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Reflections on Experiences with the Center for Crop Diversification Summer Fellowship Program.
67 Plays3 months ago
In this episode of Hort Culture, we're joined by Macey Thompson, who shares her insights from the Center for Crop Diversification's summer fellowship program. Macey shares details of her hands-on experience with pricing reports and farmers markets, managing social media posts, writing a publication, and much more!
Center for Crop Diversification Fellowship Program
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: [email protected]
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Transcript
Weather and Introductions
00:00:18
Brett
Greetings, hello, hello, hello.
00:00:20
atack2010
Oh, good people.
00:00:21
Brett
How are you all doing?
00:00:23
atack2010
Very well, very well.
00:00:23
Jessica
Okay.
00:00:24
atack2010
The weather here in Kentucky, as of the date of this recording, is supposed to be getting a little cooler. And um I'm kind of glad of it. Kind of glad of it.
00:00:31
Brett
and Yeah, I got back from Alabama not too long ago. And before I went, well, you know, no.
00:00:36
atack2010
Nice and some cool in Alabama.
00:00:39
Brett
um But it before I went, it got really terribly hot and humid here.
00:00:39
atack2010
and not Not really. Yeah.
00:00:44
Brett
And so I had a little acclimation time. ah to to and get get up to speed with that heat and humidity.
00:00:47
atack2010
Gotcha.
Macy Thompson's Summer Experience
00:00:51
Brett
um But we have a guest with us today, and I'll let her introduce herself. And and she her experience this summer is what we're going to be focusing on a little bit this during this episode.
00:01:02
Brett
But Macy, you mind saying hello to the folks at home?
00:01:04
Macey Thompson
Yeah, so as Brett said, I'm Macy Thompson. I'm the current fellow summer with the CCD out at UK. This summer I've just kind of been traveling and ah seeing what the horticulture industry has.
00:01:22
Brett
awesome and i i think you know by way of intro i wanted you to share with us something that i think you shared with jessica which is can you give us the thumbnail on the miss herford is that a herford queen
00:01:32
Macey Thompson
Yes.
00:01:33
atack2010
Oh no, you just brought her up right off, right off.
00:01:33
Macey Thompson
aye you. That is fine. I was fortunate enough to serve as the Kentucky Hereford Queen for the 2023-2024 year for the Kentucky Hereford Association. So I was an advocate. I had a crown and sash and I went to cattle shows and wore a crown and sash around.
00:01:34
Jessica
i'm sorry i share
00:01:57
Brett
That's awesome. so for the For the people who are ah mostly plant nerds who listen to this channel or listen to this ah these these podcasts, Hereford is a a breed of cattle and this was associated with like ah the Hereford, I don't know what you call it, society or Hereford Association.
00:02:00
Jessica
I'm sorry, I share.
00:02:12
Macey Thompson
Yes. So yeah, so it's just a breed of beef cattle and it's very popular in the state of Kentucky and the Kentucky Hereford Association is kind of what sponsored that. So it's kind of like the Kentucky Horticulture Council and stuff like that.
00:02:30
Brett
Have you all have you ever been crowned anything of any sort?
00:02:31
atack2010
And I'm not on purpose now.
00:02:37
Jessica
i I was prom queen, but I don't really.
00:02:40
Brett
I was just gonna say that you were giving prom queen.
00:02:40
atack2010
Oh, wow. one What?
00:02:43
Jessica
Did you tell?
00:02:43
atack2010
What? Did I forget this?
00:02:45
Jessica
Yeah.
00:02:45
Brett
I was in this, oh my gosh.
00:02:46
Jessica
How did that happen?
00:02:46
atack2010
Wow.
00:02:47
Jessica
I know. I was just shocked.
00:02:49
atack2010
I thought you won all the sports accolades, but I didn't realize you were also prom coin over eating.
00:02:50
Jessica
What?
00:02:53
Jessica
ah Yeah.
00:02:54
atack2010
Yeah.
New Podcast Host: Jessica Besson
00:02:55
Brett
showing she has range.
00:02:55
atack2010
Okay.
00:02:56
Brett
and And speaking of which, the voice that you're hearing now, ah not right now, which is me, ah Brett, but ah is the voice of Jessica Besson, who has joined as a as a permanent host.
00:02:57
atack2010
Yeah.
00:03:01
atack2010
Yeah.
00:03:05
Jessica
and
00:03:08
Brett
So you you know, from recent episodes that Josh Knight ah has has moved on in his professional career upward toward ah toward the great north of Vermont. And Alexis couldn't join us today, but Jessica ah will be is now with a permanent, one of our permanent hosts of horticulture.
00:03:27
Brett
um
00:03:27
Jessica
Yeah, I'm, I'm excited and thank you guys for having me back on here.
00:03:30
atack2010
She has no idea know what she has signed up for, I don't think.
00:03:30
Jessica
So.
00:03:33
Jessica
Right. Right.
00:03:34
Brett
And can you can you remind us like the the vantage point from which you're joining this, both in your role in extension, but also some of your experience across across your your life.
00:03:47
Jessica
Yeah. So I've, um, actually this next week, I've been a county extension agent in Mercer County for 10 years, which is kind of hard to believe.
00:03:54
Brett
Woo, congratulations.
