My grandfather was the one who really popularized the political aspect of the fancy farm.

But fancy farm wasn't always like this.

The history of this Kentucky tradition includes a few surprises.

I knew nothing about the products.

I'd never even heard of it, but I could tell that it was all natural and sustainable all year round, and people wanted to know where their food comes from.

And her plate is full of fish and vegetables.

I love bourbon.

So Bourbon County, Kentucky was the logical choice for the last one.

And find out how this man has been going the extra mile in counties all across the country.

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions, the Leonard Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for this Friday, August 4th.

We made it to the weekend.

I'm Renee Shaw, joining you from Graves County on the eve of tomorrow's fancy farm annual picnic.

The fancy farm tradition goes back more than 140 years, but it's changed a lot in that time.

It wasn't always political and it wasn't always the first Saturday in August.

Our Toby Gibbs takes a look back at the history of Fancy Farm, including the story behind the town's interesting name.

The story really begins in the 1820s, when settlers from Tennessee, Virginia and other parts of Kentucky first arrived in present day Graves County.

Many were Catholic and they founded St Jerome's Catholic Church in 1836.

A series of family reunions turned into a regular series of picnics.

And by 1880, the picnic had become a fund raiser for the church.

But it wasn't political.

At first, my grandfather was the one who really popularized the political aspect of the fancy farm picnic.

And that was in the 1930s, 1931, specifically, That's the year a happy Chandler spoke while running for lieutenant governor.

He went on to win that race.

And Fancy Farm became a place for old school political speechifying.

We think of Fancy Farm as being the first Saturday in August.

That wasn't always the case.

In fact, for most of its history, it wasn't.

It was in July until 1956, when Kentucky's primary was in August.

When the primary moved to May, Fancy Farm was pushed back and became the unofficial kickoff to the fall campaign.

Some big national names had turned up at Fancy Farm.

Governor George Wallace spoke in 1975, one year before his fourth and final campaign for president.

And three years after he was paralyzed by a would be assassin's bullet, he was up at the podium to speak, and that's when the photographers had the old style cameras that had the exposed flashbulbs on them.

Well, a photographer went to take a picture and then it popped like a gun and Governor Wallace flinched.

He didn't say anything.

So he went on and proceeded with his speech.

The photographer reloaded the bulb, took another still shot of him.

And it pop like a gun.

Governor Wallace flinched again.

He says in his Alabama accent, You'll have to excuse me, but I'm still just a little bit gun shy here.

Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas was there in 1988 as a candidate for vice president.

But he couldn't swing Kentucky to the Dukakis Bentsen ticket.

Senator Al Gore of Tennessee stopped at Fancy Farm four years later.

He was more successful.

Clinton and Gore carried Kentucky that November.

Senator and Vice President Albin Barkley spoke at Fancy Farm multiple times.

It was familiar turf for him.

The Jackson purchases favorite son was born in Graves County.

The food has also made the history books.

When picnic goers put away £15,000 of mutton, pork and chicken at the 1982 picnic, it made the Guinness Book of World Records.

You might be asking, how did the community get that name?

The story is in the 1840s, when the area wanted its own post office.

A visiting postal inspector stayed at a farm that made quite an impression on him, so he named the area Fancy Farm for it.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you, Toby Gibbs, for that great information.

Here's something else that's changed over the years.

The speeches weren't under a covered pavilion like this until 1968.

Prior to that, speakers often spoke from the back of a truck parked under an old tree in front of the church building.

The ring leader for tomorrow's events on the big speaking stage, which is right behind me, where candidates will make their pitches before a rowdy crowd, is also part of the tradition.

The political speaking emcees have been former journalists, former elected officials and an occasional entertainer.

This year it's Louisville businessman David Beck, president and CEO of Kentucky Ventures.

Today, I asked him about being selected as emcee and how he's prepared for it.

Well, my good friend Stephen reached out to me several weeks ago and we talked about it, and it took me about a week to get back to Stephen.

And I consider it an honor and a privilege.

It wasn't on my radar or something I never thought about.

And then all of a sudden the calendar started clicking away.

