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Growing Kentucky: A Conversation with Trevor Terry of the Horticulture Council
76 Plays28 days ago
In this engaging summer episode of Hort Culture, the crew welcomes Trevor Terry, Executive Director of the Kentucky Horticulture Council, for a spirited and insightful conversation that blends passion, policy, and plant nerdiness.
After kicking things off with lighthearted chatter about their favorite warm-weather drinks (kombucha and icy watermelon blends included), Trevor dives into his unconventional journey from humanities grad to horticulture leader — including a Derby weekend epiphany and the entrepreneurial spirit that led him to help launch Kentucky Fresh Harvest, the state’s first high-wire, high-tech tomato facility.
Trevor shares his excitement about the growth of protected agriculture in Kentucky — from 1.4 million sq. ft. in 2017 to nearly 14 million sq. ft. today — and what that means for the future of food production in the Commonwealth. The group also unpacks the impact of shifting federal funding, disease challenges like Neopestalotiopsis in strawberries, and the surprising scale and potential of Kentucky's cut flower industry.
Whether you're into tomatoes, spreadsheets, or just love a good horticulture underdog story, this episode is packed with laughs, insights, and a powerful reminder of the resilience and innovation driving Kentucky agriculture forward.
Tune in to hear:
- Trevor’s origin story and tomato tech breakthroughs
- Why controlled environment ag isn’t just hype in Kentucky
- Big data meets backyard gardening
- The power of unified voices in horticulture advocacy
Episode-Related Links:
- Kentucky Horticulture Council (KHC)
Learn more about KHC’s mission, grower resources, grants, trainings, and member associations. - USDA Census of Agriculture
Data source discussed regarding growth in protected ag and cut flowers. - University of Kentucky Horticulture Extension
Trusted info on fruit, vegetable, and ornamental production in Kentucky. - Kentucky Department of Agriculture
Programs and support for growers, including Kentucky Proud. - Kentucky Center for Ag & Rural Development (KCARD)
Business development assistance for Kentucky farms and agribusinesses.
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Casual Intro and Weather Talk
00:00:20
Brett
Well, well, well, who do we have here?
00:00:22
Plant People
That was a soft start. That's impressive.
00:00:25
Brett
Yeah, well, I was gonna let Lexus take it in, but you know, she's she's playing shy today, playing coy.
00:00:28
Plant People
She comes in loud and proud. She is.
00:00:31
Alexis
I might scream into people's ears and it's just a whole thing.
00:00:33
Plant People
Like a cicada. Yeah.
00:00:35
Brett
Yeah.
00:00:36
Alexis
i was i was letting you try it out.
00:00:38
Brett
Thank you, it feels great. We'll let the listeners decide. Um, yeah, here we
Skincare Chat: Supergoop Glow Screen
00:00:44
Brett
are. And, and I, it feels like the last time we podcasted, it was spring and now it is fully summer.
00:00:51
Brett
Uh, it's, there's a steam bath.
00:00:51
Alexis
but
00:00:52
Plant People
it It happened quick. It happened quick, did it not?
00:00:54
Brett
Yes.
00:00:55
Alexis
It's steamy.
00:00:57
Brett
Steamy.
00:00:58
Alexis
It's the...
00:00:58
Brett
I feel like I'm, I'm glowing even more than usual.
00:00:59
Alexis
it's the
00:01:01
Plant People
Glistening even.
00:01:01
Alexis
You're like the temperature has not been.
00:01:03
Plant People
What is the movie Twilight? You would have this gold-flecked glow about you in sunlight.
00:01:08
Brett
Yeah. Say it out loud.
00:01:09
Alexis
and he's wearing his glow screen today.
00:01:11
Plant People
I don't know what that is, but it sounds cool.
00:01:11
Brett
Hmm.
00:01:12
Alexis
thank
00:01:14
Brett
Well, we, I did have, actually, this is no joke. um So I just, I do happen to work not to be totally ah gendered here, but I do happen to work with like four young women. And I've taken advantage of that by having them give me some tips on, on sun care, sun care products that I was unaware of.
00:01:30
Plant People
Solid, solid.
00:01:31
Trevor Terry
Okay.
00:01:31
Brett
a One of which is called glow screen from a company called super goop.
00:01:34
Plant People
I don't know what that is.
00:01:36
Brett
Not, you know, if they want to sponsor the pod, they can, I just don't know that there's a lot of overlap in audience necessarily.
00:01:41
Plant People
Super goop.
00:01:41
Alexis
Farmers, skincare, sunscreen, personally, I feel like it's a big market, but...
00:01:46
Plant People
I bet you as has it has plant-based ingredients.
00:01:47
Brett
Yeah.
00:01:48
Plant People
We can work with this.
00:01:51
Brett
Well, yeah, so so it's a it's a sunscreen that gives you a little bit of an iridescent glow. i'm not wearing any now because I'm not really spending much time outside today. That might be a faux pas for the skincare
00:01:59
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
Guest Intro: Trevor Terry from Kentucky Horticulture Council
00:02:01
Brett
people.
00:02:01
Brett
But, but we're joined by a guest today, Trevor Terry, you want to say hi, Trevor?
00:02:08
Trevor Terry
Yeah, I'm Trevor Terry here with Supergoop. um I am here to to to get you all on board.
00:02:10
Alexis
Spider monkey. Fresh.
00:02:14
Trevor Terry
I want you glistening like Edward Cullen. and
00:02:16
Plant People
yes yes twilight reference i'm here for it
00:02:17
Brett
Oh.
00:02:20
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:02:20
Alexis
spider monkey
00:02:20
Brett
Trevor coming in hard for Team Edward.
00:02:22
Trevor Terry
Yeah, no, i'm ah I'm Trevor Terry. I'm here with ah Kentucky Horticulture Council. I'm the executive director as of November of 2024. Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:31
Brett
Cool. Well, we'll we'll get into we'll get into into a little bit of how you arrived there.
00:02:32
Alexis
bre
00:02:35
Brett
I do have a question.
Favorite Summer Drinks with a Horticultural Twist
00:02:37
Trevor Terry
yeah
00:02:37
Brett
I'm curious. So that we did you know it is the steam bath summer Kentucky weather now. And do you have do you all have a a signature or a particular drink of summer that like it's warm now?
00:02:52
Brett
I've kind of transitioned. Some people go from hot coffee to iced coffee. Some people maybe are into the bubblies. That's been a huge thing over the last you know decade or so.
00:03:00
Plant People
Fizzy stuff.
00:03:01
Brett
But do you all have, and bonus points if it features a horticulture product of some sort, but you know it doesn't have to.
00:03:05
Plant People
o Ooh, I've got an OG one. Mine's about as basic as you can get. and that's a half and half drink that is half lemonade and half tea.
00:03:16
Plant People
You can garnish it with whatever embellishments of liquid you want to add to that, but half lemonade, half tea. So kind of, what is that called? An Arnold Palmer sort of thing.
00:03:24
Alexis
Arnold Palmer.
00:03:24
Brett
Arnie Palmy, yeah.
00:03:25
Plant People
And it has a horticulture ingredient in it because we do have native tea plants in the U S. So there you go, Brett.
00:03:31
Trevor Terry
okay
00:03:31
Brett
There you go.
00:03:32
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:33
Brett
Shout out to native tea plants.
00:03:36
Alexis
Golf.
00:03:37
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:03:37
Alexis
What about you, Trevor?
00:03:41
Trevor Terry
Oh, okay. So
00:03:43
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:45
Trevor Terry
I just had a kombucha the other day when we went to locals and I think it was a berry... Berry kombucha from a local place. I've got the, it's probably in my recycling if you want me to dig it out, but ah definitely I'm definitely into odd, ah specifically probiotic drinks in the summertime.
00:03:59
Brett
like the peroxide bottle style.
00:04:05
Plant People
Yes.
00:04:05
Alexis
Love it. I love it.
00:04:06
Plant People
Good deal.
00:04:06
Trevor Terry
Love that. ah We are having a little bit of a ah ah surprise birthday party for a family member later this this weekend. And it is martini themed.
00:04:17
Trevor Terry
So I don't know if I'm going to like get into a martini phase because of that. But we're making, ah you know, like a French martini with like Chambord. And I know we grow raspberries in Kentucky. So I'm going to qualify that as a horticultural ingredient.
00:04:31
Plant People
Ooh, nice tie-in.
00:04:32
Alexis
ah love it
00:04:33
Brett
Yeah.
00:04:33
Plant People
Martinez can go so many different ways. I mean, that's, that's kind of an OG too. That's a, that's a good one.
00:04:38
Trevor Terry
Yeah, great for breakfast too.
00:04:38
Plant People
Yeah. um and Whatever works, whatever works.
00:04:43
Trevor Terry
yeah
00:04:43
Plant People
There you go.
00:04:43
Brett
Yeah.
00:04:44
Plant People
In the big cup.
00:04:44
Brett
Fill up the Stanley and go.
00:04:45
Trevor Terry
Yeah. yeah
00:04:47
Plant People
Brett, I know since you were the question asker, what, what sort of concoction did you have on your mind today?
00:04:51
Brett
well
00:04:55
Brett
Well, I would say, i mean, that I kind of switch over from, I don't switch over. I still drink coffee, but I also drink, mix in some cold chilled mate, yerba mate, which I've been i' drinking for a while.
00:05:03
Plant People
Coffee is all year round.
00:05:09
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:05:11
Brett
But also like as far as the summer, summer drink, we're still a little early for it, is we'll do a, take a watermelon and cube it up.
00:05:21
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:05:21
Brett
freeze it put it in a blender with lemon or lime juice and it turns into like a very thin daiquiri kind of consistency so unbelievably refreshing and delicious and yeah
00:05:23
Plant People
Hmm.
00:05:35
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:05:35
Alexis
yeah
00:05:36
Plant People
I'm not going to lie. thought you were going full, full college scale, like dump stuff in a bathtub route, but you didn't, you didn't, you went classy.
00:05:41
Brett
cut a plug in the watermelon yeah when you said half and half i i imagine you saying half lemonade and half half and half
00:05:42
Alexis
Yeah, yeah.
