Growing Appalachia 2010 | Kentuckians For The Commonwealth

Growing Appalachia 2010

Growing Appalachia-Floyd 2010

On April 23, 2010, the Floyd County Chapter (now Big Sandy) hosted first Growing Appalachia conference. It was a day of workshops by local experts on how to start your own renewable energy and small farm business. 

List of workshops

Starting a small mountain farm – Randall Pflager, Pine Mountain Settlement School – Growing high value crops and livestock on small acreage, including sustainable farming techniques such as organic soil builders, crop rotation, and rotational grazing.

Micro-Hydro 101 – Bob Fairchild, Soft Energy Associates – How to generate electricity from small streams for residential, agricultural, and commercial use with affordable materials.

New markets for small farmers – Martin Richards, KFTC – Finding and creating local markets for your produce. Direct sales, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), farmer’s markets, restaurants, and more.

Energy efficiency and green building – Andy McDonald, KY Solar Partnership – Identifying opportunities for energy savings in new and existing buildings, how to weatherize, and green building options such as passive solar and local materials.

See some photos from our first Growing Appalachia conference

Growing in the forest – Debra Hill, University of Kentucky Extension Service – An introduction to growing and marketing non-timber forest products on hardwood forested hillsides such as gourmet mushrooms and medicinal and culinary herbs.

Getting started in solar – Josh Bills, MACED – Integrating solar hot water systems into new and existing structures for water and space heating, as well as solar photovoltaic panel installation for generating electricity on residential and commercial buildings.

Forest management for carbon credit income – Scott Shouse, MACED – Last year seven Kentucky landowners earned a total of $65,000 for letting their trees grow! Learn how you can earn carbon offset payments by managing your forested property as a certified tree farm.

Biomass 101 – Nathan Hall, East Kentucky Biodiesel – An overview of biomass energy options with a look at the pros, cons, and appropriate place of each. Also, how to create biodiesel from waste cooking oil.