“Extension is the best kept secret in the county.” This is a common statement heard after helping clients. The Madison County Extension Council wanted to provide a program that would help the community know more about the programs offered at the Madison County Extension Office.

After brainstorming, the Council decided to host a Home, Farm and Garden Expo. The Extension Council and Agents decided to not partner or accept sponsorships from outside groups. They hoped to instead on just Extension programming. The goal was to reach new audiences and those unfamiliar with Extension.

Agents met with their program councils to decide on what they wanted their focus at the even to be. The Horticulture Council agreed to have several educational booths including:

1. Soil Sampling
2. Growing Mushrooms
3. Grow Smarter Not Harder  
4. Local Foods
5. Growing Fruit in Your Backyard
6. Composting

The Council also agreed to give three presentations.

1. Growing mushrooms
2. Local Foods
3. How to Grow Fruit

The booths were manned by the Horticulture Agent, members of the Madison County Master Gardeners, a local food volunteer and the University of Kentucky Mycology Club. Across all program areas there were over 100 volunteers that helped the day of the event.

The event was held at the Madison County Fairgrounds. Since we hoped to reach new audiences, extensive advertising was done, including television feeds in businesses, radio, and on a billboard.

Despite bad weather, over 580 people attended the Expo.

From talking to people one on one at the event, it was easy to talk them about programming but also connecting them to other available programs and point them in the right direction. A few themes emerged:

1. Newly moved to Madison County
2. Surprised by the how much local food is available in area
3. Was not aware how much Extension has to offer (this was true of those new to the area, but also to those who were already clients)
4. Our volunteers did an excellent job talking about an Extension and its impact