00:03:56
Jessica
Yeah, thank you. Um, so horticulture agent, I have an undergrad in horticulture and a master's in entomology. So I am the local bug lady around the office.
00:04:07
Jessica
Um, I've actually done a lot of youth insect programs. Uh, we had an insect club for a while going on here at the office. Uh, but otherwise I grew up on a farm and just like how Macy, I grew up with a beef cattle and that kind of production, but moved into horticulture and my husband and I.
00:04:17
Macey Thompson
Thank you.
00:04:26
Jessica
and grow vegetables, and he he does farmer's markets, and we actually we actually met at the UK Horticulture Research Farm. so and But vegetables, we still have cattle and bees. We do a lot of beekeeping and stuff like that. So I have a little bit of, you know, dabble in a little bit of all different areas in horticulture and traditional ag.
00:04:51
Brett
Yeah, you can see why we're very lucky that she agreed to join us on the podcast. It's tons of different experiences, and so that is the Youth Insect Club, that's that's for nymphs and pupa, or is it, a oh, the human they're human youths learning about insects, I understand, got it.
00:05:02
atack2010
Nice, nice.
00:05:03
Jessica
Right? Oh, I love that. I should advertise it that way and see if... Yes, yeah.
00:05:09
atack2010
It's the immature stage, yeah, yeah.
00:05:10
Jessica
Yeah. Immature human.
00:05:13
Brett
I see, well, I'm still in that stage, it it appears.
00:05:15
atack2010
I am too, I exist in it.
00:05:15
Jessica
You could join. We're getting ready to start back up. Now this is school year is starting.
00:05:20
Brett
Very cool.
00:05:21
atack2010
It is very cool.
00:05:22
Brett
So Ray, you you said you didn't, you haven't been crowned anything.
00:05:26
atack2010
No, no, I don't think I have any accolades in the way of formal title titles such as that. So I don't think so.
00:05:32
Brett
I don't either.
00:05:34
atack2010
I mean, I'm kind of blanked on that. Yeah. I don't know.
00:05:37
Brett
Well, we'll have that.
00:05:37
atack2010
Uh, but ah I, want a title.
00:05:38
Brett
Maybe that's our 20 that goes on our 2025 vision board for ourselves is like, let's claim a title.
00:05:45
Brett
Yeah, we had to be kings of something because both of these two are have been queens of something. So we have to shoot for that as our...
00:05:45
atack2010
are I know.
00:05:50
atack2010
I feel like I'm underachieving right now.
00:05:52
Brett
Yeah.
00:05:53
atack2010
I feel like I'm underachieving. So yeah, that's so cool.
00:05:55
Jessica
I'm sure there's something out there.
00:05:56
Brett
but
00:05:58
atack2010
Oh, there's something out there.
00:05:59
Brett
But...
00:05:59
Jessica
Yeah.
00:05:59
atack2010
I'm going to be it. I'm going to be the guy in something.
00:06:02
Jessica
you You're gonna be the guy.
00:06:02
atack2010
I'm going to be the guy in something.
00:06:04
Brett
You're gonna be the guy.
00:06:05
atack2010
I'll be the dude. I'm going to be the dude.
Macy's Insights on CCD and Market Dynamics
00:06:09
Brett
Well today we wanted to, um so I've had the privilege of this summer working with Macy Sum on this, ah she mentioned the CCD Center for Crop Diversification Fellowship, which was sponsored by the Kentucky Horticulture Council to give um an undergraduate student a chance to engage in some aspect of the horticulture industry and um Macy's accomplished a whole lot this summer and has had some different experiences and we just wanted to get her on here to share. Macy, I mean, do you have any like overall impressions of the stuff that you've seen this summer or any particular part of the experience that jumped out at you as um being really interesting or unexpected or something like that?
00:06:51
Macey Thompson
Yeah, I think my favorite part, excuse me, my favorite part of the summer was probably just being able to go to farmer's markets every single week. um That was so like so much fun. We have farmer's markets back at home in Brett County where I'm from, but um we never really went to them very often. So whenever I got to go this summer, and I got to meet so many people and so many people that I still know and that I still talk to. I'm not finished yet, but um I keep in contact with them. I'm able to see how their production process works, um how their marketing plans work and all of that fun stuff. um I would say that that was probably my favorite part. But overall, this summer has been incredibly enjoyable and working with the CCD team has been great. Yeah.
00:07:46
Brett
So what kind of what kind of stuff are you getting into at Farber's Markets?
00:07:48
Macey Thompson
So I go around and I do price reporting. So essentially I have a sheet that has all the different types of produce and goods that ah we need prices for because the CCD puts together a three year um spreadsheet that kind of just shows all the different prices for farmers markets over the years. And so I go around to every single vendor and I get to talk to them and I get to just look at their produce, have a good conversation with them and then see what their prices are for that week.
00:08:25
Jessica
And I can tell you as somebody for working in my horticulture agent position, working with growers and personal wise, um that is so important. Like I can tell you how many vendors, you know, look at that document and base their, their prices and stuff off of that. And it's a good starting point for people who are like, I don't, you know, who have no idea what to charge when they start going to a market. So, so I'm glad you enjoyed doing that. And it's really appreciated.
