|
Kentucky Proud defines agricultural products that are raised or produced in Kentucky by Kentuckians. The slogan means many things to many people – delicious blackberry jam, rich-tasting Kentucky country ham, mouth-watering tomatoes and melons, and much more – all produced with the greatest care to offer a special treat to families throughout Kentucky, the nation and the world.
Kentucky Proud also means the people behind those products – people willing to take chances and try new things, people who won’t settle for second best, people who love farm life.
To commemorate National Agriculture Week March 20-26, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture is beginning an ongoing series of profiles of Kentucky agricultural businesses that have become household names in the Commonwealth. Some are developing a national audience and even a global following.
SPRINGFIELD, Ky. — John Medley will again feed Kentucky Derby- and Oaks-goers’ ravenous appetite for pork on the first weekend in May.
A year after supplying the historic racetrack with six tons of pork, the Washington County hog farmer is preparing to provide what could be a bigger order this spring.
“It’ll be that much or more,” Medley said. “It should be more.”
In addition to pork, Medley’s retail store in the Buechel suburb of Louisville, Kentucky Heritage Meats, will supply lamb and beef to Churchill Downs this year.
“We’ll have somewhere between 200-250 lambs available for him,” Medley said, referring to the Downs’ Executive Chef, Gil Logan. “We haven’t really nailed down numbers on beef yet. Creekstone Farms (of Campbellsburg) will be providing that (to Kentucky Heritage Meats) again.”
New additions to the growing list of Kentucky producers providing food for Churchill Downs include Mark Wheatley, a Shiitake mushroom grower in Washington County, and Jim David Meats of Uniontown, which will provide ham products.
Kentucky Heritage Meats, a member of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Kentucky Proud marketing program, is supplied by Medley’s own Happy Hollow Farms, a central Kentucky hog marketing cooperative near Springfield. The store carries beef from Kentucky Home Grown Beef in Washington County. Lamb and brown eggs are also sold, and Medley is “entertaining the idea” of satisfying the demand for free-range chicken in the near future.
Kentucky Heritage Meats stayed busy over the holidays, shipping whole Kentucky hams over much of North America. Destinations ranged from New York to South Carolina on the east coast, as far south as Texas, and as far north as the Canadian province of Quebec.
Business was so good, Medley considered opening a second store before the Kentucky Proud program enabled him to expand the number of stores in the Louisville area that sell his meat products from one to five. “Now we’re partnering with other retailers in the Louisville area – Health and Harvest, Doll’s Market, Seafood Connection and Garden Gate Produce,” he added. “All are Kentucky Proud vendors.”
--30--
|
