By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

LEXINGTON, KY - Retired teacher Jeffrey Coles has two master’s degrees, but the foundation for his education came from working in the family garden alongside his mother, Thelma.

“I’d hoe, plant, harvest, and she poured (knowledge) into me,” he recalled fondly.

Coles not only learned about agriculture and nutrition, he used some of the principles of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) in his work. Today, he’s sharing his wisdom with the next generation through Thelma’s Garden Academy in Lexington.

“We’re losing our farming know-how,” Coles said. “I want to teach students a better grasp of the sciences with hands-on applications.

“I started Thelma’s Garden as a daycare in 2019, then we started focusing on afterschool and summer programming at community gardens in Lexington. We call it summer camp. We teach them aquaponics and hydroponics, with help from Kentucky State (University), and traditional gardening.”

Coles soon expanded the educational opportunities to adults in Lexington and across the state, and renamed it the Kentucky Innovative Farming Network (KIFN).

“I found the parents were more interested in the agriculture than the kids,” he said. “We started doing business as KIFN to increase our scope beyond backyard farming in Lexington to farmers across the state. We’re Thelma’s Garden in Lexington, but across the state, we’re KIFN.

“The adults really bought into it. Then we got interest from the refugee community, who knew farming but didn’t know organic principles.

“We’ve blossomed from that,” he added. “We’re getting that (adult) group GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certified so they can participate in farmers’ markets.”

KIFN grew hydroponic and aquaponic lettuce and vegetables to produce “Thelma’s Salads,” which they provided to a Lexington Chinese restaurant. They also acted as a ghost kitchen for the restaurant, using fresh herbs and vegetables to make rice dishes.

Coles is starting a new initiative called Grow Kentucky. It has four goals:

• • Philanthropic – KIFN hopes to supply local food banks with fresh or frozen produce, and value-added fresh foods to supplement their main supply of canned and processed foods. “It’s better for them from a health perspective,” Coles noted.
• • Workforce development – “We’d like to teach farming to these individuals so they can go to work on somebody’s farm or create their own farm,” he said.
• • Research – “We’d like to provide a place for the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State to do community-based research projects,” he reasoned.
• • Statewide farmers’ market – “We want to give small, mostly urban farmers a centralized location to gather and sell their produce,” he added, noting KIFN has performed pop-up farmers’ markets in the past at community gardens in Lexington with mixed results.

Coles already has a spot picked out for the statewide farmers’ market. KIFN is currently raising funds to purchase Wells Plant Farm in northern Fayette County, located alongside Interstate 64 just west of the Interstate 75 interchange. 

“It’s a great place,” Coles said excitedly. “There are 29 acres with 23 greenhouses. We could conduct training there for young people and adults in farming, and our farmers’ market would provide a way to sustain it.”

KIFN was awarded a $139,000 grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, but it ended up receiving only half because of federal budget cuts. KIFN also received a $72,000 loan in 2024 from Kentucky Agricultural Finance Corp.

“We’ve been too dependent on grants and government,” he said. “We have to let them (growers) make money off what we train them to do so that they can sustain themselves.

“Our first tier (fruit and vegetables with no blemishes) would be sold there at our new farmers’ market, and the second tier we would give away.”

For more information about KIFN, visit www.Kentuckyinnovativefarming.com, as well as “Thelma’s Garden Education Academy” and “Ky. Innovative Farmers Network” on Facebook.