00:05:43
Trevor Terry
Yep.
00:05:44
Alexis
Cut the top off, blend it
00:05:45
Plant People
Yeah.
00:05:45
Trevor Terry
Yep.
00:05:46
Plant People
I,
00:05:49
Plant People
yes. havent Half and half. Well, but I do love coffee ah year round.
00:05:51
Brett
Mmm, just gotta let it curdle.
00:05:54
Plant People
So yes.
00:05:54
Trevor Terry
ye
00:05:55
Alexis
up. Let it go.
00:05:55
Plant People
Yeah.
00:05:56
Alexis
who
00:05:57
Brett
What about you, Alexis?
00:05:57
Plant People
Oh man.
Beverage Preferences and Ayurvedic Doshas
00:06:00
Alexis
No, I drink everything all year round. Mm-mm.
00:06:03
Brett
You don't have a transition?
00:06:03
Plant People
There's no seasonality.
00:06:03
Brett
Yeah, I don't have a ah hard transition period. Like like some people, you know, it's like, ooh, time for the first.
00:06:06
Plant People
No, I guess I don't.
00:06:07
Alexis
no
00:06:08
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:06:09
Plant People
I don't either. Yeah. ah How about for you guys?
00:06:11
Alexis
Yeah, no, I drink margaritas all year round.
00:06:13
Plant People
ah yeah All year round.
00:06:13
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:06:14
Brett
You have a margarita machine at your house, so I mean...
00:06:14
Plant People
but If it's cold outside, it's fine. So you guys don't switch between like hot drinks and cold drinks at all?
00:06:18
Alexis
i need
00:06:20
Plant People
Like, I don't guess I do.
00:06:21
Alexis
No, I used to, but I don't anymore.
00:06:24
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:06:24
Alexis
um Like I've got like hot tea right now and there's, I could do an iced tea, but I don't know. I just, I don't do that anymore for some reason. I'm just like all the time. Margaritas?
00:06:33
Trevor Terry
It sounds like another sponsorship of opportunity. You know what I mean? You in super goop and and, uh, and yeah, Margaritaville.
00:06:38
Alexis
margaritas
00:06:40
Trevor Terry
Um,
00:06:42
Alexis
Tequila has an agricultural product in it, so... No.
00:06:44
Plant People
It does. It does.
00:06:45
Brett
We'll contact with jimmy but the Jimmy Buffett estate to see what we need to do as far as getting set up.
00:06:45
Plant People
Very agricultural.
00:06:45
Alexis
ah
00:06:51
Brett
Yeah, this I'm just taking this completely derailed, but if you have you ever come across the the concept of the Ayurvedic doshas?
00:06:59
Plant People
I don't think so.
00:07:00
Brett
Yeah, dosha.
00:07:00
Alexis
no
00:07:01
Brett
it's So so it's it's sort of like ah essential elements of the self and of the like, it's it's it's it's not like the zodiac, but it's kind of like the zodiac, but it's like your but it's more about your body and mind connection.
00:07:02
Trevor Terry
Hmm.
00:07:13
Brett
And there's certain people who kind of have like more of a fire dosha. There's people who have more of a water dosha or whatever. And so there's things that you're supposed to eat or drink to help to kind of counterbalance yourself.
00:07:23
Alexis
It's like um exactly exactly i was like, that's where I'm going with this.
00:07:26
Trevor Terry
Oh.
00:07:26
Brett
And so for me, hot drinks is like the vibe and it pretty much year round.
00:07:27
Plant People
o
00:07:31
Brett
Like I, it, I have a tendency to kind of laying, I don't, I don't have the fire in me. I would, yeah, got to add the fire, bring the fire, spicy hot drink.
00:07:37
Trevor Terry
got to add the thought of it.
00:07:38
Plant People
I'm getting real avatar vibes from this. Are like you water energy or earth energy?
00:07:41
Trevor Terry
but I was going to say, and I didn't want to say it. Yeah.
00:07:45
Brett
Yeah.
00:07:46
Trevor Terry
So what is your nation?
00:07:46
Brett
A very, I had had a whole arrow removed from red.
00:07:48
Trevor Terry
Yeah. yeah
00:07:52
Brett
Yeah.
00:07:52
Plant People
Or the one that goes up.
00:07:52
Brett
Then Lexington has really strong,
00:07:53
Alexis
Are you, are you an heir more of an air person?
00:07:53
Plant People
an airbender?
00:07:57
Brett
Yeah, Lexington has really strong code violations against having buffaloes in your backyard. So I had to just change it up.
00:08:04
Trevor Terry
Yep. Yeah.
00:08:06
Alexis
Absurd.
00:08:06
Trevor Terry
Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:08:06
Brett
But yeah.
00:08:07
Plant People
they're very lightweight. They just kind of float around.
00:08:09
Alexis
What about lemurs? Where are we on lemurs in Lexington?
00:08:12
Plant People
Madagascar.
00:08:12
Brett
But that's fine.
00:08:13
Trevor Terry
yeah
00:08:14
Alexis
yeah
00:08:15
Plant People
yeah
00:08:15
Brett
that That's allowed.
00:08:16
Plant People
We're just wondering. We're just wondering.
00:08:18
Brett
Yeah, so we don't we don't have a strong... you know, crystal clear plan, because we know that Trevor is such a cool guy, and at least two out of the three of us are pretty cool. And I'll let you let the viewers decide what the listeners decide on that.
Trevor's Journey into Horticulture
00:08:33
Brett
But Trevor, you mentioned you you're the the director of the the horticulture council now.
00:08:33
Alexis
It's
00:08:37
Brett
And but you were coming before this, you were coming from a different or a different and involvement in the horticultural world.
00:08:37
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:08:43
Brett
or Is that right?
00:08:44
Trevor Terry
Yeah, yeah. So I started my journey in horticulture kind of, ah I guess, the most Kentucky way possible. I met some guys at the Derby ah back in, I think it was 2014.
00:08:59
Trevor Terry
um And they were ah all Israeli and they were talking about this concept of growing vegetables indoors. I had just graduated up in Boston and I was coming back to Kentucky just to visit at the time.
00:09:13
Trevor Terry
I was still trying to make it up there in the city. And I got fascinated by the concept. So um post, you know, post hangover the following days, I reached out to these guys because I got their ah their contact.
00:09:23
Alexis
you hes
00:09:26
Trevor Terry
And I said, hey, that was incredibly interesting. Where can I learn more? i'm I'm fascinated by this concept. I did not study horticulture. My degree is in the humanities. They're on the wall, whatever that means.
00:09:38
Trevor Terry
ah And, and I'd like to learn more. And they said, I tell you what, why don't you come along with me to a meeting? So I was like, sure. Yeah. So jumped in the car, went over, i think it was to the estate of some famous writer in Kentucky that they were asking for investment for a high-tech greenhouse.
00:09:56
Trevor Terry
and And odd meeting, they brought a ah ah PowerPoint printed off in nine pages, which, you know, just presentation was on point.
00:10:06
Alexis
Solid. That's extension right there.
00:10:07
Trevor Terry
Yeah. I think it was still in a black and white printer too. So like all the colors, you know, just kind of gray skinned.
00:10:12
Plant People
Even better. Mm-hmm.
00:10:14
Trevor Terry
Beautiful, right? ah and And through the course of that presentation, I kind of found out that that the way they had sold this to me, this idea of you know the future of horticulture, ah when they had a few drinks in them was different from when it was in a business meeting.
00:10:28
Trevor Terry
And it did not exactly come across in the same way.
00:10:28
Alexis
Yeah.
00:10:31
Trevor Terry
I think they kind of missed the point of that story, which is which is growing more food locally, which is doing it in a manner that's more sustainable in the long term for a lot of different reasons and and just genuinely pretty cool from a nerdy tech point of view.
00:10:45
Trevor Terry
um So I asked them if there was anything I could do to help them to tell that story a little bit better. Do they have a website, for instance? do they ah Could I work on this pitch deck with them? And they said, no, absolutely not. you know They were in a little bit of a a mood afterward um when that investment didn't come through. So they said, no, absolutely not. This is all proprietary information.
00:11:06
Trevor Terry
And we're the ones in the world who are doing it.
00:11:06
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:11:09
Trevor Terry
Turns out ah I'm not great at taking no for an answer. So I went ahead and taught myself how to make a website. and made them one and based on all the information that I was able to find.
00:11:21
Trevor Terry
ah And they didn't respond to me for like two weeks. if they were They were pretty quiet and I thought maybe it was just a shot in the dark, but they got back in touch and said, hey, we actually really like what you did.
00:11:33
Trevor Terry
um We'd like you to make some changes though. We can't pay you anything, but do you want to join our team as like a shadow to the to the sales team? And was like, yeah. For sure.
00:11:44
Trevor Terry
So at the time I was I was also working for my family. we we go way back in Brethet County in eastern Kentucky, got about 1500 acres there. Some of that includes some ah coal mine land and a few gas wells, gas and oil wells.
00:11:59
Trevor Terry
So on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I was going down to Brethet County to pump the wells and maintain those engines and do all the work involved in, you know,
00:12:08
Alexis
you
00:12:11
Trevor Terry
pulling oil from the earth uh and then on the off days i was putting on a suit and i was going around kentucky looking for somebody to invest in one of these projects and uh after about a year of that really interesting dichotomy we finally found an investor in uh lincoln county in stanford kentucky and we finally had a piece of land and that's when we got started and i got so you know they started paying me so was the first employee um course, everything was history from there. Eight years later, ah that's an 11-acre project under roof. you know We went from a soybean field to the first high-wire, high-tech vegetable facility in Kentucky, which is a great point of pride, growing grape and cherry tomatoes.
00:12:53
Trevor Terry
I'll probably get more into all the wonderful people that made that possible, including my my friend and mentor, Shabin. ah But after about eight years there, it was time, i think, for me to figure out where I was going to go next, take that knowledge that i gained over those eight years.
