By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

FRANKFORT - Kentucky Proud and Kroger are teaming up to offer Mother’s Day gift solutions for the mom who has everything.

“Mother’s Day gifts often include personal, one-of-a-kind offerings,” said DeAnne Elmore, Kentucky Proud farm to retail liaison at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. “It’s an occasion to introduce and highlight handmade Kentucky Proud health and beauty items like goat milk lotions, botanical soaps, tallow balms, and soy wax candles.”

The Mother’s Day display shelf is at 10 Kroger locations in central Kentucky: three in Louisville (Middletown, Stony Brook, and Shops for Forest Springs) in addition to stores in Buckner, Elizabethtown (Towne Drive), Georgetown, Lexington (Euclid Avenue), Mount Washington, Richmond, and Shelbyville.

“The Mother’s Day retail promotion emphasizes artisanal items available from their neighborhood Kroger, which can be conveniently purchased during regular grocery shopping,” Elmore said. “Temporary display racks trimmed with Mother’s Day messaging decorates the store and interrupts the shopper, allowing them to see the featured Kentucky Proud makers.

“Kroger is lending support by putting the items on sale,” she added. “Kentucky Proud retail is using digital advertising and enlisting Miss Kentucky as a (social media) influencer. Birch & Oak, a featured member, is demonstrating the effectiveness of tallow balm by giving hand massages to store customers.”

Hand massages will be conducted during the week leading up to the Kentucky Derby at Kroger’s Middletown location, 12501 Shelbyville Road in Louisville. They will be 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, April 26, and “WinsDay,” April 29; 4-8 p.m. on “Thurby,” April 30; and 4-9 p.m. on Kentucky Oaks Day, Friday, May 1.

“We’re going to give a quick little hand massage so people can sample the product and give us a chance to talk to them about it,” said Birch & Oak founder/owner Roxanne Smith. “We want to make it a relaxing minute – as relaxing as we can in a grocery store. Then we’ll have some samples to give away.”

Fisherville-based Birch & Oak’s skincare products are made from grass-fed tallow, which is rendered cow fat sourced from a Shelby County farm. It is available unscented and in an almond aroma.

“Tallow is the ‘it’ word right now,” Smith said. “Our main product, tallow balm, is an all-purpose skin cream, but most people use it on their face as an all-natural, anti-aging cream.”

Smith discovered the benefits of tallow while making an experimental cream several years ago to treat her baby’s diaper rash.

“My daughter had real bad diaper rash,” she remembered. “I made the first little batches in my Crock-Pot.”

Other handmade products from Kentucky Proud artisans included in the Mother’s Day display are:

• Goat milk foot creams and foot soak products from Rustic Charm Farm in Jackson, Ky.;

• Goat milk soaps and lotions, sugar scrub cubes, and beeswax lip balms from Rock Bottom Soap Co. in London, Ky.;

• Herbal tallow soaps from Sunflower Sundries in Mount Olivet;

• Essential oil-scented botanical soaps from EarthyBrowns Natural Products in Louisville; and

• Soy wax candles from Black Dog Candles and Waxy Beans, both in Louisville.

“Kentucky Proud retail hopes to raise member awareness, win consumer trust with unique gifts Mom will enjoy, and sell more Kentucky Proud products,” Elmore added. “We are creating a model that can be replicated for other retail outlets and additional members.”