00:08:52
Macey Thompson
Yeah I just I never coming from a beef cattle operation I never realized that like what I'm doing now is a thing and like what the CCD does and how much they input into the horticulture industry and the ag industry as a whole but I kind of really started to realize it whenever I was
00:09:11
Macey Thompson
at a market and I just had and all of a sudden like one week all these growers are just starting to ask me like what are the prices for this week like what's going on and then I realized like oh it's getting really hot in Kentucky and a lot of stuff's not growing very well. So I realizing how important what I was doing was really cool for me in that moment but just seeing how much they depended on that was something I never understood.
00:09:12
Jessica
you
00:09:40
Brett
Yeah, the the world of horticulture, but also just of direct marketing in general, it's ah it's so decentralized and spread out, and there's uniqueness to it. And ah you've you've seen that with the way that people do units. One week, they'll whole sell tomatoes by the pound, the next by the quart, the next by the you know heaping handful, or I don't know what the the unit is ah sometimes. but um I think it's you know we've we've worked to do that for a long time to provide that information, and there's been other places ah have have kind of joined in and doing that as well across the country. But it is a really unique market to provide information for, and it's also, like you said, it's cool to be able to walk around and you like say, oh, this is what I'm working on, and someone has recognition of, like oh, yeah, we use those, or we look at those. um
00:10:30
Brett
is ah it's a pretty neat thing. ah You all have, what's your, you all have a market going and um in Mercer County, Jessica?
00:10:38
Jessica
We do. We have a market. They they are starting to grow. um And where they're very fortunate that they actually have a building that they can set up in. So they set up in a building on the on Saturdays, but then they've kind of moved to their midweek market downtown on our main street to try to pull in some you know different foot traffic that way. But I know they use those price reports because I've often shared shared them with them multiple times.
00:11:04
atack2010
I'll make sure to share the market reports, which I think are incredibly valuable with ah especially all of our new members. But I mean, at each of our annual meeting, if there's been a significant update in those reports, and um I push those at the ah the annual meeting that we have every year in the early spring. And I also give out the website that you guys do because those are are really great. And we've talked about on the podcast before that it's not an exact formula, but it's a great guideline to get some overviews of things like price trends. And it's even great that there's so many markets included in those price reports from across the state. So it's a good snapshot. that's it So that's good work, Macy. Yeah, and that's neat that you got to be involved in that with the markets. Pretty cool.
00:11:49
Jessica
Did you have one that you enjoyed like more than the others? Was there one that had like some unique events going on or anything when you were visiting?
00:11:57
Macey Thompson
and I think I really just enjoy, I enjoyed the Sunday market the best over on Southland Drive here in Lexington. um I don't know if it's because I didn't have to pay for parking there or if, um but also because so many of the local markets are on Saturdays.
00:12:11
atack2010
convenience, yeah.
00:12:16
Macey Thompson
So a lot of those local vendors from other, from the surrounding areas also come on Sundays. So that market is really big and you have a lot and you have different vendors there than you do on Saturdays in downtown. So I really enjoyed that part too.
00:12:33
Brett
I thought another another part of your you know your farmer's market experience that was pretty cool was working on. Macy and I sat down at the beginning of the year or beginning of the summer, I should say, and and just sort of worked out a plan for what she wanted to do this summer. and and Part of it was ah this like social media campaign of some sort. and You chose to do yours. It was related to the same the same market channel and in community. um sod I'd love to hear more just more about your experience with that and and you know what inspired it and what what you did, I guess, and what inspired it.
00:13:04
Macey Thompson
Yeah, so I knew that whenever I saw that I got to do a social media campaign that I wanted to do something that I was already going to be doing hands on with my other task for my fellowship this summer. And I was like, hmm.
00:13:19
Macey Thompson
What about farmers markets? What can I do with that? So ah me and Brett kind of talked it out and I was like, well, what if we just highlight some of the vendors, some of their stories and kind of build the bridge between the consumer and the producer on that part? And so.
00:13:37
Macey Thompson
i didn't start right off the bat because I didn't want to be like the Crazy person walking up counting their prices and then asking them why they sell tomatoes on Sundays like I didn't want to be that person so um I kind of got to go I build my relationships with them ah over the course of a couple weeks and Then I just started kind of picking some of the vendors that I knew that I had conversations with earlier and I was able to talk and just have a conversation with them. Obviously I told them, I was like I'm gonna post this on social media if that's okay and they were always okay with it.
00:14:14
Macey Thompson
but um I was just able to sit there and like have a conversation that was about horticulture and their story and their farm and um kind of why they're doing what they're doing. and i just That was one of the best parts about the farmer's market was just being able to talk to those producers and hear their side. um That was just something that was really special to me because I know as a beef producer, I love whenever people come and ask me questions about it. so I was just able to talk to them a lot. So there's five or six posts going out on the CCD and it just highlights different farms and why they love selling at farmer's markets and what the appeal is of it and um how the consumers kind of play a role in that part.
00:15:08
Brett
Well, Jessica, you're a you know you worked with vendors and also been a vendor yourself. So what's your answer to that question? I'm curious.
00:15:18
Jessica
about, um yeah, can you repeat the question again?
00:15:19
Brett
Can you repeat the question, Macy?