Involvement with Netherlands Consulate and Horticulture Projects
00:13:10
Trevor Terry
And I was lucky to get involved with the the kingdom of the Netherlands, of all places. um I ended up as they needed a local liaison for some of the consortium work that they were trying to do here in ecosystem development.
00:13:20
Alexis
Thank
00:13:25
Trevor Terry
And that's how I ah became a ah What was it? Economic policy officer for the Netherlands consulate general in Chicago, focused on controlled environment agriculture.
00:13:34
Alexis
you.
00:13:36
Trevor Terry
The Ministerie van Barthelandszaak is the ah official title, foreign affairs. um
00:13:44
Brett
Well, now I feel bad that I didn't didn't salute when we came on the policy officer on deck.
00:13:48
Trevor Terry
Yeah, yeah.
00:13:48
Alexis
should be
00:13:49
Trevor Terry
It's it's actually ah funny story. actually share a birthday with the king of the Netherlands. They still have a king and a queen and everything like that. And ah his birthday is also April 27th. So there's actually a national holiday called King's Day.
00:14:03
Trevor Terry
And it is essentially that entire country gets together for a giant party. And I like to think that maybe, you know, if if some things were to happen, i'm not saying any kind of threat or anything, but maybe I'd be like, you know, next in line for the king.
00:14:18
Alexis
I mean, we already have the date figured out. Like, might as well.
00:14:21
Trevor Terry
It's already holiday.
00:14:22
Plant People
the birthday celebrations, the calendar be the same.
00:14:22
Brett
there's lot of logistics they wouldn't have to change.
00:14:22
Trevor Terry
know You don't have to change it.
00:14:23
Alexis
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, let's not overcomplicate anything.
00:14:24
Plant People
i mean, run with that.
00:14:25
Trevor Terry
You don't have to change any of that other stuff. Think about the things.
00:14:27
Plant People
Yeah. Lots of money saved. Yeah.
00:14:31
Trevor Terry
I in aliens you know ah I speak a bit to the Netherlands. You know. So, you know, I'm in.
00:14:38
Brett
Yeah. Well, it's so that you could do least do the press tours, you know, and just be like, kind of give that that regal indifference that you don't want to, you know, give short answers.
00:14:41
Trevor Terry
and
00:14:41
Alexis
Nailed it.
00:14:49
Brett
That's works perfect.
00:14:49
Trevor Terry
Yeah. That's my vibe. You get it
00:14:51
Brett
Yeah.
00:14:54
Brett
So you you you came from from that world and then you you stepped into this Kentucky Horticulture
Kentucky Horticulture Council's Mission and Functions
00:15:00
Brett
Council role. And so I will say, think your story about the the pitch with and without cocktails is a very strong, ah recommend very strongly recommends a kind of mad men culture of alcohol in the workplace, maybe.
00:15:09
Alexis
This is
00:15:14
Brett
You can understand why Don Draper was
00:15:14
Trevor Terry
Yeah, yeah, that's that's also the vibe.
00:15:17
Brett
Yeah, it was functioning. Maybe some other we could leave some other parts around you know gender relations in the past, but the the booze cocktail lunch vibe, you know that I think that might might smooth some things.
00:15:28
Trevor Terry
Yeah, spending money on horses. I mean, that that is definitely my my other reason for moving back to Kentucky besides, you know, family and this awesome opportunity to work with Kentucky Fresh Harvest. And, ah you know, the fact that I met my wife here, I just really like horses and and ah wasting my money on ah losing bets. So that's the only part that I really like.
00:15:48
Alexis
Catch him at the racetrack, folks.
00:15:48
Brett
you'll fit right in.
00:15:49
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:15:50
Brett
you you fit You fit right in with that.
00:15:50
Alexis
Yeah.
00:15:51
Brett
And so it was kind of a, wow.
00:15:52
Trevor Terry
Actually, this month is 10 years I've been back, which is crazy.
00:15:57
Brett
Yeah.
00:15:57
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:15:57
Brett
Cause you, you kind of, we've we've talked, talked before about the, the, the several different places that you spent time and lived.
00:15:58
Plant People
I,
00:16:05
Trevor Terry
Mm-hmm.
00:16:05
Brett
But as far as the horticulture council, um I would love for you to, to, you know, pretend I'm too mint juleps deep, and Maybe three and pitch me on the horticulture council. you know, tell me why, why I should care what I should be into. I'm i'm curious to hear, to hear that, to hear that.
00:16:26
Trevor Terry
Yeah. Yeah. Um, so horticulture council, we are a 501 C five nonprofit association of associations in horticulture in Kentucky.
00:16:36
Alexis
Thank you.
00:16:37
Trevor Terry
So it it was a little bit confusing for me when i when I first heard about it, but our members are actual member associations that cover the whole gamut from apples to zinnias, from carrots to daikon, whatever it is.
00:16:51
Trevor Terry
we anything that What did I say the other day? ah If it grows, we... we It's it under the sun, everything under the sun. That's what it was.
00:17:01
Plant People
Ooh, nice.
00:17:01
Trevor Terry
It was a very happy moment, not one of these like need a little bit more coffee kind of moments. But yeah, Kentucky Horticulture Council has existed since 1991.
00:17:05
Alexis
You
00:17:06
Plant People
Those are the best.
00:17:12
Trevor Terry
ah The initial kind of impetus for it was there were a few groups, the Vegetable Growers Association, the Kentucky State Horticultural Society, a few others that all realized that you know we're supporting fruit growers or we're supporting veggie growers or we're talking to ornamental growers.
00:17:26
Trevor Terry
And they they realized that they needed kind of a unified voice. And so the mission of this organization is to elevate and advance horticulture in Kentucky. Do that in a lot, a lot of ways.
00:17:37
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:17:37
Trevor Terry
And the Horticulture Council is a lot of things to a lot of people. A lot of that, I think, is is due in large large part to the really hard work of my predecessor, ah Cindy Finneseth, who's now at UK with you guys. You already know her.
00:17:51
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:17:52
Alexis
Thank you.
00:17:53
Trevor Terry
She was in the role for six, six and a half years, I think, and took things from ah an organization that had had very little leadership and very, you know, a direction and kind of a historical trajectory of what they were doing, but in really professionalizing it and bringing in a lot of additional grant funds and expanding our our overall scope.
00:18:13
Trevor Terry
So I'm very fortunate to ah to be in the role ah during a really interesting time, I think, for horticulture, but also ah to to support growers through some of that stuff with my other experience. So I will never, I i don't think I will ever live up to ah Cindy told me she wears a six and a half shoe. And because everybody's telling me big shoes to fill, big shoes to fill. Like I heard that probably a thousand times when I started.
00:18:39
Trevor Terry
and And they are very big shoes to fill. um I wear ah not a six and a half, but, you know, they feel a lot bigger than that.
00:18:48
Alexis
and
00:18:48
Plant People
I know you guys cover a tremendous amount of ground. You said, I mean, I'm familiar with you guys and and some of the things that you guys do as far as direct work with, like audits, you know, on vegetable operations, all the way up to some of the work that you guys do with like making sure that elected officials understand, you know, the state of things in Kentucky, but you guys cover a tremendous amount of ground.
00:19:11
Plant People
With that being said, i'm I mean, what is ah an average day if there is such a thing for you to look like at the, at the Hort Council? I mean, what do you do with your time? And I'm afraid that's a question beyond the scope of this conversation probably, but kind of what the day look like for you?
00:19:24
Trevor Terry
It's... it's It is very rarely the same. I think I was telling Haley, wife, about it the other day.
00:19:29
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:19:31
Trevor Terry
And just the the hardest part about it is that no no two days are alike.
00:19:35
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:19:36
Trevor Terry
Yesterday, for instance, ah Dakota on my team and I went up to conduct a water test for a grower up in northern Kentucky. um We drove up in my Camry, which is another whole topic of conversation. being The horticulture guy with the Camry is ah not a great look.
00:19:53
Trevor Terry
um And also not super functional, ah but went out on the farm, got three samples from three different locations out there um and brought those back to the KSU lab in Frankfurt to get those analyzed for that grower.
00:19:53
Alexis
Thank you.
00:20:07
Trevor Terry
I got back to the office for about an hour in which I tried to wrap up a full proposal for the the specialty crop block grant coming up next week. And then I headed back out to South Farm ah for the ah the blueberry field day put on by Brent, Arnold Lewis and and Dakota there for for blueberries in Kentucky, which I don't know if you know this.
00:20:32
Trevor Terry
The most complex thing in the world. ah Blueberries are finicky as they get.
00:20:35
Alexis
Yeah.
00:20:35
Plant People
ah Yes, yes.
00:20:37
Trevor Terry
This is from Daniel Becker. um It is a eight page ah diatribe on the overview of blueberry production and raised mulch beds. And it is.
00:20:47
Plant People
And that's probably just dealing with pH, not actually anything else.
00:20:51
Alexis
yeah
00:20:51
Trevor Terry
That's exactly the
00:20:51
Plant People
yeah It may be eight pages on just that. Yeah, yeah.
00:20:54
Trevor Terry
Yeah. Yeah. So being a tomato guy coming from that side of it.
00:20:55
Brett
Meanwhile, if you you drop a blackberry, you've got a patch.
00:20:58
Trevor Terry
yeah Exactly. Exactly. Like that is some complex stuff, but yeah, that was one day. um got you know, left the house at seven 30, got home at seven 30.
00:21:03
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:07
Trevor Terry
ah So it's, it's what I think you guys get an extension. No two days are exactly like um a lot of the days, unfortunately I am doing what I'm doing today, which is talking to people that I just, you know, really don't have a lot of patience for. I'm kidding. that No, it's that was,
00:21:22
Alexis
I was like, wait, wait, what
00:21:25
Plant People
He said people that he has a lot of love for. Okay. Let me clarify.
00:21:28
Trevor Terry
Yeah, yeah, that's what I meant.
00:21:28
Alexis
what?
00:21:29
Brett
yeah yeah
00:21:29
Plant People
Yes.
00:21:29
Trevor Terry
That's what
00:21:29
Alexis
He said, unfortunately, and I was like, wait, who?
00:21:33
Plant People
Well, I thought that you would probably wear the the field hat as well as the administrative hat.
