As most of you may know, we received Kentucky Proud and Appalachia Proud status for our farm. We are very excited to be a part of this program. If you haven’t heard of it, Kentucky Proud is a program that promotes locally grown and locally produced products from right here in the Bluegrass state. As stated on the Kentucky Proud website:

“Kentucky Proud stands for foods, nursery items, crafts, agritourism sites, farmers’ markets, state parks, and many other products and destinations with roots in Kentucky soil. Kentucky Proud foods are raised, grown, or processed in Kentucky by Kentuckians. You can serve Kentucky Proud foods to your family with the confidence that they came from your friends and neighbors just down the road — not from thousands of miles away.”

Appalachia Proud is a regional brand that falls within the Kentucky Proud program. It means that we live, farm, and produce everything we sell in one of Kentucky’s 54 Appalachian counties. In our case, two counties (Rowan and Carter), both of which are listed as Appalachian. It is the hopes of this program that Appalachia will be recognized for all of the potential that this beautiful region holds:

“Appalachia is a special place with untapped potential, particularly in the areas of agriculture, food production, and agritourism. When you marry untapped resources with a workforce that has an unbreakable spirit, the possibilities are endless. Most people don’t know that Eastern Kentucky is already home to one of the largest tomato producers in the Commonwealth, one of the few heifer development operations located on a strip mine, and some of the most beautiful orchards in the world. Our hope is that, through the launch of “Appalachia Proud,” now they will.” (Appalachia Proud Plan available on the Appalachia Proud website.)

Not only are we fortunate enough to be a part of such amazing programs, but we also got to participate in a Kentucky Proud Expo in Morehead this past weekend. It was hosted by The Morehead Tourism Commission at the Morehead Conference Center.

It was the first time we had ever set up our booth, and the support of the community was overwhelming. We are amazed by all of our wonderful customers and all of the locally owned businesses here. We definitely feel the love of our Appalachian people. Thanks to all of you. What an amazing first experience for our new venture.

Here are some products we had available at the expo:

We look forward to setting up at the Earth Day Festival on April 22nd at the Don Greenhill City Park, and at the Rowan County Farmers’ Market this summer. We hope to see lots of familiar faces and new ones as well!