Agritourism Monthly - Kentucky Farms are Fun

Brass Kentucky Christmas ornament.
Agritourism
Monthly
A MANAGEMENT NEWSLETTER FOR THE KENTUCKY AGRITOURISM INDUSTRY
Office of Marketing, Division of Agritourism • Amelia Brown Wilson, Director • (502) 7 82- 4136 • amelia.wilson @ ky.gov
Kentucky
Department
of Agriculture
James R. Comer, Commissioner
December 2015
“Champion for small producers” opens largest purely Ky. Proud store
— KDA photo
Jams, jellies, soap, salsa, candy, candles, cheese, cutting
boards, gift baskets, grahams, pickles and pulled cream
candy, all Kentucky products, can be found at The
Kentucky Proud Store in Lexington, the largest
purely Kentucky Proud store in the central state. The
store is a part of Boone Creek Creamery artisan
cheese shop. Owner Ed Puterbaugh acted on the idea
to create a store that focuses solely on items sporting
the Kentucky Proud seal. “I am a champion for small
business and small Kentucky Proud producers,” he said.
The Lexington store’s grand opening and ribbon
cutting at its Palumbo Drive location saw Kentucky
Proud marketers and representatives of Commerce
Lexington and VisitLex attending.
“One day last week Boone Creek Creamery
had seven tours, including 53 people from Ohio,
all wanting to take some of our cheese and other
Kentucky products home.”
A tour of the cheese-making facilities and a
reception featuring Kentucky Proud foods followed
the ribbon-cutting.
More information: Boone Creek Creamery, phone (859) 402-2364,
email [email protected], or visit www.boonecreekcreamery.com.
— KDA, Boone Creek Creamery
Proprietor Ed Puterbaugh, center left, opens The Kentucky
Proud Store, with help from Roger Snell, center right,
Kentucky Department of Agriculture farm-to-retail liaison.
Best HOLIDAY WISHES FROM KENTUCKY AGRITOURISM!
As of December 3, I have been at the Kentucky Department of
Agriculture for three years. 2015 has been a wonderful year of traveling
to visit agritourism operations all across the state. I have met so many
wonderful people and appreciate the feedback I have received.
As Vice-Chair of the National Association of Agritourism
Professionals, I have been blessed to meet with colleagues across the
country. Kentucky is one of the leaders in agritourism nationally,
because of the hard work and dedication of people like you!
Please email or call me if I can ever be of help. I hope you have a
wonderful holiday season!
Husband Allen and Amelia.
AMELIA BROWN WILSON, Ed. D.
Director, KDA Division of Agritourism
—Shanna Osborne photo
Three generations of Papinas now
at Elk Creek. L-R: patriarch Fred,
son Barry, and grandson Jon.
Elk Creek changes hands
Napa vintner family transplants to Kentucky;
new owners of Kentucky’s largest winery
Barry, Karin, and Fred Papina have signed papers
with Curtis Sigretto to take over Elk Creek Winery,
according to a company announcement.
The Papina family plans on continuing the name
Elk Creek Vineyards, but they will manage the winery
as Papina Legacy Winery, LLC.
Papina Legacy Winery is a family business with a
145-year vineyard and winemaking history.
Fred and Carol Papina have been married for over
50 years. They have three children, including a son,
Barry, and daughter-in-law, Karin.
The Papinas currently live in northern Kentucky
and are looking forward to making Owen County
home, said company spokeswoman Shanna Osborne.
Vineyard to the best in Napa
The Papina family is originally from St. Helena,
California. The family vineyard produces Cabernet,
Petite Verdot, Old Vine Zinfandel and Old Vine
Petite Sirah. Their grapes are used by some of the top
winemakers in Napa.
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Agritourism Monthly • December 2015
The property has always been a special place, very
coveted in the Napa Valley due to its incredible soil and
perfect growing conditions that include natural shelter
from frost for the vines, Osborne said.
Long personal history with wine
Fred Papina, family patriarch, has been personally
involved in the care of the vineyards since he took over
their management in 1958.
Fred’s personal involvement with vineyards and
grape production goes back to age 24, when he had
primary responsibility to maintain the vineyard, and
learned from family and trial and error what worked
best to keep the vines producing great vintages.
Fred and his wife, Carol, were excited to find out
that Elk Creek Vineyards was for sale in Owenton,
Osborne said, since they had just purchased a home in
Burlington to be closer to Barry and his family.
Barry and Karin, who moved back to Kentucky in
2004, also share a special love for vineyards and wine.
Wine is a common bond between Barry and Karin’s
families, Osborne said.
