Small, family farms have always been the backbone of agriculture in Clark County. Interest and demand for utilizing and producing locally grown food has also been on the rise. This has been indicated with a growing customer and vendor base at the local farmers market, and the number of requests received from local farmers for information related to growing fruits and vegetables. In the past five years, the Winchester Clark County farmers market has grown from only 6 vendors, to now more than 30 vendors in 2017. Farmers are looking to further diversify their farming operations, and to make them more productive while minimizing expense in response to a very difficult farm economy. Due to many requests from farmers, and an increase in vegetable production from small part time farmers, the Clark County Cooperative Extension Service began working with several farmers that were new to vegetable production by conducting a black plastic mulch demonstration program. Farmers participating in the program were provided up to 4,000 ft of black plastic mulch, and trickle irrigation tube. Clark County ANR Extension Agent David Davis, and summer ANR Intern Kendal Bowman assisted farmers with installing the black plastic mulch, and a trickle irrigation system. The initial installation was followed with bi-weekly farm visits throughout the season to assist farmers with the next steps in production. These visits were designed with individual one-on-one lessons with each farmer due to varying background in farming in general, and previous vegetable production experience. With more experience farmers, on-farm demonstrations were conducted regarding trellising systems, pre-emergent herbicide use, and some organic production methods. With less experience farmers, visits were focused on developing general production skills such as scouting for diseases, insects, and weeds; teaching farmers how to recognize production issues; utilizing UK Extension resources such as soil testing; and much more. Five farms participated in the program in 2017. One was “more experienced” that hosted demonstrations for a farm field day and several vegetable production workshops that had a total attendance of 46 participants. The other three farms were in the “less experienced” category. All of these farms finished the program. 100% of the participants reported an increase in farm income as a result of participating in the program. Of the farms, 80% indicated that they would not have ever tried black plastic mulch technology without the program. Only 1 of the farmers indicated that they would not continue to use black plastic mulch next year, but they also stated that time constraints creating the need to eliminate the vegetable production enterprise due to needs with other established farm enterprises, and a promotion at their everyday job was the reason they would not continue. 100% of the program participants highly agreed that they had learned new practices, principles, or methods for their farming operation while participating in the program. One participant also stated, “This program showed me the value of the Cooperative Extension Service. Because of what I have learned, and the help from the agent and summer intern, I tell every farmer that I see that they need to make sure to utilize the Cooperative Extension Service.” Another farmer stated, “This program was so valuable to my farm. The assistance from the summer intern and the agent were extraordinary. I would have never been successful without the black plastic mulch, and I feel like what I have learned from this program has more than tripled my income from the farmers market sales.” The black plastic mulch program has also led to a new program that will be offered in 2018 called "Intensive Vegetable Grower", interest in creating a farm to school program, a potential food hub and marketing facility, and some growers are also considering the potential to expand their production to wholesale markets.