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Monday 8am - 5pm Tuesday 8am - 5pm Wednesday 8am - 5pm Thursday 8am - 5pm Friday 8am - 5pm

Grow Appalachia

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Berea, KY
Grow Appalachia

Our vision is a vibrant, regional food system where healthy food is accessible to all.

We teach families how to prepare and preserve food in a healthy way while empowering them to share their knowledge in their own communities. Grow Appalachia is in its fifth year of gardening and has grown to include 43 sites in 5 states. The program is constantly expanding and evolving to meet the needs of the individuals that it serves throughout Appalachia. Each site operates differently but the

widespread focus includes community gardening, individual home garden plots, agricultural workshops, community events, local food marketing initiatives, educational opportunities, and lots of delicious fresh food!

06/03/2026

Here at Grow Appalachia, we have provided accessible educational opportunities on organic gardening for over 15 years. In our humid region with heavy pest and disease pressure, organic production is not easy. We believe in sharing the knowledge and practices that have helped us all succeed over the years, and offering hands-on experience is invaluable to new and beginning growers.

In that spirit, our founder David Cooke will be sharing lessons he has learned organically growing veggies in a high tunnel during an upcoming free workshop in Berea, KY.

On Thursday, June 25th from 10am to 1pm, David will lead a presentation on pruning & trellising techniques, specifically for tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, and squash. Participants will be able to observe different techniques in the high tunnels at Bobtown Arts and try it out themselves! Light refreshments and drinks will be provided.

If you plan to attend, please register at bit.ly/GrowAppRegistration

06/02/2026

On May 20th and 21st, Appalachian Sustainable Development - ASD and Grow Appalachia co-hosted a Forest Farming Design Intensive at the Berea College Forestry Outreach Center for technical service providers.

ASD's Tabitha Bugg, Grow Appalachia's Story Slone, Berea College Forestry's Clint Patterson, UVA Wise's Ryan Huish, and Virginia Tech's John Munsell delivered a wide array of engaging classroom and field sessions on site assessment, design considerations, plant identification, and the indigenous roots of agroforestry.

In central Appalachia, much of our land is naturally suited for forest farming practices. For landowners and stewards with limited flat, arable land for conventional row cropping or pasture management, it's important for those of us working in the field to understand the basics of forest farming practices to offer this path as a viable option for new and beginning farmers. Forest farming combines responsible land stewardship with the production of food, medicine, and more, and we look forward to seeing how these practices continue to flourish in rural Appalachian communities.

We could not have hosted this workshop without the support of UK's Center for Crop Diversification , State University , Southern SARE, and USDA - NIFA.

05/29/2026

This week across the nation thousands of community and school sponsors are launching SUN Meal programs. These USDA funded free meals are an effort to meet the meal gap for youth while school is not in session. Since 2016, Grow Appalachia has served as a sponsor of this program, providing thousands of free meals to youth ages 18 and under during the summer through its Berea Kids Eat. This summer feels more important than ever as national indicators point to significant food needs for youth and their families with the rising costs of food and challenges accessing SNAP. Our early estimates anticipate that we will serve more than 30,000 meals in Berea this summer! One of our goals with this program is not just serve free meals, but to make them nourishing meals that feature local and regional meats, veggies, and hand baked breads and entrees from local food businesses.

This weekend we’re kicking off the 2026 season with a Kickoff Party. Please join us tomorrow 5/30 from 11am-1pm at Glades Garden (530 Glades Rd) for art activities, fun programming and free meals for youth from Alfalfa. There will also be music in the orchard by Jeri Catherine Howell, thanks to partnership with AMP Berea. We hope you can make it! If you’re interested to support this work from afar, we’re always looking for funding partnerships to help us sustain this work. Follow the link below to donate and learn more.

https://give.berea.edu/page/64658/donate/1?locale=en-US

05/27/2026

We are proud to share our new impact report for 2025!

Please take a moment to read about how we worked with farmers, backyard gardeners and food systems organizations to support a vibrant food system across central Appalachia.

Follow this link: https://bit.ly/43zqU80

We also invite you to support our work by sharing this link and if you are able, consider making a donation to our fundraiser to support our ongoing efforts. To gather around food, we commit to Grow Appalachia!

05/21/2026

Throughout 2025, we provided experiential learning workshops, on-farm technical assistance and a plethora of food-growing and nutrition programming opportunities. We reached across 5 central Appalachian states in collaboration with an incredible network of farmers, organizations and home gardeners. Learn more in our soon to be released 2025 Impact Report!