So last Sunday, after church, after lunch, I started giving a real thought and preparation to it.

And meeting the people will be introducing on stage I've known and worked with and you ought to be balanced and fair is the emcee this year.

So just trying to pick through all that.

It's been interesting taking through all that.

What I want to say and more importantly what I don't say, I guess.

Well, and it's interesting because I think as we discussed before we started taping, you're the first little villian to have this role.

You come from a corporate background as well.

So there have been a lot of different varieties of emcees, you know, Matt Jones kind of an entertainer, and then you've had your politicians and journalists like Al Smith out cross.

Perry Wellman Right.

So there's been a cross-section of people.

So when you got that call, were you really surprised?

It wasn't on my radar and I would tell it seriously for many years.

I'm from West Kentucky.

I have a real appreciation for all the volunteers that make this happen.

A fundraiser for the church or their school within the political side of it.

This community has been through a lot, but they have a huge opportunity to continue that tradition and that example, and that means a lot to me.

So I respect what they do and I really consider it an honor to be invited to be a part of that small time Kentucky historical tradition.

It's time for a look back at the week Inside Kentucky Politics.

I'm K.C.

Parker Belle, and I'm here with Trey Watson, who's the founder of Capital Rains, PR and Blair Hayden, who's the executive director of Emerge Kentucky.

Thank you both for being with me.

Great to be on.

Thank you, K.C.. Trey, we'll start with you.

I want to talk about the biggest news that's already happened this week.

Jason Glass, the education commissioner of Kentucky, has announced that he's going to resign later this year.

Now, Trey, one of the biggest attacks from Republicans has been about trans issues in Kentucky.

And Glass has been used as a wedge issue in that.

How will this change the Republican strategy on that specific issue?

I don't know that it will.

I think the base is still really fired up about it.

The base wants to hear from from Cameron about that.

I do think that was where the messaging is about to change.

I think we'll talk about in a minute.

You know, the campaigns moving from kind of the end of the primary and cleaning up and reuniting into a more general election campaign.

So I think you're going to see it change a little bit.

But as far as the base is concerned, I think, you know, they're going to want to continue to hear about those issues.

I don't know.

That'll change what you hear if you go to a Republican event.

Yeah.

Blair, a similar question to you.

Of course, Glass leaving might give the Beshear administration or correction the Beshear campaign some room to maneuver.

So what will this do for the Beshear campaign?

Will they change their message on this trans issue?

I don't think so, Casey.

I think that I can't imagine being a commissioner of it right now with Senate Bill 150.

And I think that people on both sides of the aisle really care about this, these issues, this bill, and what it means.

And but as far as the governor's race and his campaign, I think that we're moving full speed ahead.

We've got a lot of energy, got a great approval rating.

We're talking about jobs brought to Kentucky.

And we're just we're going to stay the course.

Of course, the public has gotten to see some polling here recently.

The most recent public poll shows that Bashir is up over Cameron by four points.

So, Trey, we're moving into the general election season.

We're getting more of a sense about the general election campaign and moving away from the messages we've heard during the primary.

So this is a big weekend.

Cameron will get a statewide audience here at a fancy farm.

So what do we expect to hear from Cameron on Saturday?

I think you're going to start to see a pivot away from some of these base red meat issues that they used in the primary to both win the primary and have been using since to kind of make sure any any stragglers who might not be reunified are back in the fold.

Now, you're going to start to hear message aimed more at independents and maybe some soft Democrats and start to whittle away at Bashir's image because he's never really been hit.

2015 didn't get hit very hard.

2019 was all about Matt Bevin.

It's the first time that ABC was really going to get hit.

And even though they might be old issues, that's all stuff.

This can be new information to voters because it hadn't been put on TV yet.

So I think you're really going to start to see a campaign built up to make the argument why Bashir specifically should not be reelected for another term as governor.

As we talk about the Cameron campaign changing their message, Daniel Cameron's campaign has released its first television ad this week.

Here's a look.

Kentucky has fewer men and women working.

Violent crime runs rampant.

Fentanyl is ravaging our communities.

BLAIR Of course, we got to look at Cameron's advertisement.