00:15:21
Macey Thompson
So why they sell at farmer's market and kind of what the appeal of it is.
00:15:23
atack2010
you
00:15:24
Jessica
Oh. I think, well, one, you know you're going to have customers, right? Like there's not, there's not the worry if I grow all these tomatoes, you know, is this business, are they going to take them this week or are they not going to take them this week? Usually at a market you're going to have foot traffic.
00:15:45
Jessica
But now as my husband and I have been doing this for almost 14 years, I think doing markets, you build relationships with those customers and there are certain people you look for every year and there's people who look for you. And I feel like just building those relationships is another big factor in it. And just again, the foot traffic of knowing that if you're a part of a good active market, there are going to be customers that are going to be there.
00:16:14
Jessica
and on a regular basis to to shop and versus that unknown of selling wholesale or selling at some of the auctions of what you're really going to get for all that you know effort that you put into growing that crop.
00:16:30
Macey Thompson
I kind of heard you're good.
00:16:31
atack2010
Farmers markets, oh, go ahead, I'm sorry, yeah.
00:16:33
Macey Thompson
I kind of heard that whenever I went. So this summer I also got to visit farms and everything and I was always asking like what are other avenues that you sell other than on farm sites and all that stuff.
00:16:44
Macey Thompson
And they and the thing that I just kept on hearing was farmers markets, farmers markets, farmers markets. And that was essentially what they were saying. They knew that they were going to have people there. They knew that if the business that they had lined up didn't need it or if the school system that they had lined up didn't need it at that point, that they always had somebody there at the farmer's market, which I thought was really special for them.
00:17:11
atack2010
It seems like that ah farmers markets, um and I'm sure you've noticed this when you go around. I mean, we can say a farmers market in Kentucky, you would make certain baseline assumptions, but did you find that every market had its own character and kind of had its own flow that you were able to visit with this summer? That's always something that's very interesting to me. And every market that I've ever worked with have been really, once you get to know the markets, it seems like it's been different, each one.
00:17:38
Macey Thompson
Yeah, I think so 100%.
00:17:42
Macey Thompson
The main two that I went to were the one on Southland Drive here in Lexington and then the downtown market in Lexington.
00:17:48
atack2010
Mm hmm. Mostly in Lexington.
00:17:49
Macey Thompson
And just the difference between those two is kind of crazy just because
00:17:51
atack2010
Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:54
Macey Thompson
on
00:17:55
atack2010
Even in the same city.
00:17:56
Macey Thompson
Yeah, on Saturdays, whenever I went, it was downtown, you had a lot of young people.
00:17:56
atack2010
Yeah.
00:17:57
atack2010
Wow.
00:18:02
Macey Thompson
You had a lot of people that were looking for different types of produce. Maybe they were looking for more organic things or maybe they were looking for and flowers or other non horticulture goods at that farmer's market.
00:18:15
Macey Thompson
But then on Sunday you had the families and maybe and more generational crowds at the farmer's market looking for um not only produce, but meat and essentially doing the majority of their grocery shopping at that farmer's market.
00:18:32
Macey Thompson
And I just thought that the difference between those two are ah very definite, but they're all both very welcoming at the same time.
00:18:33
atack2010
yeah
00:18:42
atack2010
Yeah, yeah cool farmers markets pretty neat
00:18:43
Jessica
Yeah, there's a third one in Lexington as well. And it's also um like, again, very welcoming, same kind of atmosphere, but totally different at the same time compared to the downtown, the Southland Drive, and then the one that's out in Hamburg.
00:19:02
Jessica
So it's, it's pretty wild how on the same city, how different they can still, they can still be. And I know of of other agents, like in Madison County, I believe they also have like three markets
00:19:09
atack2010
you
00:19:14
Jessica
there and that the horticulture agent there has shared how even though they are all fairly close to each other, it's all you know different crowds that are attending the different markets in the same community.
00:19:27
Brett
Yeah, I think I think that's that notion of different client bases or different customer bases as sort of the defining characteristic of the market. And if you have a large enough or a large enough local food consumer base, whether that be from being in a big city or just having a devoted cross section of local food consumers, you may have some enough people there to support these different types of markets, something that has a little more of a big city prepared food, ah you know, maybe value added products, kind of higher dollar item stuff more to like a farm stand or fresh produce grower only maybe or those those types of of distinctions. I think it's really,
00:20:09
Brett
Something we talk about all the time is like market type and understanding what your market type is as a grower and ah more often than not, talk about not wishing. like if you No matter how much you wish that your market type was a different type of market, but you wish that you had richer you know richer customers coming and spending more money. If you can plan for the things that your customers want, you're going to have less ah less frustration ah in the long run, I think.
00:20:33
Brett
Macy, you started talking a little bit about your your farm visits and I think that it probably leads into as well the um some of the stuff you've explored with the writing and developing an extension publication.
Exploring UPick Operations
00:20:46
Brett
um So maybe you just talk about the the farms that you've, what you can mention which farms you visited and what you what your impressions were there um and then talk a little bit about some of the extension publications or the other writing that you did. I'd love to hear more about that.