00:21:33
Trevor Terry
I meant.
00:21:38
Plant People
Was that some administrative stuff you were dealing with today? Probably.
00:21:41
Trevor Terry
Yeah, that was a lot of budgeting.
00:21:42
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:43
Trevor Terry
So there's a lot of spreadsheets.
00:21:43
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:44
Trevor Terry
and And I think I may have been a little bit too eager about the spreadsheets in my job interview because I can really hear the truth.
00:21:44
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:51
Plant People
You just excited Brett Wolf a lot.
00:21:53
Trevor Terry
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:53
Plant People
You said spreadsheet. Yeah. Look at his mouth.
00:21:55
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:21:55
Plant People
He's like, his face is glowing right now.
00:21:57
Alexis
Thank you.
00:21:58
Trevor Terry
Well, that's how I fell in love with horticulture. I mean, what what excited me the most about it, i mean, yes, all of the biology that goes into it is is
Trevor's Personal Passion for Horticulture
00:22:06
Trevor Terry
incredible. The idea that we're directing a biological entity looking for some production out of it, that's like the oldest...
00:22:13
Trevor Terry
thing that humans do as a civilization. It's wicked cool. ah Where I found a lot of love for it was that our customers at the greenhouse really didn't have a good frame of reference for, you know, we're we're not working on like these 12 week or or, you know, six month long contracts with these big buyers.
00:22:31
Trevor Terry
We are working on like generally a week to week, two weeks ahead kind of basis.
00:22:35
Plant People
Oh, wow.
00:22:37
Trevor Terry
So even you know as ah as a farm that was just getting off the ground and starting to get that customer base, we didn't have a lot of those really secure contracts for that timeframe. But I needed to know what our yield was going to be based on all the information available. Now, Shabin, Dr. Saha at Kentucky Fresh Harvest, formerly of UK,
00:22:55
Trevor Terry
He has it wonderfully in his head. ah But those days where he's not available or he's got to pick up the kids or whatever else, I need answers pretty quick. So the way that I kind of got around that was developed a model for tomato yield prediction in the greenhouse ah that was accurate within about 10%.
00:23:10
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:23:13
Trevor Terry
So on the weeks where we had 14,000 pounds coming out of the greenhouse of grape tomatoes, we could definitely say within about 1,400 pounds, this was kind of what we were going to have. So it allowed us to develop better customer relationships, credibility with those buyers to ah to say, hey, here's what I think we're going to have. And we're pretty close to that.
00:23:33
Trevor Terry
Right. um But it also allowed us to plan for payroll, for inputs, for energy costs, you know, the lighting and the the natural gas in the greenhouse, all those sorts of things.
00:23:44
Trevor Terry
um It allowed us to plan on a lot better timeframe. that's kind of the spreadsheet that i fell in love with now i work with a lot more you know um reconciling budgets with 13 different federal grants yeah
00:23:52
Plant People
budget numbers and stuff.
00:23:57
Plant People
Yeah. Oh, with grants. Wow. That's a whole different prediction model. Yeah.
00:24:01
Plant People
Wow. Yeah. Wow.
00:24:01
Trevor Terry
that's a whole different one yeah
00:24:02
Brett
Yeah, with with new levels of uncertainty, new new variables to consider.
00:24:05
Alexis
Thank you.
00:24:09
Brett
as you... as you you mentioned that, know, obviously the spreadsheet is a point of joy or falling in love with horticulture. So, so is it, is there anything particular about this? We have a whole episode about the the reasons that we are interested in the joys that we get from horticulture.
00:24:26
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:24:27
Brett
I know you do a little bit of, a little bit of gardening, a little bit of growing around your, you know, for, for what can, do you have any, any thoughts about like your
00:24:31
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:24:38
Brett
joy of interacting with these plants, this old, very old human connection to the photos and our photosynthetic friends.
00:24:45
Trevor Terry
Yeah, besides the nerdy part, which which does excite me a lot, you know timing irrigation you know around around specific plant needs and and fertilizer and and trying to trying to predict my own yield at home, that's super fun.
00:24:58
Trevor Terry
But who made me fall in love with it really?
00:24:59
Alexis
yeah
00:25:00
Trevor Terry
like My dad and his seven brothers and sisters were all, ah grew up on the farm in Bretton County. my My dad's dad purchased it for, I think, $5,500.
00:25:13
Trevor Terry
This was about 750 acres. um And that's where they all lived and worked to survive, basically. you know Growing tobacco, raising hogs. ah They did some sorghum. they did They did all sorts of stuff. Dad told me that occasionally they did eat squirrel, ah which is very on brand for my dad.
00:25:31
Plant People
yeah
00:25:31
Trevor Terry
if You knew him. ah But but yeah, the they wanted I think that generation wanted us to get as far away from horticulture and agriculture as possible um because it was a hard existence in that generation.
00:25:47
Trevor Terry
And it's it is crazy to me that that. A generation later, we're talking about ai and predictive models for for, you know, yield. And at the same time, I grew up with like my uncle Paul, who passed you know, giving the first tomato from the garden to the youngest kid in the family and having that first like white bread and mayonnaise and salted tomato sandwich of the year and having that honor as being the youngest person, right?
00:26:10
Alexis
that that's it
00:26:13
Plant People
Rite of passage. Yeah.
00:26:16
Trevor Terry
um I think the other person who really made me fall in love with it besides, you know, my my family on that side is ah is my wife. So Haley, when I met her, I was working for the greenhouse, but I had an apartment in Midway. I didn't have any like garden space or anything, but ah When we met, she had this little, you know, I don't know, 10 by 20 garden and she was growing some things.
00:26:38
Trevor Terry
And I was like, hey, ah what if you pruned your tomatoes like this? Or what if you trellis them with this Florida weave thing that I've seen? And she's just like, I don't know. That's weird. Why would I do that?
00:26:49
Trevor Terry
And we tried it
00:26:49
Alexis
if
00:26:51
Trevor Terry
And we started to just like fall in love with each other through that aspect of of our relationship, kind of like caring for the same thing, arguing about it, which was fun too.
00:27:03
Trevor Terry
and And that's grown like into, into you know, we're, I think we're both consumers and producers of of food in a really like passionate way. So if it's our tomatoes, I want them to be perfect.
00:27:15
Trevor Terry
She owns a bakery in Lexington. It's Gigi's Cupcakes on Richmond Road.
00:27:19
Plant People
Oh, I know that place.
00:27:20
Trevor Terry
And so it's right at Starbucks. you can You can go and tell her you know me and she'll either give you one or throw one at you depending on the day.
00:27:23
Alexis
Very delicious.
00:27:30
Trevor Terry
um
00:27:31
Plant People
Fair enough.
00:27:32
Trevor Terry
and And yeah, so so the opportunity to kind of use some of those ingredients that we get from local farms like blackberries or or apples or strawberries or things like that um in in deliver those to people in a really unique way is really interesting to me too.
00:27:46
Trevor Terry
um Yeah, I'm a nerd for all of it. ah just I I don't have a lot of like, there's there's not a lot about growing tomatoes specifically that I'm not just fascinated by.
00:28:00
Trevor Terry
I have a couple of little starts that I'm trying to start some new guys right here.
00:28:05
Alexis
um
00:28:07
Trevor Terry
I will, like I refuse. Haley hates it because anytime there's a volunteer in the garden, she wants to take it out and like make it more efficient space and not have all the, you know, possibility of disease and things like that.
00:28:19
Trevor Terry
And I save all of them and I hide them around the yard.
00:28:21
Plant People
like
00:28:22
Trevor Terry
ah So they're just kind of.
00:28:22
Plant People
It's like, I wonder what this guy's going to be. Yeah, what's it going to be?
00:28:24
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:28:25
Plant People
It's like a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
00:28:27
Trevor Terry
It is.
00:28:27
Plant People
It's what's this tomato going to be?
00:28:28
Trevor Terry
It is.
00:28:28
Plant People
Yeah, potential.
00:28:29
Trevor Terry
Yeah, exactly.
00:28:31
Plant People
but you
00:28:31
Brett
volunteer volunteer management.
00:28:33
Plant People
you ah You mentioned Brethet County.
00:28:33
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:28:34
Brett
We do that some that in extension too. That was just stupid.
00:28:35
Plant People
Yeah, sorry, Brett. I was going to just say, I bet you I've been to some of those places in Brethet County.
00:28:39
Brett
Don't give it an
00:28:41
Plant People
You mentioned
Growth of Controlled Environment Agriculture in Kentucky
00:28:42
Plant People
like your past and oil drilling. My father used to drill a lot of wells in that area, Clay Hole and Frozen Creek and Altro and
00:28:46
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:28:49
Plant People
and i'll
00:28:49
Trevor Terry
We were right next to Frozen. Yep, exactly.
00:28:50
Plant People
Oh, really? ah But, um, yeah, I, I spent a lot of, uh, uh, time there just riding the sputter rigs, uh, just old gas fired rigs that ran off natural gas all day long, just but watching that hammer drill go up and down.
00:28:50
Alexis
you
00:28:51
Trevor Terry
Yep.
00:28:57
Trevor Terry
Mm-hmm.
00:29:04
Plant People
But, uh, What caught my attention about that is, yeah and yeah the Horticulture Council is right in the middle of this, is that the change in horticulture over, you know, going from like subsistence, and Brett and I and Alexis have had this conversation before, going from like subsistence-type farming that was pretty prevalent in that area,
00:29:23
Plant People
And now we're talking about AI and what is Kentucky, the say second biggest state in kind of controlled environment, agriculture, horticulture. i mean, it's kind of incredible.
00:29:32
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:29:34
Plant People
I mean, when you mentioned that, there's this picture immediately popped in my head of those old hillsides, you in Jackson and surrounding areas and places like I grew up in Johnson County outside of Paintsville.
00:29:34
Alexis
Hmm.
00:29:43
Plant People
But now we're.
00:29:44
Trevor Terry
OK.
00:29:45
Plant People
talking about all of this space under glass and it kind of, that's kind of what the horticulture council is right in the middle of it. And it really with like infrastructure development and and all the work that you guys do. It's so cool to me.
