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
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
Author: Rebecca Konopka
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: Marlee Kelley
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: Gregg Rentfrow
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,
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
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
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: Melissa Morgan (Newman)
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
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: Leann Martin
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: Paul Vijayakumar
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: Shawn Wright
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: Don Sorrell
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: Chris Ammerman
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: Linda Hieneman
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: Jamie Dockery
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: Lynn Blankenship
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
