The Letcher County Extension Service has been an early promoter of the maple syrup industry in Kentucky. Those efforts have paid off with multiple producers of differing scales becoming producers. This year one of our producers made significant investments in increasing the size of his operation. Along with purchasing an evaporator and doubling the amount of tubing in his woodlands, he invested in the construction of a substantial sugaring house. This was spurred along based on the information he received by attending Extension's Kentucky Maple Syrup School at the Letcher County Extension Office. This multi-county, multi-state program is an annual effort to teach producers of all sizes about the various aspects of maple syrup production. 

As a result of these investments, his family reported that 23% of their family income came from agricultural receipts and that of that amount, 33% was from maple syrup sales at the local farmers market. He especially likes that this income has been generated during the off-season and that his children are heavily involved in the process. His oldest daughter (in her late teens) has maple value added baked goods that are sold at two farmers markets in the region and she also intends to expand. The producer commented in a UK Ag Comm interview that maple sugaring is one of the few ag enterprises he has encountered with the potential to be truly economically viable, even on a small scale. As a further testament, the pricier intends to expand by 66% in 2019 after a 50% increase in 2018.The producer credits his local agent and the Extension Service for helping make this possible.