In Warren County, the Cooperative Extension Service has noticed a rise and decline of vendors selling at local farmers markets. Area farmers markets are left with fewer vendors and limited produce variety at the market, once growers build up their customer base in order to sell off the farm.

In December 2020, the Warren County Extension Service offered the Virtual 2020 Specialty Crop Conference to assist beginning and experienced growers explore other opportunities to help diversify their farming operations to make money on the farm. Due to the success from participant attendance in 2020, the Warren County Extension Service offered another Virtual Specialty Crop Conference in 2021.  

The Virtual 2021 Specialty Crop Conference was a one-day training where interested participants attended general sessions in the morning and then were given options of break-out sessions to join in the afternoon. Morning topics covered Horticulture Council Update and Center for Crop Diversification (CCD) Resources. The afternoon break-out sessions offered grower to grower experience on growing strawberries, maple syrup production, record keeping basics, pumpkins, organic certification, high tunnel crops, watermelon, raspberries, and ginger and turmeric. In order to host the afternoon break-out sessions, several of the Mammoth Cave Area Agriculture Extension Agents served as break-out room hosts to assist with speaker introductions, monitor the chat box, and recording each individual session.  

This conference held on November 18^th via Zoom attracted a total of 50 registrants with 30 actual participants being in attendance on the day of the conference. Several participants joined in from all regions of Kentucky. Those in attendance ranged from a variety of experience levels from limited experience to farmers with 3 to 10+ years of farming experience, and others seeking information in general.

Following the program, a post-evaluation survey through Qualtrics measured other successes. Several people mentioned that they enjoyed the virtual format, since it didn’t take them away from the farm.  One person noted “So much good information!” Another participant noted that “it covered a lot of valuable information.”

Recordings from all the break-out sessions were posted on the Warren County Extension Office website to give others another opportunity to receive the information. These recordings were termed “on-demand videos” due to the high number of interest from participants. Overall this conference was another huge success for helping to educate and assist small farmers.