00:21:00
Macey Thompson
Yeah. So I got to, well, okay, I'll start out at the beginning of the summer. Um, one thing that really caught my eye whenever I was looking at my work plan for the CCD was that I got to write an extension publication and all throughout high school and an FFA and everything that I did, we always read extension publication. So I was like, Oh my goodness, why are they letting me write this? And so,
00:21:26
Macey Thompson
I decided that I wanted to do it over you pick operations because the more I looked into it, the less that there were about pick your own operations, especially in the state of Kentucky. And so I was talking to Brett and he was like, yeah, you know, that's a great um starting point. Let's do it. And so I got to go to the Mulberry farm and Steppingstone farm.
00:21:51
Macey Thompson
And I met with both of those and they were very easy to work with. They loved all the questions that I was asking. um Stepping stone farm, they have just about everything you can think of. and They have an orchard, they have berry fields, they have kids areas, um everything that you kind of think of whenever that they can offer they have and essentially I was talking to her about the marketing side of her operation and she says that she just finds the people that come and asks what they want and that's what she provides and I think that that is really important because I know a lot of um
00:22:33
Macey Thompson
farmers and agriculturalists, they're doing the same thing over and over and over again because that's what they're accustomed to. But I really just loved how she was so open to being able to offer more things and being able to adapt to her customers. And same thing with the Mulberry Farm. and They found that They were a grain operation, a grain and cattle operation, they had tobacco, and then whenever they needed a different source of income and they needed more income on the same amount of land, that's whenever they kind of started getting into the orchard process. And so they were able to find those ways to be able to
00:23:12
Macey Thompson
make more income and serve more people because now they sell, I think that they sell their apples to Jefferson County Public Schools and then a few of their other surrounding counties around um Shelbyville. So they found those markets and they found what they needed to adhere to and that's exactly what they did. And I thought that that was really cool, um especially on the Yupik side because I know whenever we think of Yupik, it's either flowers or it's apple and pumpkin fields. And ah they were able to kind of make their name off of their Yupik operations. So I was able to talk to them about their management skills, which I thought were very beneficial, not only to Yupik, but also to just farming practices in general.
00:23:58
Macey Thompson
and But over the course of this summer, I've just been able to see how managing horticulture farms um is so important and so decisive and intensive. And I just thought that that was really neat because they the two farms that I was able to visit this summer showed just how perseverance and determination, how far that can get you. And I thought that that was really admirable.
00:24:29
Brett
Yeah, Stepping Stone Farms, kind of it's an interesting um story that you know they've they have this farm which has been in their family and they developed it into this ah blend of kind of agritourism and um ah event hosting, but also on-farm sales in their general store, I guess you would call it.
00:24:38
Jessica
Yeah.
00:24:54
Brett
I don't know exactly what to call it, but um
00:24:57
atack2010
Sort of, yeah.
00:24:58
Brett
But then they've also um they've also developed out this relationship with Reed Valley Farm, ah which has historical anyone who's been around Kentucky agriculture for a while is maybe be familiar with that. One of our OG, UPIC, and horticulture direct-to-consumer operations.
00:25:18
Brett
and the um ah Mr. Mrs. Reed decided they wanted to kind of get get out of that business but wanted it to try to remain in in farming if possible and and in the have obviously with fruit you know it's a perennial crop and so the ah they were able to figure out a way to to.
00:25:38
Brett
transition management and and ownership, I think. I don't know all the details of that to the folks at Stepping Stone, which is just not that far away. But Macy, you were talking about how, I remember we talked about how the the Reed Valley customer base and the Stepping Stone customer base were kind of a little different. And they were trying to kind of figure out a way to to meet both of those. Is that ringing a bell or did I completely make that up?
00:26:00
Macey Thompson
Yes, no that rings very clear Bill.
00:26:03
atack2010
Yeah, you totally made that up, Brent. Yeah, no.
00:26:05
Macey Thompson
So Reed Valley has obviously been established a lot longer than Stepping Stone and that crowd that goes there is very different than the Stepping Stone crowd.
00:26:15
Macey Thompson
So the Stepping Stone crowd is kind of those the younger generation and then I was talking to her she's appealing to like those young mothers that are putting um food first for their families that want to get their kids out and get immersed in nature and different things like that. So she's looking at these young generations, these young families um to kind of get out and get involved in agriculture. And the point of stepping stone is to get education to those who don't really understand how their food is produced or harvested or where it comes from. So that was kind of her pushing point with stepping stone.
00:26:53
Macey Thompson
Whereas whenever she adopted Reed Valley, she already had those um that initial customer base. So she had to find a way to basically separately manage Reed Valley and Stepping Stone. And the Reed Valley is managed quite differently than Steppingstone whenever you're kind of looking at those generational changes. So at Steppingstone, there's a small fee that gets you admitted and is able to cover some of your activities there. Whereas at Reed Valley, those customers didn't have that. So she chose not to implement that admission fee um just to kind of respect those initial customers that were already there, which I thought was great.
00:27:37
Macey Thompson
and And it was something that she was just able to kind of look and see what, and she was able to prioritize based on each farm, which I thought was very beneficial for her in the long run.
00:27:54
atack2010
Orchards are kind of neat in the state any which way in that they tend to be a little bit larger operations. ah and So the business considerations of those are a little bit different. They're perennial crops instead of annual crops. ah The orchards to me are really, really just fascinating ah around the state. And in Extension, we're able to visit with a lot of those folks. and And just like farmer's markets, they're each just a little bit different. And even within the same county of Bourbon County, you know Reeds was a lot different than Steppingstone.
