and Hook and Cook, that have grown in popularity and they needed help to continue to offer those programs to the state. We have worked with KFW in the past to develop recipe cards for various game through out the Commonwealth. A two day program was offered in February to train agents on how to conduct those programs. The agents were split into two groups; one group was trained in the Field to Fork program, while the ot
Author: Gregg Rentfrow
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on our society. The virus hit the national meat industry, causing temporary plant closures, along with shortages and limits at local grocery stores. The local meat processing industry stepped in to fill the void. However, meat processing in Kentucky quickly became overwhelmed, creating 12, 18, and 24 month waiting lists. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture and the Governor's Office of Ag Policy recognized this chall
Author: Gregg Rentfrow
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Consumers have become more interested in their food and the phrase "what's old is new again" applies to that fascination. My meat cutting demonstrations began a few years ago with a cattlemen's group that was wanting to know more about the new beef cuts being promoted by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the Kentucky Cattlemen's Association. Currently, they have expanded to include pork, chicken, deer, fish, country hams, as well as whole beef ca
Author: Gregg Rentfrow
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The Bluegrass Hospitality Group owns and operates the white tablecloth restaurants of Malone's, Sal's, and Drakes. The Kentucky Cattlemen's Association and I conduct training's for the waiters and waitress that work in the restaurants of the Bluegrass Hospitality Group. Alison Smith of the Kentucky Cattlemen's Association teaches them about the beef industry, nutritional value of beef, along with the differences types of beef (traditional, grass-finished, organic,
Author: Rebecca Konopka
Major Program: Local Food Systems
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic the Carter County Agriculture & Natural Resources Agent has created several “Around the Farm” videos to assist farmers and homeowners with their farming operation as well as their gardens and landscapes. The videos have been posted to Facebook and on the newly created Carter County Ag YouTube channel. Some of the videos have also included the Lewis County Agriculture & Natural Re
Author: Daniel Carpenter
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The LaRue County Extension Office and LaRue County Farm Bureau Federation held it’s 3rd annual Faith, Family, Farms and Food Dinner. The proceeds went to benefit the LaRue County FFA chapter. The entire dinner was sourced locally. All of the fruits and vegetables were from LaRue County, while the meats and cheeses were sourced from just outside the county lines. The menu included all the farms that the meal supported. The LaRue County Pork Producers prepared the pork for the meal. Tickets
Author: Christan Miracle
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Farm to Fork Field Day is a program that teaches 5th grade students across the county about agriculture and food in their community. In our rural community there is a need to teach youth about where their food comes from. Giving real life examples of many different food products is one way to show the students how their food gets to them. Reinforcing the information with take home items such as coloring books, handouts with literature, key chains, and other goody bag items also keeps the message