05/13/2026

Meet Doris Love Alfred, a beginning farmer based in Bourbon County, KY who owns and operates Love's Angels Early Childhood Development Center, a successful childcare center which has offered field trips and 24/7 care for infants through children up to 12 years for over 19 years. She hopes to add a thriving farm-to-school educational program to the Center's offerings.

Doris is great at leveraging resources available to her. She is a student in the KY Farm Launch program hosted by the University of Kentucky and is currently a Direct Integrated Farmer Support (DIGS) client with us at Grow Appalachia. After receiving funding from NRCS in 2023, Doris hired Grow Appalachia to build her a 15'x48' gothic high tunnel, and she has recently applied for additional funding from our NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) in collaboration with Organic Association of KY (OAK) to implement more conservation practices on her farm.

This year, she is excited to grow leafy greens, ginger, tomatoes, cabbage, and cantaloupe and learn more about soil health in her tunnel. Doris also focuses heavily on reducing waste by recycling, reusing, and repurposing materials in and around her growing space.

You can learn more about our Farmer Development programs by visiting our website: growappalachia.berea.edu

04/30/2026

Extreme fluctuations in our weather patterns is a new normal for our region. Catastrophic flooding, the shifting of tornado alley eastward into the edges of Appalachia, and extended periods of drought all require us to imagine and implement resilient systems on our farms and in our communities.

This year, we have faced an exceptionally dry spring, while last year we experienced one of the wettest springs on record. How do we adapt to these dramatic shifts? We don't have all the answers, but we sure are taking steps to find them. We are committed to learning from farmers in the region facing these challenges every season, including Missy and Donny Sexton of Heathern Homestead in Perry County, Kentucky.

Missy and Donny are determined to continue growing fresh, nutritious food for themselves and their community. Despite numerous tragedies on their farm, including the devastation of the 2022 flood, they continue to hold on to hope and move forward. On Tuesday, April 28th, some of our Farmer Development team worked with Missy, Donny, and some folks from our Garden Grant network to install deer fencing and insect netting around her main production area and discuss principles of organic pest & disease control. Missy and Donny are weaving together flood resiliency and farming on their property by planting trees along the banks of the Troublesome from and incorporating perennial food producing crops, such as hazelnuts and fruit trees. We are grateful to have the funding to support farmers while also sharing educational resources.

How are you incorporating flood and drought resilient practices on your farm?

04/29/2026

Check out one of our Garden Grant partners doing impactful work in Whitley County, KY!

04/27/2026

Did you know that our Growing Supplies Catalog includes a wide range of materials to help support organic pest control?

Mechanical controls, such as insect netting and row cover, provide a physical barrier against pests in the garden and on the farm. Installing row cover or insect netting at the time of planting and ensuring all edges are sealed is the best practice for reducing pest pressure. Crops which need pollinators to produce fruit, such as summer squash, will need to have the row cover or netting removed to allow for pollination during the season. Selecting the right row covers will depend on your crop and the pest(s) you're targeting. Wire hoops or more robust low tunnel hoops hold these row covers in place and allow for easier access when harvesting.

All of these materials - insect netting, row cover, wire hoops, and low tunnel hoops - are available through our catalog by visiting bit.ly/growcatalog. Our staff is also happy to help you navigate these options and select the right materials for your farm or garden. Email [email protected] with any questions!

If you're looking for more educational resources on using mechanical controls to manage pest pressure, check out Crops Under Cover, a collaborative research project focused on growers in the southeast, midwest, and northeast. Visit https://cropsundercover.mgcafe.uky.edu

04/22/2026

It's Earth Day!

Today we celebrate our life sustaining Earth and all the wonderful creatures that make up this incredible ecosystem. At Grow Appalachia we focus our attention on growing resilient food systems, which means also prioritizing our efforts to support a Thriving Ecosystem. With all the visitors you'll have in your garden this year, how can you manage pest and bug control with earth-loving, non harmful approaches? Check out our Resource page to learn more about Organic Pest and Disease control, and commit with us to keep learning how we can work together for a Thriving Ecosystem! https://growappalachia.berea.edu/garden-maintenence/

Address

210 Center Street
Berea, KY
40403

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 5pm
Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Wednesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm
Friday	8am - 5pm

Telephone

+18599853941

Website

https://growappalachia.berea.edu/, https://linktr.ee/growappalachia, https://bit.ly/handsinthesoil

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