00:29:58
Plant People
And the, and the, the, the, the breath and the width that you guys cover is just pretty incredible. It's pretty awesome.
00:30:05
Trevor Terry
yeah it's pretty wild, man. Like walking into one of those greenhouses, you know, 60 acre structure, first of all, it's just hard to write.
00:30:09
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:30:13
Plant People
Yeah, it's mind blowing. Yeah.
00:30:15
Alexis
the
00:30:15
Trevor Terry
Right. But then, then you walk in and you're in this, this environment that is developed, you know, with every intention of providing exactly what that plant needs. And that's kind of the, the formulaic piece of it. I think that's the through line to the spreadsheets and the AI is like,
00:30:31
Trevor Terry
you know if i If I adjust the temperature or or i'm I'm controlling the the lighting or i'm I'm putting on the shade cloths or opening up the vents, like none of that is an accident. It's all intentional.
00:30:41
Plant People
Yeah.
00:30:42
Trevor Terry
And that's that's what's fascinating to me about the greenhouse stuff. the you know With Kentucky Fresh and eventually, of course, App Harvest as well, a few of the other big players like 80 Acres, like
00:30:53
Alexis
Thank you.
00:30:53
Trevor Terry
we have so much space that's under protection. um I did a a little bit of a when I was still with the Dutch, I did like a kind of an analysis of the USDA census numbers. Because I was lot of conversations with people and Globally, I think people saw what happened with App Harvest as sort of a like a blip. right They were like, okay, here's this this company this tech company that raised a ton of money and they built all these greenhouses and here they go, they fail.
00:31:23
Trevor Terry
um A lot of people said, I told you so. a lot of people said that that, of course, that was going to happen. I think it had a lot to do with the management of the business and a lot...
00:31:30
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:31:34
Trevor Terry
less to do with the actual viability of the production system, because we know from around the world that those things work in that kind of study of the of where the country is at as far as a greenhouse or protected horticulture goes.
00:31:39
Plant People
Yeah.
00:31:48
Trevor Terry
um the the increase from 2017 to 2022 in Kentucky, it went from like 1.4 million square feet to 6.6 million square feet, which is already huge. It's like a 342% increase over that timeframe in protected vegetables under glass or other protection.
00:32:03
Plant People
yeah
00:32:05
Alexis
Thank you.
00:32:06
Trevor Terry
but But what I knew from working with those folks and and kind of paying attention to that that greenhouse industry through my Dutch job was that that the app harvest facilities alone were 7.1 million square feet.
00:32:18
Trevor Terry
So clearly something was not adding up. um I went into the county level data to take a look and kind of verify what was going on. It turned out that none of those facilities were listed.
00:32:28
Trevor Terry
So when I'm in these conversations talking about, you know, foreign policy as it relates to agriculture at at the embassy in the Netherlands, like,
00:32:29
Plant People
Thank you.
00:32:38
Trevor Terry
and And they're saying that maybe that's just a blip or or that's just the app harvest facilities or or that's, you know, we can write that off. The fact of the matter is that none of that was listed.
00:32:46
Alexis
Yeah.
00:32:48
Trevor Terry
All of that growth came from small medium sized operators, right?
00:32:52
Alexis
yeah
00:32:53
Trevor Terry
and And so when we when we look at that growth alone, 6.6 million square feet, and then we add in the 7.1 million square feet from ab harvest, we get to about 13.8 million square feet for Kentucky. That's protected vegetables under glass or other protection. I think it's table number 37 in the USDA census.
00:33:10
Trevor Terry
So... I'm a nerd for that stuff. I think that's, that's impressive, but where does that put us in the nation um prior to that addition or that, that correction, I guess, um,
00:33:24
Trevor Terry
we'd be in fifth place. I think it was you know behind Ohio or something like that.
00:33:26
Plant People
Yeah, it's
00:33:29
Trevor Terry
But with that additional acreage actually counted correctly, ah it puts us in second place behind California in the entire country, which is just a crazy step, right? um Now, California has 38 million square feet.
00:33:43
Plant People
yeah it's a big leap between number two and number one, yeah.
00:33:43
Alexis
You jump, yeah.
00:33:45
Trevor Terry
Yeah, yeah. But all that said, 13.8 for a ah state like Kentucky to go from 1.4 to 13.8, 932% increase is crazy.
00:33:52
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:33:56
Trevor Terry
so um i'm very much I'm very much a proponent of that because number one, I see it as, as an opportunity to ah bring more people, more food locally.
00:34:07
Trevor Terry
I see it as an opportunity to, um to get the next generation of folks more interested in horticulture, whether that's in ornamental or in vegetable production. um I also see it as, as another thing for Kentucky to hang its hat on as like, Hey, you know, sows, cows, and plows have been the story about Kentucky,
00:34:26
Trevor Terry
agriculture forever. But here, horticulture is actually creating opportunity as well. And it's the same thing with the cut flowers, right?
00:34:31
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:34:33
Trevor Terry
um I might not have these as memorized, but I believe that that in the 2022 census, 220 growers listed growing on acres.
00:34:46
Trevor Terry
the market value in ah in twenty seventeen i think was fifty thousand dollars like in cash receipt listed in that census
00:34:53
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:34:55
Trevor Terry
it's now up to two point two million in that in that time frame which is insane so you got yeah it's it's over 20 growers growing on a little less than an acre or or even less than an acre and there's we know there's some that are not counted as well if the usda census is not perfect but
00:35:01
Plant People
little bit of a growth area. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy.
00:35:07
Plant People
me
00:35:14
Trevor Terry
There's another thing with tremendous growth in Kentucky that is on the smaller scale, but has an opportunity to explode, I think, over the next time frame that they'll make that report. So I'm just maybe I'm too much of a nerd for those numbers, but I think it tells helps to reshape the story around Kentucky horticulture away from like, well, tobacco left and what's next.
00:35:24
Alexis
Yeah.
00:35:34
Trevor Terry
And you deal with this a lot into like, here's opportunity.
00:35:35
Alexis
yeah
00:35:38
Trevor Terry
Here's this this like natural resource we have in both the land and in our people. And they're doing some amazing things with ah with very little land and very little, ah you know.
00:35:51
Alexis
Yeah. because and Kentucky doesn't always tell its story as as well as it should.
00:35:53
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:35:57
Alexis
And so organizations like Court Council, you know Kentucky Proud, other places like that help, I think, to tell those stories of all the good things that are happening so that there can be you know investments when it makes sense from other places um you know to just build that build that industry in like a sustainable way.
00:36:12
Trevor Terry
yeah
00:36:16
Alexis
Yeah. Because nobody's like asking for it to be completely everything under glass, you know what I mean? Like it's not going to be like the next vertical farm, central hydroponic, what, I don't know, makeup, AI run greenhouse, i don't know.
00:36:23
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:36:31
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:36:32
Plant People
It's not going to be just one thing.
00:36:32
Alexis
But yeah.
00:36:33
Plant People
We've talked about diversification for how many years, and it was an interesting and an interesting point you just made, Trevor, when you said we're always looking, wondering what the big thing is. Well, the scary thing is, what if the big thing is already edged into the picture, and the scary thing is we may not see it until it's passed us by with another state or the market's been captured someplace else.
00:36:52
Alexis
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:36:53
Trevor Terry
There it
00:36:53
Plant People
But I think that's the trick of framing, and that's why groups like the Horticulture Council is so important to me you need to have people looking at things like that to make sure that the the picture and the frame that the picture is in is truly representative of what's going on out there in Kentucky and there's a lot going on in Kentucky and it's pretty exciting as far as horticulture goes and agriculture.
00:37:13
Trevor Terry
is. There's a lot to be excited about and there's a lot to be nervous about. I mean, if
Economic Concerns and Horticultural Resilience in Kentucky
00:37:20
Trevor Terry
I'm being completely honest, you know, i I took this job knowing that there would be a lot of opportunity and also a lot of challenge.
00:37:20
Plant People
the
00:37:27
Trevor Terry
um And I think the growers are seeing that too. you know ah Brett, Alexis, and I have had some some really good discussions with growers about some of the economic uncertainties that are that are facing us right now from tariffs and from you know just general inflation affecting you know what inputs they can get at what prices.
00:37:48
Trevor Terry
And ah you hear you hear the full gamut of of folks that are working you know with three truckloads, for instance, of of a substrate versus one pallet.
00:37:58
Trevor Terry
Right.
00:37:59
Alexis
Right.
00:37:59
Trevor Terry
And all of those folks are experiencing those same issues just on different scales.
00:38:04
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:38:04
Trevor Terry
um And.
00:38:04
Alexis
right
00:38:06
Trevor Terry
So so that's that's one of the challenges I think right now. The other is, of course, federal funding right now is a huge uncertainty. And as ah as a grant-funded organization with 13 of those federal grants right now, I can tell you that I did not sleep well from January 28th when the OMB memo was put out until like basically today.
00:38:27
Trevor Terry
And I'm sure it's going to be tough to sleep tonight. it's it's And that's affecting a lot of different organizations, right? That's affecting universities.
00:38:32
Alexis
Thank you.
00:38:33
Trevor Terry
That's affecting our our member associations. That's affecting... ah you know, individual farmers who are, are taking advantage of federal programs. Like we had the LFPA and the LFSS, the local food for schools. um When that that went away, that was a big hit for a lot of horticultural producers.
00:38:47
Plant People
Yeah. um
00:38:51
Trevor Terry
Right. um I am encouraged right now that we've got a, a lot of advocates at both KOAP and at KDA, like the commissioner shell, um you know, you're,
00:39:05
Trevor Terry
even even our our friends at Kentucky Farm Bureau have all been very much listening to those issues right now. And I think that as things kind of play out on the federal level, we've got a lot of great advocates here who are who are trying to take those things into account.
00:39:18
Alexis
Oh, that.
00:39:22
Trevor Terry
Now, is is everything perfect? Am I still going to sleep well about you know this, that, or the other funding opportunity? It's going to be tough, but um I am still optimistic that that some of that that grower support is going to continue through through the challenging time when we kind of need it a lot, right?