Karin Wormald Papina, whose family is originally
from Dayton, Newport and Covington, had moved to
California when her father, former Procter & Gamble
employee Dan Wormald, had accepted a job in the San
Francisco area in 1980.
Dan always loved wine, and was inspired to start
creating his own wines when he found himself among
the incredible vineyards of the Bay Area and Napa
County.
Bride’s dad made wedding wine
from grapes of groom’s dad
Karin and Barry met in 1990 and married in
1993. The wine for their wedding was produced by
Dan, and made from grapes cultivated from the Papina
family vineyard.
Now the Papina family seeks to create a winery
and vineyard at which they can continue the family
traditions for decades to come.
Already planned for 2016-17 are several new wines
in a “Dedicated” series that will carry the Elk Creek
name, but will be based on designs of wines from the St.
Helena and Napa Valley, says the Elk Creek website.
All of these wines will be assigned a release
schedule, and will be available for pre-order on the Elk
Creek Vineyards website. They will be offered to Wine
Club members first, Osborne said.
Continuity promised
The Papinas plan to continue producing all of the
wines for which Elk Creek is known, she said.
The family also plans to replant many of the vines
lost due to the severe winters of the last few years that
ravaged Kentucky vineyards. Karin says she “can’t
wait to get out there and get dirty,” which she said will
remind her of her childhood.
“The Papina family is dedicated to making Elk
Creek Winery a premier destination for wine lovers and
all who enjoy the best of what Kentucky has to offer,”
Osborne said.
-- Elk Creek Winery press release
Agritourism Monthly • December 2015 •
3
Commissioner’s Cup
wINe
winNERS
winners (from left) Allen Dossey,
Purple Toad Winery, Paducah;
David Haddle, Up the Creek Winery,
Burkesville; and Lenee and
Chad Peach, Prodigy Vineyards &
Winery, Frankfort, are honored at the
annual gala. Presenting the honors,
at right, is Tyler Madison, KDA grape
and wine program manager.
Commonwealth’s best wines recognized at annual gala
Wineries from Burkesville, Frankfort, and Paducah
received Commissioner’s Cup honors at the third
annual Kentucky Commonwealth Commercial Wine
Competition.
Up the Creek Winery of Burkesville took the
Commissioner’s Cup for Best Boutique Wine (small
production) for its 2013 Gold Rush wine. Prodigy
Vineyards & Winery of Frankfort won Best Dry Red
Wine for its 2009 Chambourcin. Purple Toad Winery
of Paducah won Best Sweet/Dessert Style/Fruit Wine for
its Allen’s Blueberry wine.
Three wines earned double gold in the Kentucky
Commonwealth competition – Prodigy’s 2009
Chambourcin; a Sangria from Purple Toad made
from Chardonnay grapes and blackberry, peach, and
strawberry; and Wight-Meyer’s 2014 Winter Solstice
wine made from Diamond grapes. Purple Toad won
the medal count with 26 (one double gold, five gold, 14
silver, and six bronze), followed by Wildside Winery
of Versailles with 11 medals (five silver and six bronze)
and Old 502 Winery of Louisville with 10 (one gold, six
silver, and three bronze).
More than 140 entries from 22 wineries were judged
by a national panel of experts. The gala was emceed by
Doug High of WTVQ-TV, Lexington, producer of two
films about Kentucky’s grape and wine industry.
Tom Cottrell, retired Extension agent for enology
at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture,
received a Recognition of Contribution award for his
service to the industry. Raymond “Butch” Meyer
of Shepherdsville received the Kentucky Wineries
Association Wine Person of the Year Award.
The Commissioner’s Cup, sponsored by the Kentucky
Department of Agriculture, is the highest honor in the
competition, and is awarded to the top Kentucky wine of
the year in each category.
Tyler Madison, Kentucky Department of Agriculture
grape and wine program manager, said Kentucky has more
than 70 wineries and 550 acres of grape vines. Kentucky
was home to the first commercial winery in the United
States and was one of the leading grape- and wineproducing states in the 19th century.
Full results of the Kentucky Commonwealth Commercial Wine
Competition are at http://competition.kentuckywine.com.
For more information about Kentucky’s grape and
wine industry, go to www.kentuckywine.com.
To find a Kentucky winery near you, download the
Kentucky Wine app for iOS or Android devices.
— KDA press release
4 •
Agritourism Monthly • December 2015
By Jim Trammel
The state has approved $30,000 in funding to match
county funds for an event barn to house Metcalfe
County’s annual Sorghum Festival and other
agriculture events, grant writer and project manager
Rebecca Froggett told AM.
The funding was granted by the Governor’s
Office of Agricultural Policy (GOAP) and its
Agricultural Development Board.