But Bashir's got a big opportunity this weekend, too.

He's turning the whole weekend in kind of a Western Kentucky campaign stop.

So what's Bashir's message likely to be going into tomorrow?

Well, here in western Kentucky, you know, they've experienced a lot of terrible tragedies with their flooding.

With the tornadoes, they keep getting hit.

And, you know, the governor has had to be here for them.

The community here.

They're here to help each other.

And I think we're going to focus on the infrastructure projects that the governors bring into western Kentucky and again, about creating more jobs, jobs that have good benefits, jobs that have fair pay.

Obviously, Beshear didn't win anywhere in western the far western portion of Kentucky.

He didn't win any counties west of Henderson in the last election.

There are no state elected officials in the western time zone right now.

It's truly become blood red.

Is there an opportunity for Beshear to pick up more votes and perhaps counties out here?

Absolutely.

I think he's on the campaign trail.

He's been out here for the last couple of days, and I do expect him to pick up some red voters.

And we do still have some Democrats elected locally in these communities and we see their county parties growing.

You know, he had a tight race for AG and he had a tight race for governor.

And and, you know, I think that he can pick up some more votes and and he will.

We obviously spent a lot of time on the governor's race, but there are other constitutional offices on the ballot this year.

And this is the first opportunity for many of them to make their case for why they should be elected in November.

So Blair, I think most people would say that Republicans are favored on most of these down ballot races for what's happened in previous elections.

So how can Democrats down ballot make their case that they should hold those offices?

The down ballot candidates, they're getting out there talking to people across the commonwealth.

Take, for example, Kim Reeder.

She's visited like 58 counties so far.

She's going to get to all 120.

I think you're just meeting people where they are.

And I can't.

Come on, Katy, without talking about emerge.

All the women on the statewide ballot right now are emerged candidates and Sierra Enloe for commissioner of AG.

She she has a great opportunity here.

She brings a wealth of experience and economic development, not only being from a fifth generation family farm and of course, Representative Pamela Stephenson for attorney general.

She's she's a minister in the church.

Her grandparents started in Louisville.

But, you know, obviously a veteran in the from the Air Force and 39 years of law experience.

Of course, I won't go into all the details about everybody, but I thank Buddy Wheatley and Michael Bowman all have a great chance just just meeting voters where they are and in talking across the aisle and seeing how we can all work together.

Trey, as Republicans are the perceived leaders by many people, there's the common refrain of fancy farm you can't win an election, but you can't lose one.

Is that likely to change the message from Republicans tomorrow?

I don't think so.

I think most people are going to see on the stage are people that actually are uniquely like this.

And look like and love this event.

And Jonathan Schell, Michael Adams, Russell Coleman.

You got some West Kentucky moonshine in there.

You know, the closest to these down ticket races four years ago was 20,000 votes.

And we have an even more uniquely qualified set of candidates for the individual offices that they were running for.

We feel really confident.

Alison Balls always done great in this setting.

I think our candidates all will perform very well tomorrow.

All right.

Well, we'll get to see what everybody actually says tomorrow on Katie Blair.

Thanks for being with us.

Thank you.

Good to be on.

And thank you, Casey and Terry and Blair.

Katie is your exclusive home for live coverage of the fancy farm political speaking event.

Tomorrow, we begin our coverage at 230 Eastern, 130 Central, and then join us for Monday night when we'll show you the best moments of the big speeches.

That recap show is Monday at eight Eastern, seven Central here on Katie.

And it will be emceed by David Back, who was president of Kentucky Venues.

It's exactly what parts of far western Kentucky didn't need more rain.

A storm brought heavy rain to Fulton County, Kentucky's westernmost county, last night into this morning.

Hickman County was also under a flash flood emergency.

The two counties are next to graves County, where the fancy farm picnic is taking place starting right now.

Actually, some parts of Fulton County received more than half a foot of rain.

It was around 11 inches and part of Hickman, the county seat.

CNN reports that some people had to leave their homes.

Flash flooding also forced evacuations at a nursing home and a mobile home park in Union City, Tennessee.

That's just south of Fulton County in Kentucky.

