This spring the Perry County Extension Service in cooperation with the Perry County Conservation District conducted its’ annual series of fruit and vegetable grower’s workshops.

     Since beginning this series, seven years ago, the workshops have continued to grow to the point people had to be turned away the last five years because of space limitations. More than 150 people attended the workshops.

     The Perry County Conservation District donated enough corn, two types of bean seed, and squash seed for 100 average gardens.

     One of the biggest reasons that there is so much interest in these workshops is growing your own fruit and vegetables is 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 a high unemployment rate.

  With an average garden producing well over 700 pounds of vegetables this can add up to a savings on the grocery bill of over $2000 annually. With our partner’s generous donation, there is a potential of $50,000 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 this one makes 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 $18.00 per tree. More than 150 trees were grafted.

     Producers who attended these workshops were also provided, free of charge, fruit trees. More than 300 fruit trees were given away. This represents a savings of $5,500.

     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 10 of the attendees who wanted to sell produce at the Perry County Farmer’s market.

We also partnered with the Kentucky Horticulture Council to provide free water testing to anyone using non-municipal water systems to water their fruit and vegetables. By testing non-municipal water sources is another step in the food safety process.

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