Small farms who raise niche crops and small scale produce are often at a disadvantage when marketing their products on a regional scale. Additionally, small operations often do not have the facilities to further process crops toward a market ready value added convenience item to further drive sales and profitability.

The Hancock Co Cooperative Extension Service has invested significant time in gathering resources for small farm operations so that these entities could move further toward sustainability. Working alongside the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, KCARD, Kentucky State University, The Food Connection, Local Food Banks and local government entities, business models were able to expand and to increase demand and thus further increasing production. Furthermore, additional facilities have been installed in the county to be further utilized for other commodities that might diversify farm income even further.

Experiences in this process yielded great knowledge as well as several contacts so that this process can be scaled and implemented on other small farms who specialize in producing niche crops and vegetables. This program allows small farm operations to compete in a larger market space.

Producers have been able to utilize the available resources to make significant investments to be able to further process locally grown produce so that they can ad value to their crops. These products are available for sale in the summer of 2024.