Of course, recent rain is just the latest weather emergency for an area still coping with deadly tornadoes about a year and a half ago.

Today, five Mayfield families have new places to live.

Thanks to the HOPE Initiative, the group helped with efforts to build the five homes for families displaced by bad weather.

The team western Kentucky tornado relief Fund provided half a million dollars and has given more than 5 million to all Hope Initiative programs.

That's the families received their keys today.

They also received welcome home kits, food and supplies from Kroger in Benton.

A woman is leading a local family, Agritech business, growing leafy vegetables and raising fish.

Our Casey Parker Bell visited West Kentucky Aquaponics a while ago to get a better idea of how small farms are using Agritech to make a big impact.

I knew nothing about aquaponics.

I'd never even heard of it, but I could tell that it was all natural and sustainable year round and people wanted to know where their food comes from.

And so I said, okay, you know, this.

This is what we're going to do.

Seeing a master class on aquaponics led former nurse Tammy McCullough to leave her job in the health care industry and start a new one.

Agritech was new to her, but she saw potential in the unknown when she created West Kentucky Aquaponics.

Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture where you just rice, fish and hydroponics, where you're growing leafy green vegetables.

So aquaponics combines those two.

Aquaponics is a closed loop system that uses the waste from fish for West Kentucky.

Aquaponics that fishes tilapia to fertilize plants growing hydroponically or without soil.

The plants clean the water, which goes back into the fish tanks.

McCall started her business in the agriculture heavy community of Marshall County.

Despite the love for her new profession, she says getting started wasn't easy.

Yeah, it can be a struggle, you know, because you're you're starting in the hole, basically operating, you know, for 6 to 9 months with no income.

And then you're constantly trying to catch up.

It took a year for West Kentucky aquaponics to construct their greenhouse and have produce mature enough to sell.

But the heaviest task was paying the energy cost for the facility.

The utility costs were just astronomical.

Not sustainable for a small business in the winter.

They run heaters and lights in addition to the pump that moves water through the facility.

She says the electricity was running 20 $500 a month.

It took government help for the business to sprout.

Solar panels are an integral part of this operation because those electricity bills would not have have been affordable and we would not have been able to to keep that up.

We were fortunate enough to get a grant from the USDA to help offset some of those costs for the solar panels.

For others looking to start an agritech, McCullough says it's important to know what it takes before planting.

Unfortunately, it's not cheap to start an office on its business, and you are operating for, you know, 6 to 9 months without any income.

So knowing those things upfront and being prepared, I think would be advantageous for someone looking to start an Apple products business.

What do you think localities and state governments need to do to help businesses like yours get off the ground?

From a government standpoint, as far as grants a lot of those grants, there are available.

Also go to traditional farming, which, you know, we don't want to take away from those.

But if they had grants specific to the urban type farming for the aquaponics hydroponics and that way maybe it wouldn't be so competitive and people could get more, more funding for Katie and Casey Parker.

Bell.

Thanks again, Casey.

The business community has taken note of West Kentucky aquaponics and what it's doing.

The company was named Agribusiness of the Year at the Benton's partnership's Farm to Fork Dinner in 2021.

You know, people say to always go the extra mile.

Well, Jeff Francis is part of a club that takes that quite literally the extra mile or club members visit every county across the country.

Yesterday, Francis decided to complete his monumental quest and none other than Bourbon County, Kentucky.

You know, without further ado, I'm going to walk over to Hawkins.

The Extra Mile or Club is a group of individuals of a club that was formed in 1973.

And my goal is to visit every county, parish, census district and borrow an independent city in the United States.

There's 3144.

So today is my 61st birthday, August 3rd, 2023.

And at approximately 1015 this morning, on a rainy Thursday morning on the Paris Park, US 68 eastbound I and about 30 of my friends walked across the Bourbon County, Kentucky line.

Therefore, I completed visiting and stepping foot in every county, Census Bureau, parish and independent city of the 50 United States.

I've been a part of the club for about 40 years, but I did this in about 20 years.

I wasn't keeping track of them in my younger years.

And finally, about 2000, I got serious about writing them down and figuring out which ones I didn't do.