00:39:40
Trevor Terry
You guys heard about how strawberries are doing right now, for instance?
00:39:44
Plant People
As far as from
00:39:44
Trevor Terry
um
00:39:44
Alexis
oh that like the root system or the disease issue.
00:39:47
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:39:48
Plant People
The neopest, yeah.
00:39:49
Trevor Terry
Neopestalopcheopsis, yeah.
00:39:52
Plant People
ah I think it's going to change the industry some. I believe it's making some larger growers. I know we have some in my county, Bourbon County. I mean, it's making them reassess the supply chain and how they get plants or do they grow their own plants.
00:40:05
Plant People
So I think that's generating, you know, some churn in that industry. ah It's going to make some changes definitely on how things come from,
00:40:10
Trevor Terry
Mm-hmm.
00:40:11
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:40:15
Plant People
you know, the sp supply chain there just to overall, i think it's going it's making some changes right now. Currently we're, you know, considerations are being made already for next year and changes are happening. So, yeah.
00:40:25
Trevor Terry
Exactly.
00:40:25
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:40:25
Trevor Terry
and And I know for cut flower growers, it's a similar thing, you know, like sourcing those bulbs from overseas. A lot of that strawberry plant material comes from Canada.
00:40:34
Plant People
Yes.
00:40:34
Trevor Terry
um It's a lot of the substrates, fertilizers, um plastic materials, whether that's for a greenhouse or just pots.
00:40:35
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:40:42
Trevor Terry
A lot of that stuff comes from a global supply chain. So that that additional uncertainty I'm not saying i know a lot of growers that make a perfect budget for what they're going to spend the next year.
00:40:52
Plant People
Yeah.
00:40:54
Trevor Terry
But if you bump 10% to 30% 50% on top of those line items, I can tell you from my own experience, that's, it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt.
00:41:02
Plant People
Yeah.
00:41:02
Alexis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:41:04
Plant People
And do you guys ah work with, if oh, sorry, Brett, were you going say something?
00:41:05
Brett
So
00:41:08
Brett
Oh, I was I was gonna take us in a different direction. So you go ahead
00:41:10
Plant People
No, I was just going to add one thing to that. So, and you guys are out here. It sounds like the Hort Council helps communicate this stuff to different stakeholder groups. Is that the case or yeah.
00:41:20
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:41:20
Plant People
Telling the story.
00:41:20
Trevor Terry
Yeah. so that's part of the mission. I think that it's going to become an even bigger part of our mission or our, our, you know, our charge that, that is our original charge, right. To act as that unified unified voice for horticulture. So we've got currently 12 member associations that are, that are part of the Kentucky horticulture council. Like I mentioned, vegetable growers, hort society, uh, uh, all these different groups that represent their own kind of segment of horticulture.
00:41:45
Trevor Terry
And, uh, right now, I think more than ever, they do have a unified voice. Um, at least in my experience, you know, the guys who are our turf and landscape guys are talking about the same issues in workforce development, in, in rising costs for, for their operations in, uh, in uncertainty around the future that our vegetable growers are and our vegetable growers from the open field guys to the greenhouse guys, to the, the really small scale, just getting into like a direct to consumer market.
00:41:52
Alexis
Amen.
00:42:14
Trevor Terry
um everybody's kind of talking about the same concerns right now. So although although it is a challenging time, I do see a lot of unity in how people are approaching the times.
00:42:25
Trevor Terry
And that gives me a lot of hope because when those people get talking, exactly, exactly.
00:42:27
Plant People
ah We're all in it together kind of thing. Yeah.
00:42:33
Brett
I think sometimes sometimes organizationally we we get come to get known for one or two things and there's a lot more going on. So for instance, with our group, people know about the the farmer's market and auction price reports and maybe aren't familiar with some of the other things.
00:42:45
Trevor Terry
Mm-hmm.
00:42:47
Brett
And so I was curious, you know we've talked a little bit now about the the controlled environment stuff. We've talked about the unified voices for the for the growers. um I think you know one thing that I would love for people to to know and understand a little bit more is that there's actually, in addition to just being a member and being able to come together and have conversations, youll you all also do provide services they that that growers can and fat can and should, in fact, get involved or or approach you all about different support angles.
00:43:12
Alexis
Thank you.
00:43:20
Brett
And that's something...
00:43:20
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:43:22
Brett
you know, that's something that keeps me awake at night is trying to think about how we can tell people more about how the horticulture council folks can, you know, just get in front of more growers or realize, oh, this is a thing that that the hortic council does. So what are some of those things?
Council's Expertise and Team Dedication
00:43:35
Trevor Terry
Yeah. So, I mean, we're a statewide organization with, ah as of April now, five people on staff. ah ah Used to be just just four. And it's it's crazy um the the amount of ground that is covered by my wonderful staff. So I'll kind of frame that discussion. I think I've got a big you know slide where I can go through all the details about what the different programs are. But i want to frame that discussion in our people ah around our people and like their levels of expertise. So we have, of course, when Cindy left that later left a great hole that I will, of course, never completely fill the vacuum of.
00:44:13
Trevor Terry
ah But but, you know, between Dakota, Bethany, Danny and Ali,
00:44:14
Alexis
Thank you.
00:44:18
Trevor Terry
I've just got some great people with some great experience. Our um our oldest team member ah who is ah is just one of my, like kind of the light that I call when I'm in one of my darkest modes is Bethany.
00:44:32
Trevor Terry
Bethany Cog. She has done, i think for five years, five and a half years at Hort Council, she has been like the go-to. She does everything from farm visits to working with farmers markets to up upscale their their businesses and to to better communicate with growers to working directly with, farm share operations lately to, get them more used to digital tools and kind of future proofing those organizations and, and that could particular business model. Um, she is, ah she might kill me for saying this, but she is kind of the, the, uh, the breath of fresh air when everybody else is feeling a little bit down. Uh, she will, she will bring it in and she, she won't agree with me about that, but you know how it goes.
00:45:14
Trevor Terry
Um, Of course, Danny ah on our team, Danny Zwischenberger, she is a kind of all around expert. She spent a lot of time in horticulture professionally prior to joining ah Kentucky Horticulture Council, but she's still curious about everything.
00:45:31
Trevor Terry
ah She's managing two particular projects. One is on that CEA, the protected ag ecosystem development in Eastern Kentucky, and another is a completely different shot at workforce development.
00:45:43
Trevor Terry
So she's managing a project from the Department of Labor where we're, it's called Kentucky Green Works.
00:45:43
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:45:48
Trevor Terry
We're trying to upskill and get certifications and registered apprenticeship programs outlined for the nursery landscape, aboric culture and protected ag industries in Kentucky. ah So she's she's one of those people that can take a really, really complex thing and boil it down and communicate it in a way that just makes sense for people.
00:46:08
Trevor Terry
um And I'm very much proud of her and all of her hard work, even before I came on ah Dakota is is like, I think you all know Dakota, right? um i'm I'm trying to think of the best way to describe him.
00:46:18
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:46:21
Trevor Terry
He's the hardest working person that I know. I thought that was Sydney, but it turns out it was Dakota. um you
00:46:27
Alexis
Aw.
00:46:28
Trevor Terry
He's our grower outreach coordinator and and he does everything under the sun. So he's our resident water expert. He's our resident risk management expert. He is our resident produce safety expert.
00:46:40
Trevor Terry
And he works with a lot of other partners, but he is the guy who's like, I was i was talking to him just yesterday about, you know, shifting some of his time from one project to another. And his his main concern was not like, you know, about him personally and how he was going to be spending his time.
00:46:55
Trevor Terry
But really, he was like, okay, but right now, I'm the guy out there, boots on the ground, traveling to growers.
00:46:58
Alexis
Thank
00:47:01
Trevor Terry
And if I am stuck behind a desk doing this project, then who's going to be out there every day talking to these people. And genuinely, I respect that. You know, I had one idea because I'm looking at spreadsheets and I'm trying to make decisions based on that, but he's thinking about the human connection. And that's why he's the best grower outreach coordinator, bar none that I've ever, you know, had the pleasure working with.
00:47:23
Trevor Terry
And then Allie is our newest team member. Allie is, she comes from Legacy Dairy. You've probably had their milk before. It's by the way, the chocolate milk is fantastic.
00:47:34
Trevor Terry
ah So free plug for Allie and Legacy Dairy. But she joined our team in April as our program and operations manager. So she is kind of like our... She's my boss, essentially.
00:47:45
Trevor Terry
She keeps me on track when I'm thinking about, oh, we could do this project or we should be focusing on this. She's like, hey, but remember, we need to focus on this, this, this. So she is my, she's my rock.
00:47:54
Alexis
Thank you.
00:47:55
Trevor Terry
And since she doesn't come from a horticulture background, it's really exciting because as she's discovering stuff, I'm also discovering stuff. And so is the rest of the team. So you know how it is when you talk to people who are less familiar with yeah everything from gardening to commercial horticulture.
00:48:10
Trevor Terry
and that light goes off for them and they start to see how these businesses work, like she's already in love with it. I will say that her first like kind of horticulture council era ah plant that she bought was a cactus.
00:48:24
Trevor Terry
um and And that kind of reflects...
00:48:26
Alexis
They all do.
00:48:27
Trevor Terry
I don't get it, man. Dakota loves cactuses too. um they're They're all over the place, but between all those people and hopefully with a little bit of help from me and our partner organizations like you guys at CCD and UK extension, and we we, I think, deliver on a lot of value.
00:48:44
Trevor Terry
And then like I said earlier, it's it's ah it means a lot of things to a lot of people. So some of that core programming, and I'll shut up when you want me to about all this stuff, but
00:48:53
Alexis
Oh, we love this.
00:48:54
Trevor Terry
So beyond all those grant funded projects, we have so our our core like foundational funding comes from the Ag Development Board. And and that's that's the really the the key stuff of what we do. um Through that funding, we're able to offer a gap cost share program where we will pay for up to 75% of a gap good agricultural practices audit ah third party from for growers.
