Madison County Farm, Home, and Garden Expo Success Story

Madison County Extension Agents want and need to bring attention and awareness to the local community to keep Extension from being the "Best Kept Secret." Madison County Extension Council decided to host an event that will help bring attention and awareness to the unique resources available through the Madison County Extension Office.

The Madison County Extension Farm, Home, and Garden Expo utilized various venues for outreach to share about the event including billboards, radio announcements, social media videos shared from Extension sources and the local news station, live on-location radio hosting, newspaper articles, newsletter bulletins, and through flyers shared by volunteers across all program areas. The Expo was hosted by the Madison County Extension Council and supported by Extension volunteers as well as collaborative partners who are invested in the future of Extension, such as local FCCLA chapters and FFA students and leaders. The Expo provided an opportunity for 4-Her's, their families, local Homemaker groups, Master Gardeners, and the Beef Cattle Association to all rally around Madison County Extension Professionals and staff to share expertise in a wide variety of fields, which demonstrates how Extension builds and supports our local community in a wide variety of ways.  The event was held at the Madison County Fairgrounds in Richmond KY. There were more than 100 volunteers total for the event, spread across all four program areas.

Program areas featured various topics in booths or with guest speakers and demonstrations to ensure something useful and interesting for everyone.

The horticulture agent featured topics including: composting, growing fruit, soil sampling, growing mushrooms, local foods, good bug- bad bug, and grow smarter not harder.

The 4-H agents offered many kid friendly activities for all ages as well as some games and a petting zoo in the “Clover Corner” section of the Farm, Home, and Garden Expo! Educational exhibits and presentations included meat goats, hair sheep, beef cattle, chickens, dairy goats, horses, a duck slide, pedal tractor course, a service learning project, 3D archery, hay rides, corn bin sensory area, make and take bird feeder, and country ham samples. 4-H also highlighted each of their clubs with displays, and each activity they did tied back to a 4-H club the family could join! For example, Madison County 4-H Project Club allowed youth to make clay sculptures they could enter in the fair, and the Madison County 4-H Shooting Sport Team hosted 3-D Archery and the shooting gallery. The 4-H Livestock Club, 4-H Poultry Pals Club, and 4-H Saddle Club worked together to host the petting zoo. Each station had a sign with details on how to get more involved in that particular club! 4-H Members were asked to man stations and welcome the participants into their booths and discuss their 4-H involvement with the public. “Clover Corner”  also included a few stations like the free popcorn and apple cider station, where there were facts about apple and corn, both from an agricultural and nutritional standpoint. 4-H agents believe the “Clover Corner” section was a perfect mix of fun educational opportunities, excellent opportunities for current 4-Hers to work on communications and marketing skills, and a wonderful recruitment tool for future 4-Hers!

The Ag agent featured topics such as a meat cutting demonstration, honey and beekeeping, Ask a Farmer station, beef productions, pasture/ hay/ and forage with weed identification, as well as hosted a panel of speakers consisting of local farmers for open discussions.

The FCS agent offered informational booths that included information and activities related to green cleaning, Savor the Flavor, Financial Planning and budgeting, quick-breads, air fryer basics, disaster preparedness, Grandparents as Parents, Parenting, and NEP programming.  Matt Dixon and Kayla Watts, spoke about Ag Weather and how disaster preparedness impacts each and every person.  UK healthcare brought incentives and information concerning overall health and wellness opportunities available in our local area. The FCCLA students interacted with children to offer healthy, quick, and easy snacks and crafts. The Madison County Extension Homemakers hosted a "Homemaker Village," where participants can interact with various club members and projects that included membership, quilting, sewing, scrapbooking and cardmaking, the Food and Nutrition Plan of Work Snack project, and also offered two activities for make and take projects using recycled socks to make pumpkins and also making greeting cards.  Demonstrations also included food preservation in accordance with the NEP assistant, a charcuterie demo with Victoria Faoro, our Champion Food Volunteer, Freeze Drying vs. Dehydrating, and Packing Your Childs Healthy Lunchbox with UK Specialist Anna Cason.

586 people came to the event in total, while 354 were adults and 232 were youth.

Evaluation data and program impact is still under review.