00:28:27
atack2010
but It's just ah fascinating how they're organized, what the mission is, and what the end goal is, and you know everything from that to which crops that they grow. ah It's just always interesting the stories behind these orchards that we have in the state. Fascinating business operations for sure.
Diversification at Stepping Stone Farm
00:28:46
Jessica
Yeah, that one is a pretty unique you know situation. I mean, really, really cool because we're they were able to be so close to reeds, right?
00:28:56
atack2010
Yeah.
00:28:56
Jessica
And to keep reeds going and to be such a diversified farm so quickly.
00:29:01
atack2010
Yeah.
00:29:02
Jessica
And because they were doing traditional ag, weren't they? like Ray had worked with them and I feel like you're still doing some of that.
00:29:07
atack2010
Yeah, the that that family still is. Yeah, there still is.
00:29:10
Jessica
Yeah.
00:29:11
atack2010
I mean, that's the backbone of the operation for the new owners for Stepping Stone. They are very much involved in lots and lots of acres of traditional ag, but ah they decided to diversify into a very into a very complex um
00:29:24
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:29:25
atack2010
you know, area being orchards. But the reason I think that made that possible and i mean after having talked to Brandon and Allie and Hannah. And you know, Dane and Trudy a lot is, I think that what made that possible is, I was very concerned when I knew that reeds were going to be retiring. I was like, Oh no, we're going to be losing an orchard. You know, I was just concerned because there's such neat operations and such important horticulture operations in Kentucky. I think what made that possible, that transition is just, you had that knowledge base with the reeds.
00:29:56
atack2010
And once the Reeds agreed to to to work with um the new ownership, it was a done deal because I think they quickly recognized that they absolutely had to have that specialized knowledge and Dane and Trudy still help out there.
00:30:11
atack2010
They're still there. They're still at the new operation. So, and that's unusual when you have such a complex operation. A lot of times that would have never transitioned. It just would have ended. But in this case, it didn't. It morphed into a whole other thing and it's so cool. And they still use components of the Reed Valley plantings because they're established plantings. I mean, the trees didn't all get cut down magically. That didn't happen. So there's still certain events, I guess, ah in their Macy. Did they mention that there's still certain events out at,
00:30:38
atack2010
Reed Valley, I think it's Reed Valley Stepping Stone now, but I think the long-term goal is to bring everything over at Stepping Stone once they get you know all of their apples and peach plantings up and going. Both super neat operations. Yeah, you work with two really, really good ones for sure ah when you got to talk with those folks.
00:30:58
atack2010
um
00:30:58
Brett
Ray, can you can you expand ah just a little bit? You talk about the complexity of the operation and um I think I know what you mean, but would you mind to expand on that?
00:31:02
atack2010
Mm-hmm.
00:31:07
atack2010
Well, once again, anytime you're dealing with perennial crops, it's way, way different than ah annual crops. so You know, vegetables and the way we manage things like strawberries, we even manage those as an annual crop now. But when you're talking about crops, first of all, like, you know, apple trees that you're going to have for multiple years, the considerations are different. The cash flow is different. The upfront investment is going to be a little higher. The payback is going to be a little longer.
00:31:32
atack2010
But not only that is you have an operation that has a lot of intensity here in Kentucky in zone six and seven. ah We have to spray for things like insects and diseases quite often. um So you have to manage, um you know, things like that. And the the labor is always an issue on on places like orchards where there's a lot of intensity of management and lots of labor needed. So they're just more complicated because of the cash flow models that they're under and a lot of orchards that I've seen most of the orchards around the state have ah a farm store component. So you have this um a lot of times a wholesale component but you also have this heavy heavy retail component
00:32:17
atack2010
of those operations so you're managing a lot of times both systems wholesale and retail and then sometimes everything in between like schools so when you talk about an orchard you talk about an operation that hits at multiple marketing levels and involves a lot of labor so just you know out of necessity it's just a more complex operation especially when you have retail outlets on the farm and anytime you talk about an agritourism uh, venture, uh, most orchards, you know, have an agritourism component, especially like stepping stone, Macy, you mentioned that they do public outreach and education.
00:32:52
atack2010
I mean, once you add in all those components, how many hours are left in the day or are there any hours left in the day? ah So that's what I meant by the complexity of operations. It's all there on orchards. They're a great case study if you're wanting to get a sample of what horticulture really is you know versus traditional like row crop agriculture. There are lots of similarities, but there are also lots of contrast. And in the case of the stepping stone family,
00:33:20
atack2010
ah farm that they have there now that that component they they do both traditional ag and a very advanced torticulture operation so they're involved in everything i told brandon i was like you're crazy i said the complexity of that um but they're doing it they get it done they already had one thing that made it also very very possible they had a well-established maintained labor base for their traditional ag operations.
00:33:43
atack2010
And he said that was also very critical in you know getting that farm up and going, not not only the knowledge of the reeds, but they had labor.
00:33:50
Jessica
Thank
00:33:51
atack2010
So they had they though two those two critical things, yeah.