00:49:21
Trevor Terry
We have expended that entire amount already this year, which I'm very excited about. And because that always helps me to go back and say, hey, look at the engagement with this program.
00:49:30
Alexis
People use this. Yeah.
00:49:32
Trevor Terry
Yeah, yeah. and i'm I'm really excited about that because what that means is I think currently we have 74, 75 GAP certified operations in Kentucky. And, you know, if we can get that to 100 over the next couple of years, I'll be thrilled.
00:49:40
Plant People
Uh-huh.
00:49:44
Trevor Terry
Right. um That just helps lower that barrier entry for growers and to help existing growers who are currently, ah you know, adopting those practices and getting that certification, usually to go to a specific customer, um we're we're kind of helping them, you know, grease the wheels to get to that next point.
00:49:58
Alexis
Yeah.
00:50:03
Alexis
yeah
00:50:03
Plant People
youhow
00:50:04
Trevor Terry
And it's a real hook for us, too, because when we are going in to talk about produce safety or we're going in to talk about marketing or we're going in to talk about, ah you know, technical assistance for for production systems, it it really helps to have something like, hey, and you know what, we could probably do this.
00:50:21
Trevor Terry
Another one of those is our on-farm water management grant program. that's another cost share where uh we can uh for for growers who submit projects uh that are approved we can cover up to 50 of a project cost up to twenty thousand dollars so that that has some really specific stuff so don't don't make me quote every single best management practice from nrcs that we cover uh because it's ah it's a list right but um but
00:50:43
Alexis
you
00:50:48
Trevor Terry
that That is another program where we can say to a grower, hey, you're using this water source and it might be, you know, your agricultural water might be actually introducing risk into the supply chain for specific pathogens.
00:51:01
Trevor Terry
And if you were to just do drip tape, right? Or if you were to just use it, like drill a well or have a cistern or or do some raining catchment, right? Like those those sorts of things that come naturally from trying to improve your production system also improve your food safety.
00:51:16
Trevor Terry
It's one of those things where we can kind of turn that on its head and say, hey, we're elevating these growers by helping them get to that next stage.
00:51:21
Plant People
It's a gateway indicator to me when people ask about gap audits and water systems, things like that, especially gap audits. It's a, it's sort of a gateway sort of waterfall moment where you know that that producer is usually leveling up as far as production or clientele.
00:51:35
Trevor Terry
Exactly. Exactly.
00:51:38
Plant People
And it's pretty exciting time when I hear that because usually that's the motivator, right? They, and you guys provide that important service to help remove that friction for them to move up, level up production or marketing, whatnot. Yeah.
00:51:50
Trevor Terry
And that's all thanks to Ag Development Board and and that funding that has been just, like i said, foundational to everything else we do. um The other big part of that service, you know, we we do the NAP surveys and we do the the research grant program, which I'm particularly excited about all the time as a nerd for horticulture. Yeah.
00:52:11
Trevor Terry
So so we we have ah a small pool of funds every year that we get to allocate for specific projects at Kentucky universities to advance horticultural research in the state. So it's like a baby version of SCBG.
00:52:24
Trevor Terry
You know, it's not a baby amount of money, but it is like a a step in that direction. for a lot of people. And it it kind of fills a gap that those larger grant programs do not. So in some cases, we are, we're funding research fellows. And in other cases, we're funding specific ah horticultural research projects for ah specialists at UK or KSU, or at we've had Moorhead, Murray State, Berea, UPike, all over the place for different researchers doing those those smaller projects. And
00:52:56
Trevor Terry
That one particularly excites me, like I said, because I'm a nerd, but I think there's the most opportunity to fill a gap right now with that.
00:53:02
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:53:03
Trevor Terry
And then like the other huge portion of that spreadsheet that I'm always working on is ah is our support for for extension across the state. So um we have ah either fully or partially funded 11 extension associates at the University of Kentucky, everything from ah the protected ag folks to to the the fruits and
Extension's Role and Collaboration in Horticulture
00:53:27
Trevor Terry
everything like that. And I think people don't really have an idea about what an extension associate is because I was going ask you guys, like kind of how do you view that?
00:53:34
Trevor Terry
And where does that fit into the puzzle for you guys of in your own experience? um um I'm curious.
00:53:38
Plant People
Oh, man. ah It provides critical support and very specialized area. I mean, as a field agent, it's so important to me because I've worked with different folks in those positions over time.
00:53:49
Plant People
And the thing about all the horticulture that we're talking about today is it tends to be kind of advanced. It's advanced systems when you talk about or can be advanced, everything from drip to protected ag, but they provide that kind of expertise on the field facing side. Now I know there's other components to it, but just from a selfish point of view, that field help, you know, really supplements what's there or what may, or there may be a gap in what's available, you know, at the university and other places. But that's why it's been kind of very helpful to me and local growers in the past with my experiences as a field facing person.
00:54:23
Trevor Terry
Yeah. What about you guys?
00:54:25
Alexis
Yeah, I would say like seeing it from, you know, being in the county to now being on campus, it it is a little bit dependent on like kind of what they're specializing in. um But, you know, I think that they are a way to expand the, expand that specialty, right? Because we only have one specialist and they are pulled in a lot of directions between teaching and extension and research. And i think that the, um, the EAs, the extension associates,
00:55:02
Alexis
are able to really drive home the extension mission. And so they're able to take, you know, that area they're specializing in, even if they're not, you know, an expert, right, they have direct communication with the, you know, the specialist who is and they can get with them more quickly. and they can really be, i think, the face of that program area and stretch that, um stretch that out and also deliver back you know, it's a two-way street. they They help deliver back, hey, I was over at this farm with this agent. The agent was saying they're seeing a lot of problem with, you know, Plum Curculio.
00:55:38
Alexis
Can, you know, you let the specialist know, or can we do some more research, or can we do an on-farm, you know, whatever, and so just kind of helping with with that and a little bit more technical assistance that way, so I think they just really expand the program, um,
00:55:53
Alexis
that they're in and are a good space for the university and for the agent too, you know so the agent knows that they've got help.
00:56:03
Plant People
It's kind of just another strand in the rope for me.
00:56:03
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
00:56:06
Alexis
Yeah.
00:56:06
Plant People
It just is part of the fabric, and we need all the support we can get on a lot of these advanced production techniques and operations. So it's just a good supplement in a lot of cases. But I know they, you know, ah just as Alexa said, it depends. But yeah, sure.
00:56:21
Alexis
Brett's been an EA though, so.
00:56:21
Plant People
Go for it.
00:56:23
Trevor Terry
yeah
00:56:25
Brett
What's that?
00:56:26
Alexis
You didn't you start out and as an EA?
00:56:29
Brett
I did, i did, yes.
00:56:29
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:56:30
Brett
Yeah. So in case anyone doesn't know we're talking about, these are campus-based staff positions that support extension at a statewide level, usually, sometimes a regional level. I honestly think that a blend of faculty and staff work is going to be more and more of the future of extension.
00:56:51
Brett
Of course, our county-based programming is to me the the ah crown jewel of the of the whole system.
00:56:55
Alexis
the heart. who
00:56:59
Brett
but And we have a very unique uniquely strong system in that regard and in the state of Kentucky. And i I think honestly, the collaborative funding and support that the Hort Council has given to UK for the last 20 years, I think we might look back on it and say, wow, that was actually extremely forward thinking or indicative of where things were going to as far as collaborative understandings of
00:57:24
Trevor Terry
Right.
00:57:24
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:57:27
Brett
value and identifying priorities and funding. um I think more and more as the core funds get cut or eb as the federal and other funding opportunities for for extension and for universities start to to shift and become maybe more unpredictable,
00:57:48
Brett
I think we have a lot to lot that we owe to the Hort Council and to the Ag Development Board and the way that they have thought through that stuff and the people who have figured out what that looks like across time.
00:57:57
Alexis
No.
00:57:59
Brett
And now you're you're part of that ah that legacy, and that which is really, really cool. i think i do I do think we've led the way in that regard.
00:58:04
Trevor Terry
And it is figuring it out, right?
00:58:08
Trevor Terry
I'd agree. I don't think that folks in Kentucky have a great understanding of like how extension programs work elsewhere, but associates aren't present everywhere, right?
00:58:18
Alexis
yeah
00:58:18
Trevor Terry
Sometimes it is just a specialist in a state that's covering the entire state, which is crazy. And I'm really glad that...
00:58:24
Alexis
And they don't have county agents. So like it's pretty much just the specialists.
00:58:28
Trevor Terry
Yeah, so I mean, as far as the land grant mission goes, like having... you know, many hands make light work. ah and And I think we're always improving that too. You know, i in my time, I'm hoping that we can really center on what value we deliver to growers and getting more of those those ah that feedback in a direct way. like How can we better serve those growers and what what are the issues that they're they're facing and how do they view the assistance that they're getting? Just to try to focus on that continuous improvement model.
00:58:58
Trevor Terry
That was the plug for Toyota and my father-in-law, just to add in there. Yeah, no, I think...
00:59:06
Brett
It's good to know that Supergoop practices lean production systems and continuous improvement.
00:59:09
Trevor Terry
Yeah. Yeah.
00:59:10
Brett
Yeah.
00:59:11
Trevor Terry
We're trying, we're trying. I guess, I guess the other piece about Hort Council, just to, just to round that, that discussion out, because we are so many things to so many people or, or is just to bring it back to those, whether it's a funded position at one of our land grant universities or it's folks directly on our staff, or it's our volunteer board members that put in a lot of extra time to make sure that when I'm going crazy, I don't go completely crazy.
00:59:21
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:59:38
Trevor Terry
Um, you know, it's it's all those people that make it work and it's, and it really does come down. i think it's important. One thing i I just want to make sure we cover is like, because I've been thinking about it a lot is is sort of paying it forward and maybe like mentorship of people.
Mentorship and Future Growth in Horticulture
00:59:53
Trevor Terry
I mentioned, I know Ray, you know, should have been pretty well from back in the day, right?
00:59:57
Plant People
Yeah, yeah. ah Go back a ways, yeah.
