By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

FRANKFORT - You don’t have to go to a farmers’ market to buy Kentucky Proud beef. Sherwood Acres delivers individual cuts, anything from a pound of ground beef to a New York Strip steak, directly to your door.

“It really gives people an opportunity to try it and not commit to say a quarter or half (of a cow),” said cattle farmer Jon Bednarski, owner of Sherwood Acres. “My kids are in their 30s, and Millennials are the new buyers for local beef and local proteins, and they don't usually want a whole lot of it. Most of them don't have chest freezers. They might buy enough for a few meals but nothing more.”

For 25 years, Sherwood Acres had been selling “freezer beef” every Saturday at two and sometimes three farmers’ markets in metropolitan Louisville.

“That market has changed,” Bednarski said. “In 2000, when we started, just a small percentage of our business was home delivery. By 2008, we started getting up closer to 20 percent home delivery. By the time COVID hit in 2019, we were doing about 90 percent home delivery.”

Bednarski, 71, has downsized his operation, combining two farms into one 62-acre tract on Herrington Lake in Mercer County.

“We're selling all the beef that we can possibly produce,” he said. “We were processing about 50-60 animals a year, and we're doing about half of that now.”

Ever the entrepreneur, Bednarski’s latest venture is a Christmas tree farm with 4,000 young trees. His son, Kyle, runs the family’s self-storage business in Oldham County, where Sherwood Acres operates “The World's Smallest Beef Shoppe" at 215 Parker Drive in La Grange.

Kyle also handles the deliveries in Sherwood’s snazzy black and white van painted to match the farm’s trademark Belted Galloway steers. Delivery is free with orders over $50. Go to www.SherwoodAcresBeef.com.

“We get several orders a day online,” said Bednarski, who noted that the farm maintains a client list of 3,000 emails. “All of our customer base is coming from those farmers’ markets that we did in metro Louisville.”

Bednarski is a first-generation farmer from Vermont, where his uncle had a dairy farm. He moved to Kentucky 45 years ago working for a log home manufacturer. His Oldham County farm was recognized in 2012 for its environmental stewardship with Kentucky’s first Leopold Conservation Award.

“We started with horses in 2001 and then got our first cattle in 2003,” he said. “Interestingly, my wife and two children bought me three Belted Galloway heifers for Father's Day. That's how I got started. I had been in sales and marketing all my life and really didn't know a lot about farming, and so I had to learn everything.”

Bednarski was educated through the University of Kentucky Extension Service’s Master Cattleman program. Sherwood Acres became one of the first 30-40 members of Kentucky Proud, and Bednarski calls Kentucky Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture Warren Beeler “a huge mentor.”

“I credit Warren for my success in the direct marketing beef business because of his knowledge and his expertise,” Bednarski said. “Tim Dietrich (former beef cattle marketing specialist at Kentucky Department of Agriculture) was also involved.

“We got that Kentucky Proud endorsement, which was great at the time because who the heck knew who Sherwood Acres was? That gave us a stamp of approval that people recognized.

“It's been huge for us,” Bednarski added. “To this day, every package of beef we deliver is in a Kentucky Proud bag.”