By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

Pasture-raised eggs from western Kentucky will soon be eaten by folks in southern California.

“We’re expanding to the West Coast,” Sunnyside Egg Company founder Patrick Samuels said proudly.

The Kentucky eggs will be sold in two upscale grocery store chains, Bristol Farms and Gelson’s Markets, and Frazier Farms, which specializes in natural and organic foods.

Sunnyside traces its origin to a major bird flu outbreak in February 2022 which disrupted the American egg market. While commercial farms struggled, Sunnyside’s flocks remained healthy, protected by strong immune systems developed through being raised on pasture. Desperate to stock shelves, retailers began reaching out to Sunnyside.

Sunnyside began its operation with 50 chickens in small mobile coops. 

“That quickly grew to 350 chickens in the back pasture,” Samuels said. “Then we quickly realized we were going to need more eggs. And so, we started partnering with some other local farmers who had a similar vision and wanted to use the same practices. By doing that, we grew from 50 chickens to start with to almost 7,000.”

Current production, contracted with 12 family farms in the area, is 25,000 eggs. Next year, Sunnyside plans to more than double its network of partner farms to 26, increasing its production to 65,000 eggs.

“We’re pushing growth pretty hard,” Samuels said, noting the company has opened a packing facility in nearby Crofton, Ky., where the eggs are graded, washed, and placed in cartons.

Sunnyside provides its partner farms with mobile coop designs, thorough onboarding and training, and routine oversight.

“Our strict standards around breed, feed, and housing ensure consistency across all of our farms,” Samuels said.

Samuels credits much of his success to lessons he learned as a U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret.

“Special Forces 101 is understanding your environment and your partners,” he explained. “Agriculture works the same way. You build trust. You find people aligned with your mission, enabling you to turn big ideas into scalable operational systems.”

Samuels, an Indiana native, was based at Fort Campbell, part of which is in southern Christian County. When Samuels finished his service, he and his wife, Tori, began looking to buy a small farm near the base, which straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

“We wanted to buy some farmland, and it was much cheaper on the Kentucky side than the Tennessee side,” Samuels said. 

The couple settled on a nine-acre plot alongside Edward T. Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway just north of the county seat, Hopkinsville.

There are other farms in Kentucky that sell eggs from pasture-raised or free-range chickens. But Sunnyside takes it one step further by offering what Samuels calls “regeneratively raised” eggs. Its chickens are raised on pasture and fed certified organic, corn- and soy-free feed.

“We do multi-species rotational grazing,” Samuels explained. “Most commercial systems run one animal. Our system is more beneficial to both the land and the animal. Cattle munch grass, then the chickens come in behind them, spread the manure, and eat insects.

“One thing I wish future generations would know about regenerative agriculture is that we can change the land surprisingly fast using regenerative practices. So, through using multi-species and rotational grazing, we've actually been able to change our pastureland fairly substantially.

“Whenever we first bought the property, it was actually completely barren. It had been overgrazed significantly,” Samuels added. “We put some cows on here and chickens on here, and within two years, we've grown it into this kind of paradise for chickens and cows…. We’re positively regenerating and improving the land.”

Sunnyside is available in Kentucky at Food Lion in Hopkinsville and Houchins in Bowling Green, at Sprouts Farmers Markets and Fresh Market in nearby Nashville, and at several independent grocery stores and shops in western Kentucky and Clarksville, Tenn.

Sunnyside will be available in eight Western states through Salt Lake City-based Associated Food Stores, a wholesale distributor to nearly 500 independently owned supermarkets. And the eggs will soon be sold nationwide online through misfitsmarket.com.

Samuels sees his egg company’s practices as a movement to change American agriculture.

“Regenerative farming is no longer a fringe or niche idea concentrated on individual farms,” he said. “This is the future of agriculture.”

Sunnyside’s website, SunnysideEggCo.com, put it simple: “By focusing on the needs of folks eating our eggs, quality of life for our farmers, and the welfare of our hens, we are building a network of small, family farms to make regeneratively raised eggs available in grocery stores where you already shop.”