01:00:01
Trevor Terry
Yeah. I, like when I started there KFH, there was, I had very little direction about what I was supposed to be doing. I had zero knowledge of horticulture.
01:00:12
Trevor Terry
And I was working with this group from Israel, which was you know a lot of time differences and a lot of language barriers and things like that. um But we were out like kind of meeting with different agents in different counties, trying to figure out who was growing what where.
01:00:26
Trevor Terry
And ah went down to Whitley County and somebody ah from from the judge executive's office, I think, had invited Shaban down from UK. And he was, ah I mean, if you know Shaban, he's got a particular vibe of skepticism and he doesn't he does not suffer bullshit very often.
01:00:46
Plant People
Yeah.
01:00:46
Trevor Terry
Oops, sorry. BS very often.
01:00:47
Plant People
Yeah. yeah
01:00:48
Trevor Terry
um And so so he came in and and we we started to to talk about this project. He said, well, have you thought about this? I think this location is a lot better than that one. and he And he just had a lot of understanding and knowledge from his his prior experience at University of Florida, at Purdue and at UK.
01:01:07
Trevor Terry
And ah he came on as the second employee. And I will hold that over his head um forever, I think, ah that I was first and second.
01:01:11
Alexis
As you should.
01:01:14
Alexis
as you should
01:01:15
Plant People
first.
01:01:15
Trevor Terry
Yeah, yeah. But I mean, that's what that that's what you need at the beginning of one of those large you know builds for a greenhouse or any kind of farm. You need a grower, somebody who knows that stuff. And ah and he's still there, ah which is crazy to me too. you know I guess 10 years ago when we met, it was just kind of this idea on a soybean field and here he is running that whole project. And I'm just, I'm immensely proud and and grateful for the time that I got to spend you know eight years going from knowing nothing about that stuff to, you know,
01:01:47
Trevor Terry
where we are today is is it's cool. And i when Shabin's talking about you know pest management practices and teaching me cultural practices around that, as well as the science behind it. and giving me an opportunity to ask all those stupid questions in an environment where where I didn't have to feel embarrassed about not knowing the answer, right?
01:02:08
Trevor Terry
He always put it like, I can give you the paddles, but you gotta to row yourself, right? So he's he's equipping those people down there that are that are still working at KFH and he equipped me with the tools necessary to make my own decisions.
01:02:22
Trevor Terry
and And I'm just immensely grateful for that. And I'm curious like who you guys kind of, mentor was or if they had any good sayings. My favorite is Shaban always says there's no money in growing vegetables. There's only money in selling vegetables.
01:02:37
Trevor Terry
That one I've got tattooed in a number of places.
01:02:40
Plant People
Yeah, I've heard that from more than a few, ah particularly the protected ah ah environment growers. It's something about them that they're they some of them lean ah heavily on the business side rather than the, ooh, a plant, I want to hug it side. They love the plants because it's business units of economy, you know?
01:02:59
Trevor Terry
Yep.
01:02:59
Plant People
Yeah, yeah. yeah
01:03:00
Trevor Terry
Yep.
01:03:01
Alexis
my ah my I feel like i've had many mentors and over my life, but ah one of mine, she said, who's now an extension associate, Sherry Dutton, and she said, plants don't read the book, Alexis. You just have to figure it out.
01:03:19
Alexis
And that has never been more true, and I say it all the time, because they do not read the books, and they do what they want. Mm-hmm.
01:03:26
Trevor Terry
yep
01:03:27
Plant People
It all depends, Alexis.
01:03:29
Plant People
It's all very situational. Just like sociology, it all depends.
01:03:29
Alexis
ne
01:03:32
Alexis
Environmental issues.
01:03:34
Plant People
Nature versus nurture, okay? It works for plants as well.
01:03:38
Trevor Terry
Mm-hmm.
01:03:39
Plant People
It does.
01:03:39
Brett
Well, one of my, the people that that really shaped my perspective on this was a former coworker, ah Neil Wilson. He repeated a phrase that somebody else had told.
01:03:50
Brett
And I think, I think it's about having perspective on a lot of things in life, but he said, and, and, you know, some people might push back against this, but there are no horticultural emergencies that we have to have some perspective on.
01:04:02
Trevor Terry
and
01:04:03
Alexis
Yes. yes
01:04:06
Brett
there are things that are really important and there are, there's losing money and there's all kinds of stuff like that. But, uh, you know, if you, if you have health scares or you have other things that happen in your life, sometimes you kind of have like, okay, yeah, let's, let's just rewind back to this is we're growing plants. This is really like, supposed to be a good thing.
01:04:24
Brett
So it's to be not, it's not supposed to just be this primary source of stress or, or cortisol or fight or flight or anything else.
01:04:29
Alexis
yes
01:04:31
Brett
So i don't know if that's inspiring or not, but, um, I've really enjoyed this.
01:04:34
Alexis
I was to say Beller Bloom's version of that is it's only flowers.
01:04:35
Brett
What's that? buts that would
01:04:40
Alexis
And she was a NICU nurse. So like legitimately she goes, it's only flowers.
01:04:42
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
01:04:42
Brett
right
01:04:44
Alexis
Everything's dead, but you know what? It's only flowers. Sorry. Go ahead.
01:04:47
Trevor Terry
Mm-hmm.
01:04:47
Alexis
Okay.
01:04:48
Brett
And that's not to say that any of this that any of this isn't absolutely essential and important to our future as a state, to our future as individuals, to the the businesses and organizations in the state.
01:04:48
Alexis
sorry go
01:04:59
Brett
I think that I have been really, I was really impressed with the way that Cindy took the organization by the horns. and i And I've been really impressed with the way that you have too, Trevor.
01:05:10
Brett
And i'm I'm excited for this next conversation.
01:05:11
Trevor Terry
Oh,
01:05:13
Brett
this next chapter of what the Kentucky horticulture horticulture council is going to do and is already doing. And and you all are supporting our CCD 25th anniversary, which we really, really appreciate. We're looking forward to getting together and having some, um, summer ish cocktails and drinks surround somehow focused and integrating, uh, horticulture products.
01:05:33
Brett
That was maybe me fishing for answers earlier about what we should do, but, uh,
01:05:36
Trevor Terry
oh I get it. Yeah.
01:05:38
Alexis
Plug. Okay.
01:05:38
Brett
But yeah, so again, thank you so much for for coming on today and I'll try to do, yeah, of course.
01:05:39
Plant People
It goes full circle.
01:05:43
Trevor Terry
Can I do one more plug?
01:05:45
Alexis
but
01:05:46
Trevor Terry
Okay. All right. So ah currently we're talking about extension associates. Currently there are two positions open at the, at the university of Kentucky and KSU.
01:05:58
Trevor Terry
um This will be the first KHC funded position at KSU. It's on a focus on hydroponics and aquaponics, you know, kind of ah really serving to, to enhance their dare Kentucky project, the largest single grant award in KSU history which is really exciting. um and And of course, KHC is happy to support that, but we're also really happy to to kind of broaden that impact with more positions funded at different folks, universities.
01:06:25
Trevor Terry
ah We also have in ah another position. I think Cindy and Ching Lu just just posted that last week for ah for a protected ag associate in in the horticulture department at UK. And that's super exciting too. We talked a lot about that industry today and how that's growing a lot. We need all the support we can get.
01:06:41
Trevor Terry
So um if you're out there and you got, what, an hour or so into a discussion about plants and administrative and spreadsheets and all that sort of stuff,
01:06:53
Alexis
ah
01:06:54
Trevor Terry
You're going to love it. I'm kidding. Please just skip to the end.
01:06:56
Alexis
You're fit.
01:06:56
Plant People
dedicated
01:06:57
Trevor Terry
Let's go to this part. Apply online.
01:07:00
Alexis
We can put some stuff in the show notes about that too, Trevor.
01:07:01
Trevor Terry
it's you Yeah.
01:07:05
Alexis
Clickable links.
01:07:05
Trevor Terry
Cool.
01:07:07
Alexis
you
01:07:07
Trevor Terry
Yeah.
01:07:09
Brett
Yeah, so we'll link to that.
01:07:09
Trevor Terry
link Link in the description. Like and subscribe. Hit the bell icon.
01:07:12
Brett
There you go. Hit the bell icon.
01:07:15
Trevor Terry
Link in the description. i only get a little bit of a sponsor fee. I'm kidding. I don't get anything.
01:07:20
Brett
Yeah, use promo code Trevor.
01:07:20
Trevor Terry
Just please apply.
01:07:20
Alexis
What's your, um what's the Kentucky Horticulture's Instagram handle if they want to follow for Bethany's fabulous videos?
01:07:29
Trevor Terry
That's really good question. I think it is KY Hort Council and I'm, yeah.
01:07:35
Alexis
We will tag you in... hours So if you are following, pork culture podcast on Instagram, we will tag them and then you can follow and get delicious recipes and seasonal advice and, uh, other.
01:07:49
Brett
it's ah It's actually just, it's just at KY horticulture at KY horticulture.
01:07:52
Alexis
It's a little, it's a green Kentucky.
01:07:53
Brett
Yeah.
01:07:53
Trevor Terry
Thank you, Brett. Would you like a job?
01:07:56
Alexis
You can't have it.
01:07:58
Trevor Terry
Can't have Can't have him.
01:08:00
Alexis
I will fight you.
01:08:01
Brett
was While you're over there on Instagram and you're following KY Horticulture and seeing the great content they put out, feel free to follow us. We are at Hort Culture Podcast on Instagram.
01:08:12
Brett
We also have a brand new email address to hopefully not get emails lost. We've decided to go out into the world of Gmail. And so we have... It's the same as our email address. It's hortculturepodcast at gmail.com.
01:08:28
Brett
You can email us there if you have ideas about what we should cover on the show, if you have questions, if you have comments, if you're having trouble finding a link or anything else. um we really appreciate
01:08:36
Alexis
You want to be a guest.
01:08:38
Brett
If you want to be a guest, you know go ahead and throw that out there. We really hope that as we grow this podcast, you'll grow with us and we will see you next time. Thanks, Trevor.
01:08:49
Trevor Terry
Thank you all.