00:33:55
Brett
yeah I think you know one of the things you're you're talking about there in general within the way that horticulture unfolds in Kentucky, and and you know Macy's talked about it ah quite a bit so far, but I want to you know get her impressions on this, is that sometimes the the direct marketing, because the the volume of sales might be a little smaller or the venue is a little smaller or whatever it may be,
00:33:57
Jessica
you.
00:34:18
Brett
Sometimes the the complexity of direct marketing is lost on people that that they think, you know, that a farmer's market or or, you know, selling directly to consumers, whether that be on farm or otherwise is ah sort of like the beginner's marketing.
00:34:30
Jessica
you
00:34:36
Brett
And then once you're advanced, then you do wholesale. Well, I mean, wholesale, it's a different thing. But like, if you have a truck back up to your farm and they load up a pallet of tomatoes and pull out,
00:34:47
Brett
That's a very different thing from and scheduling your Facebook posts, scheduling your Instagram posts, making sure you have a customer base, building an email marketing list to then hopefully get draw people in to come to your farm or come to your market, um ah deciding on what varieties that you have and merchandising at the point of sale and ah managing the the the taking cash or credit cards or benefit cards or whatever.
00:35:13
Brett
I'm curious, Macy, you know you coming from a little bit more of a traditional markets, maybe like stockyards and and grain elevators and that kind of stuff. What was your impression of these crazy direct marketers at the farmer's markets and at the agritourism places? And um yeah, I'm just curious what if you said it was kind of newer to you or you hadn't thought about it as much?
00:35:33
Macey Thompson
Yeah, um, it was crazy.
00:35:37
Macey Thompson
I never realized how much, um, went into direct marketing. I thought that it was going to be very much, okay, this is what we grew this week.
00:35:38
atack2010
Thank you.
00:35:49
Macey Thompson
This is what we're going to sell this week. This is what we're going to sell it for this week. But I quickly realized that a lot of these producers that are going to farmers markets are also selling in different markets as well. um They're selling in their farm stands. They're selling some, a lot of people are selling to school districts now with the Kentucky school um program that they have at the KDA. um They're also selling to businesses and restaurants and different things like that. So being able to manage all of that at the same time,
00:36:23
Macey Thompson
is I don't know how some of these farms are doing it um and then just the direct marketing as a whole at the farmer's market and it varies a lot by the.
00:36:29
atack2010
you
00:36:37
Macey Thompson
Buy the operation that is selling it and I know that some people at. in Lexington that sell the Lexington markets, they only sell organic. So they are show like their marketing is completely different than another that that's too tense down that it's not selling organic. So being able to be that to promotion to have those promotions for what you're selling is very important to that Kentucky farmer to be able to get across what they want to and the public to perceive.
00:37:14
Jessica
It's it's a lot You're right.
00:37:16
atack2010
Yeah.
00:37:16
Jessica
It's crazy. I can say yeah, they're crazy because I'm a part of it, right? That's why I always tell people I'm like farmers markets are crazy and I'm like I can say that cuz I've been involved with them um But you're right.
00:37:20
Macey Thompson
Yeah.
00:37:28
Jessica
It's just from the time that season starts. It's go go go and nonstop and you think each week it might get easier but a new crop comes in or you don't have a crop or and did you post on your social media to let people know what you're gonna have and then getting to the market staying there all day and like you said that figuring out those prices um because just even within that market just like the example of or get you know someone might be organic somebody might be like low spray you know we don't spray anything but we're you know we're not officially organic we don't use chemicals or just how each vendor is going to you know market their own things, all that goes into it, and then how it can just change each week because we were in a drought for part of the summer, right?
00:38:13
Jessica
you know um But you might be a vendor who always traditionally has great sweet corn, but guess what? It didn't rain for a month this summer, so you might not have it, and then it might rain, and suddenly you're going to have it again with your next planting.
00:38:25
Jessica
So they are crazy, and it's a the never-ending process until you hope for that first hard frost
00:38:30
Macey Thompson
Thank
00:38:32
atack2010
yeah
00:38:32
Jessica
unless you have a tunnel and other stuff and you keep going.
00:38:36
atack2010
and Having worked
Marketing in Horticulture vs. Traditional Agriculture
00:38:37
atack2010
with ah producers that have, in a lot of cases, they've transitioned from the more traditional ag side, they're interested in transitioning to some horticulture endeavor, some horticulture crop.
00:38:37
Macey Thompson
you.
00:38:50
atack2010
So the one thing I try to stress up right up front is, I said, first of all, I mean, if I know the operation on the ag side and I realize that they haven't maybe done as much marketing,
00:39:01
atack2010
because they may have cattle that they sell through a set market in Kentucky, or they just drop off you know something at a grain elevator. the Yes, there is some market involved involved in that, but I try to stress to them that you spend 100% of your time in production.
00:39:16
atack2010
and On the horticulture side, in Kentucky, you're usually gonna spend the other 75% marketing.
00:39:19
Macey Thompson
Yeah.
00:39:21
atack2010
So you have 175% of your time dedicated. ah So it's real easy to, yeah underestimate the time that goes into marketing and doing a good job, making the social media post, showing up and talking with people, at the farmer's market and giving them your farm story as part of the marketing piece. So yeah, I try to stress that for more traditional producers that are interested in doing horticulture activities in Kentucky, at least, um, in most ah outlets in Kentucky, you're doing a lot of your own marketing and, uh, they just have to have an appreciation for that. It takes lots of time. It takes lots of time.
