Jefferson County is home to many community orchards, planted by various organizations and individuals over many years. The challenge with orchards is often in finding individuals committed to the long-term care of the site and plants to help the trees reach maturity and produce the much sought-after fruit. To help solve this problem, the Jefferson Co. Horticulture Agent along with the KSU Urban Agriculture Agent and members of the Louisville Urban Agriculture Coalition organized third annual Winter Orchard Brigade to care for public orchards in Louisville.

The Horticulture agent coordinated and lead a volunteer leader trainings for orchard site hosts to teach basic fruit tree pruning in September of 2021. 11 community orchard leaders attended the training. From September 2021 through February 2022, a total of 9 community orchards hosts community pruning classes lead by Extension and/or a volunteer leader. The entire program engaged 74 participates in nine different orchards across Jefferson County. At the end of the pruning season, volunteer leaders met on zoom to debrief on the event. All community leaders were excited about the support and knowledge to care for their community orchards and asked for additional training prior to hosting community events in the winter of 2022-2023.