Perhaps someone bought a 5-10 acre home lot on which they are dreaming of homesteading and selling produce from a large garden. Maybe, they are retiring from work, inherited land, and suddenly became the steward of a much larger property. Possibly they are a young farmer leasing land for the first time and looking for a farm to purchase while they establish their business. Beginning farmers, market gardeners, and landowners come with many different situations; but, they tend to have similar interests and can benefit from similar educational opportunities.

The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service in Bullitt and Spencer Counties partnered to offer an ongoing series of classes for beginning farmers, market gardeners, and landowners.

Potential participants were surveyed and results indicated that the most desired topics were writing a business plan, basics of pasture and hayfield soil health, and protected cultivation. In addition to those three topics classes have covered goal setting and defining values; funding the farm with grants, loans, and other programs; marketing basics; and marketing with effective signage. Classes ranged from 8 to 65 participants with an approximately even gender distribution. Through extra advertising efforts on local radio stations, newspaper articles, and Meta and Eventbrite platforms, a diverse audience was invited to participate. Most of the classes included several attendees who had never been to an extension program before and multiple participants who identify as black or Hispanic. Offering one of the classes on zoom allowed participants with children to attend virtually. These successes will inform the planning of the next series of these classes.

In the first class, Dr. Steve Isaacs led a talk on defining why the participants want to farm and using values and strength assessments to determine what enterprises they should try. They walked away with the skills to set SMART Goals. Kara McIntosh out of the Farm Service Agency Service Center in Shelbyville provided information about acquiring a farm number and a swath of other resources for beginning farmers.

The second class focused on marketing. The speakers included Lewis Ramsey, who is the Home-Based Processor Coordinator for the Kentucky Food Safety Branch of the Dept. of Public Health. He provided an overview of rules and regulations surrounding home processing farm goods for sale. Bethany Prekopa Cox is the Direct Marketing Program Manager for the Kentucky Horticulture Council and she provided resources and ideas for digital marketing from the farm. To close out the presentations, Sharon Spencer, Director of the Direct Farm Marketing Division of KDA used her expertise as the coordinator of KDA's farmers' markets to share her tips on selling products at farmers markets. Out of the class attendees, 8 people participated in a survey after this class. 

• 100% self-reported that they "learned methods to reduce risk and improve farm profit". 
• 75% reported that they "will improve or maintain recordkeeping practices based on what they learned in class". 
• 100% reported an "increase in knowledge of farm business planning and financial management skills". 
• 87% reporting that they already have or plan to diversify their farm or market garden with enterprises including beef, hay, equine, honey, fruit, vegetables, baked goods and candy, and more.

At a class on pasture and hay field management, participants learned about soil health, rotational grazing, and reseeding pastures with plenty of university resources for learning more. 

The Center for Crop Diversity's Dr. Brett Wolff taught a surprisingly fascinating class on using signage for effective marketing in which participants got into the minutia of picking font sizes for roadside signs based on visibility and posted speed limits and determining what types of signs attract the most customers at a farmers market booth.

Bullitt County and Spencer County Agents brought in Spencer Guinn, a Business Development Specialist for the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD) to help beginning farmers, market gardeners, and landowners begin to write a business plan for their farm enterprises. 

In the final class of the series in 2022-2023, controlled environment horticulture specialist, Dr. Rachel Rudolph zoomed in to a crowded hybrid room of 50 in-person and 15 online participants to teach about the basics of incorporating high tunnels into one's farm. The Bullitt County and Spencer County Agents decided to offer this session in a more accessible hybrid format due to the request of several parents of young children who otherwise could not attend the extension programming. Suzanne Harris from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Service Center in Bardstown answered frequently asked questions about the NRCS High Tunnel Initiative which offers financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) cost share program.

The High Tunnel Class participants were surveyed with the following positive results. Of 72 registrants surveyed, 90% had never grown in a high tunnel before. In a self assessment, participants were asked "How Confident were you with high tunnels before this class?" and "How confident are you with high tunnels after this class?" The 75 who responded to the first question averaged 1.88 on a scale of 1 (Not Confident) to 5 (Very Confident). The 30 participants who answered the second question averaged 2.9 on the same scale with an average increase of 1.02 points in increased confidence. No surveyed participants left feeling "Not Confident" and five left feeling "Very Confident"! 

Additionally, 27 surveyed participants averaged 4.26 on the same scale of confidence when asked "How confident are you in finding resources for high tunnels after this class?" So, even those who did not have all of their questions answered left knowing they could turn to the Cooperative Extension Service for more resources.