00:39:56
atack2010
um But I always try to stress that.
00:40:00
Brett
Yeah, so I think, you know, one of the main things, um you know, as we i wrap up here, one of the main things that I wanted, Macy, I wanted you to to experience was a little bit of a flavor of what the different, some of the different professions around extension and around specialty crops um and Yeah, what these people like us do ah and other people you had the chance to meet and meet and talk chat with Sharon Spencer at KDA.
00:40:29
atack2010
green.
00:40:29
Brett
You actually went down and chatted with ah permanent hort culture co-host Jessica Besson in Mercer County and had some fun chatting with people around their county fair prep.
00:40:36
Jessica
Yeah.
00:40:41
Brett
and other stuff like that. And so I'm just curious as you're thinking about this experience and some of the people that you met, obviously the whole CCE team, some of the professors on campus, some of the farmers out.
00:40:54
Brett
um where you know how how does this Does this impact or or help you think about maybe where you want to go in the future or is it is there things things that you learn that you feel like you maybe will carry forward or even just what are you what do you think?
00:41:10
Brett
I know I'm asking someone who's pretty early and ah relatively early in her college career, you know what do you want to do with your life? but um
00:41:17
atack2010
Thank
00:41:18
Brett
What I'm really saying is I guess as you're looking forward, looking ahead as someone who's committed to agriculture and passionate about agriculture and now you've had this experience with horticulture, what does it have you thinking about you know next steps or long-term steps or or any thoughts and along those lines?
00:41:22
atack2010
you.
00:41:33
Macey Thompson
Yeah, so one thing I loved about my fellowship this summer is that I never really felt like I was an intern or that I was doing like the grunt work, like bottom of the totem pole. um I kind of got a little bit of a glimpse of what and the CCD kind of does and what a job there kind of looks like. So I was able to do the farmer's markets report. I was able to write an extension publication. I did a social media campaign. I did all of the things that like they do in their typical dayto day-to-day work. And that's something I just really appreciated because I feel like where I'm at in my college career, and I'm graduating in two years, so I need to be looking at these different kind of avenues that I want to go down.
Macy's Reflections and Future in Agriculture
00:42:18
Macey Thompson
um I just thought that that was really great for me to kind of get a glimpse as to what um I can use my degree for. so
00:42:26
Macey Thompson
my degree is in agriculture economics at uk and then i also have a minor in public policy so whenever i kind of went into that um i always tell people whenever they ask me what do you want to do with your life like what are you doing after you graduate i always say well in about like 20 or so years.
00:42:43
Macey Thompson
I want to be the Commissioner of Agriculture, but until then I'm not quite sure. um So this just has kind of shown me how close-knit and community-wise the Kentucky are agriculture industry is.
00:42:43
Jessica
Thank you.
00:42:57
Macey Thompson
um I already kind of got a glimpse of that with the beef industry and my whole family there, um but the horticulture and industry is just the same. And that is kind of what I'm trying to think of Kentucky agriculture is as well, just a big close knit family that um looks out for each other and wants to be better and wants to push themselves to be better. So I think at the end of that big long tangent that I just had, um essentially, I just want to help Kentucky producers and in whatever way I can help them. However,
00:43:36
Macey Thompson
I can do that best. So extension is not off the table, but um we're still looking around.
00:43:45
Jessica
Yeah.
00:43:48
Brett
Well, that's great. Yeah, I think there's a lot of different ways to help. There's a lot of different actors who do support ah agriculture in Kentucky and beyond. and um We're lucky to have lots of great partnerships and relationships with those people and be able to work together. I would i would echo, in addition on the agriculture side, on this like technical assistance side, the extension, the nonprofit, the governmental, I think we have a lot of really strong relationships. And people who have who have come into those, you know found jobs here and moved here, have remarked on that to me of like, whoa, you all really like get along and work together. And it's like, well, you know we're
00:44:22
Brett
We're small and stubborn together, I guess. and that's that's i yeah It's been a real privilege for me to be able to work with you this summer.
00:44:26
Jessica
Bye.
00:44:27
Macey Thompson
Thank
00:44:32
Brett
I want to give another thank you to the Kentucky Horticulture Council.
00:44:34
atack2010
All
00:44:34
Macey Thompson
you.
00:44:36
Brett
um Dr.
00:44:37
Brett
Cindy Finneseth made that this experience possible. um And yeah, I really look forward to wherever you decide.
00:44:43
atack2010
right.
00:44:47
Brett
your next steps in agriculture are, or or wherever your next steps are to, you know, following along on your on your journey. But I really appreciate you joining us here today. um I don't have Alexis's outro memorized, but it's something like, we hope that as you grow this podcast, you'll grow with us, or something like that.
00:45:06
Brett
I don't know, Alexis will be back
00:45:07
atack2010
something something something yeah
00:45:07
Jessica
Sounds good. and
00:45:08
Brett
Alexis will be back to get us back on our back on our on task soon. But thank you again so much, Macy, both for joining us today and for all your work this summer. And I'll just leave us there.