Clinton County and partridge head green beans:

Listening to the people

As the Cooperative Extension Service celebrates its 100 Year Anniversary this year, it is important to reflect upon our heritage while keeping in touch with current trends and issues.

Our success is grounded in forming relationships while addressing local issues with research based support from the land grant campuses of the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University.

Grass-roots locally based programs are the heart of our Extension Service.

As Dr. Jimmy Henning, Director of UK Cooperative Extension noted, the campus-community-county connection is the essence of the land grant system put in place in 1862 with the Morrill Act.

Fifty years later, the Smith-Lever act created the national Extension system to ensure that the research findings of the land grant university were being effectively implemented by the clientele they were formed to serve.

Thus, in 2014, we are in the centennial year of the signing of that important legislation.

Listening to clientele and using their input is the essence of a strong Extension system. Recently, I noticed Facebook discussion regarding partridge head (paterge or patterched) green beans.

Thanks to Randy Speck and his research, many sources credit this heirloom bean variety to Clinton County.

Our staff is in the process of gathering more information from Extension specialists and other sources.

We will likely schedule a time for community members who have interest and background information on partridge head beans to come together and discuss ideas of how we can build upon this aspect of our heritage.

The Facebook discussion is a perfect example of how Cooperative Extension remains true to issues and programs of the past while embracing new trends such as social media.

Each helps ensure that our Extension programs stay in touch with the needs and concerns of our local community.

So, look for more information to come. If there are issues, concerns, or new ideas to help improve the quality of life for youth and adults in our community and you haven’t seen or heard of local Extension involvement, stop by the office, call us, visit our Facebook page or website, or send the Agents an email.

We want to hear from you. Ensuring that we stay in tune with our community is one of the ways the Clinton County Cooperative Extension Service can help create a positive future for our community.