And during COVID, when international travel got difficult, I had about eight states to finish.

So I really poured it on and saved this one for the last one.

Traveling is a really interesting mind.

My parents, when we were young, used to take us all over the United States.

I was never very good in school, but I learned more from all those trips when I was young.

Then.

16 years of education, just practicality.

The sun that rising and setting in your own town.

Different people, different mannerisms.

It was really eye opening.

And I encourage anyone who has children to take the time to travel.

Get out there, even if it's around your own state.

Get out and see things.

A lot of the people that are in the club are Alaska's their last finish because it's very difficult.

However, I decided that I wanted to go and finish in a place that I could have my friends join me, like now and then all of a sudden.

Wait a minute.

Bourbon.

I love bourbon.

So Bourbon County, Kentucky, was the logical choice for the last one.

This is a real testament to my friends.

30 people to come all the way here.

Just one person here from Kentucky.

All the rest are from all the other states.

Minnesota, Florida, Montana, Ohio, all over the place.

So I decided to make this kind of an event.

So not only could they come and be with me when I walked over the line this morning, but I could show them the area.

That's why we're here.

Duncan Power day here in all of you.

That's pretty cool.

Francis is now the 68th member of the Extra Miler Club to visit the more than 3100 counties in the US since the club's inception 50 years ago.

We have something for everybody this week, from classical music to paintings to paddling your way down the Licking River.

Our Toby Gibbs explains in tonight's Around the Commonwealth Travel Back in Time on Sunday with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra.

It's too hot to handle concert in Fort Thomas.

We'll take you back to 18th century England as the orchestra performs handles greatest hits.

There will be food, trucks and concessions, but it's an outdoor show so you can pack a picnic basket along with your blankets and chairs.

If you're looking for some mystery this weekend, check out the little Colonel Playhouse performance of The Butler.

Did It and Pee Wee Valley.

Miss Maple, a dowager with a penchant for parties, hosts a weekend, get together for a group of detective writers when a real murder occurs.

This show parodies every English mystery play you've seen before.

And it's sure to be a thrill as well as a hoot.

Now that the 26 at Ruby Branch Farms in Franklin is Kentucky's largest sunflower maze.

Explore over nine acres of beautiful golden blooms.

Take pictures, cut your own stems, and, of course, escape the maze.

Blue Lakes Battlefield State Resort Park in Carlisle is hosting a unique paddling trip tomorrow down the Licking River.

Beautiful as well as historic.

This trip will take you to a Ford for revolutionary soldiers once crossed to battle the British.

And back to the launch point.

Transportation and supplies are provided.

Just bring snacks, sunscreen and the spirit of adventure.

Running now through September is the aqueous national watercolor show at the Preston Arts Center in Henderson.

This exhibit features abstracts, landscapes, florals and more from the top water media artists in the country.

Enjoy the art.

And since most pieces will be for sale, you can even purchase a painting every first Saturday in Glencoe.

You can check out cars and coffee, get to Glencoe General Store, and enjoy coffee and breakfast.

While admiring classic cars, muscle cars, hot rods, motorcycles and more.

Market in the park is tomorrow in West Liberty.

Shop for quality products like fiber, arts items, wood crafts, leather goods and more.

Connect with local farmers and artisans and leave with unique handcrafted goods.

And tomorrow in Bowling Great is the 18th Annual Stop the bus event from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.. Come help stuff a big yellow school bus with unused school supplies, toiletries and nonperishable snacks.

All donations are going to K through 12 students in Bowling Green and Warren County.

So come on down and help make this a great start to the school year.

And that's what's happening around the Commonwealth.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you, Toby Gibbs.

Is there anything better than fresh vegetables straight from a Kentucky garden?

It's fresh.

It's healthy.

And it makes you feel good.

Small scale farms and farmers markets are a core part of rural communities in eastern Kentucky.

Find out what it's like to be a farmer in the mountains and what keeps them going.

That's Monday night on Kentucky Edition, which we hope will see you again for at 630 Eastern, 530 Central, where we inform, connect and Inspire.

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Take good care and I'll see you Monday night.