In April, the Perry County Extension Service in cooperation with the Perry County Conservation District conducted its’ annual fruit and vegetable grower’s workshop.

     Since beginning this program, eleven years ago, the workshops have continued to grow to the point where people had to be turned away in the last eight years because of space limitations. More than 60 people attended this years’ workshop.

      The Perry County Conservation District donated two corn varieties, two types of bean seed, cucumber seed, mustard seed and lettuce seed for 400 average gardens. More than $13,000.00 in vegetable seed was handed out. The Perry County Conservation District also supplied two fruit trees to everyone that attended the workshop with a value over $8,000.00.  In total, more than $21,000.00 in fruit trees and vegetable seed were handed out at the workshop.

     One of the biggest reasons that there is so much interest in this workshop is growing your own fruit, and vegetables are an excellent way to help offset the home grocery bill. Families need all the help they can get in Perry County with a poor economy and inflation has increased food prices considerably.

  With an average garden producing well over 700 pounds of vegetables, considering inflation, this can add to a savings on the grocery bill of over $3,000 annually. With our partner’s generous donation, there is a potential of $75,000 in new vegetable production.

      Other benefits include, it promotes a healthier lifestyle which we need in eastern Kentucky, and the quality of produce you get plus introducing our next generation into gardening. Perry County has also been named a food desert and workshops such as these make healthy foods more available to Perry County residents.

     These workshops included intensive training in vegetable production, fruit production and fruit & vegetable disease and insect management. The Perry County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources conducted grafting workshops to teach how to graft your own fruit trees which can save up to $25.00 per tree. More than 100 trees were grafted.

     Evaluations return from these workshops revealed 10% of the attendees had never gardened or had very limited gardening experience but all planned to garden this season. 100% of the participants reported gaining knowledge from the workshops in insect and disease control and planned to apply what they learned. 75% planned to increase their orchards or vegetable gardens and sale some of their produce at the Perry County Farmer’s Market to increase family income.

     The Perry County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources also provided Produce Best Practices Food Safety Training to attendees who wanted to sell produce at the Perry County Farmer’s market. 11 producers were trained.

     Attendees from past workshop have reported making, on average $250-$1000, from selling extra produce at the Farmer’s Market.