Froggett said the festival was created and launched
in 2013 through efforts led by Metcalfe County JudgeExecutive Greg Wilson.
“[Judge Wilson] got together with the Chamber of
Commerce and a local group of landowners who make
sorghum molasses, and got them interested in the Seven
Springs Sorghum Festival,” she said.
The group then approached Metcalfe, Barren,
and Hart counties, which pledged a total $30,000 in
support of the plan to enlarge the festival and establish
the governing body.
See SORGHUM FESTIVAL, Page 6
Photo: Rebecca Froggett.
Photo: www.sevenspringssorghumproducers.com
Edmonton Sorghum Festival’s
corporation to get government
aid of $60,000 for event barn
Sorghum being processed at the
September 2014 Seven Springs
Sorghum Festival. Organizers have
now formed and funded a corporation
to build and manage an exhibit barn to
shelter future festivals.
Seven Springs Sorghum
Producers, LLC will build and
manage the barn, which can also house
a farmers’ market and be rented for
other events, Froggett said.
“We capitalized on the festival and
turned it into the LLC,” said Froggett,
who wrote the grant proposal.
The event barn will be built
overlooking the Little Barren River
near the 50 acres where the sorghum
processed at the festival is grown.
The barn’s design will feature
a wrap-around porch, a fireplace, a
commercial kitchen, and handicapped- The beginning: Construction has begun on the stone fireplace and chimney that
will be part of the exhibit barn.
accessible rest rooms, the project
manager said.
Agritourism Monthly • December 2015 •
5
SORGHUM FESTIVAL ... from page 5
The annual event, held on the last Saturday in
September, is designed to increase community tourism
and to benefit local charities including the Salvation
Army, the American Red Cross, and Trooper Island.
Froggett said the multi-step approval procedure
involved appearances before the four county ag boards
and GOAP.
Edmonton’s third annual Sorghum Festival last
September 26 saw attendance of more than 1,200 (held
down by unfortunate weather from a mark of 1,500 in
2014), she said.
Sorghum is historically important to Edmonson and
Metcalfe County, Froggett said. Three farms in the county
grow cane, and the LLC has five members, some of whom
have raised sorghum for two generations, she said.
The festival is a day-long program of events, games,
food, and sorghum making. Attractions include live
music, local foods, craft vendors, a tractor show, a car
show, a petting zoo, and a hay maze.
Sorghum making begins before daylight on the day
of the festival and continues until dark. The finished
product is available for sale during the festival.
More information: Visit www.sevenspringssorghumproducers.com or
email Rebecca Froggett at [email protected].
(Note: Her email address with one “t” is correct as shown.)
Bourbon and water
The city of Lebanon is turning a
water tower into what is surely the
world’s largest Maker’s Mark bourbon
pour.
The city’s 135-foot tower is being
altered by internationally-recognized
muralist Eric Henn to resemble a
gigantic Maker’s Mark bottle pouring
bourbon straight down, said Nena
Olivier, executive director of the
Lebanon Tourist and Convention
Commission.
— photo Lebanon Tourist and Convention Commission
Lebanon water tower being repainted as gigantic Maker’s Mark pour
Kentucky, one thing I remember is
their water towers. Our goal is to
promote a similar type of thinking
with Lebanon,” she continued.
Olivier said state billboard
regulations on water tower messages
with commercial implications
were consulted and complied with,
including advance input directly
from the governor’s office. The
designers were avoiding a legal snarl
such as the one that once required
modifiying a tower in Florence to
eliminate a commercial message.
“I’ve got all of the official permits
and paperwork,” Olivier said.
The mural was designed to
highlight Maker’s Mark Distillery
as Marion County’s leading tourist
attraction, Olivier said. The distillery is located about
eight miles from downtown Lebanon and the water
“Last year, we asked Maker’s for permission to
tower. Henn has created large-scale murals for more paint their red wax on the tower,” Olivier recalled. The
than 25 years.
company’s marketing team had further ideas, and the
current design resulted.
Olivier told AM Henn started work in midNovember, and though wet weather has slowed
While in the county, bourbon lovers can also visit
progress, at press time the base coat had been applied the Limestone Branch Distillery - a member of
and the detailing has begun, and completion was
the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour - and the
expected before year-end.
Kentucky Cooperage, Olivier said.
It “will be so unique that visitors will go home and
-- AM interview and Lebanon Tourist and
Convention Commission press release
remember ‘that water tower’,” Olivier said in a press
release. “When I think of Versailles and Florence in
6 •
Agritourism Monthly • December 2015
HOLIDAY
FESTIVAL
FUN!
A survey of holiday happenings
gleaned from tourism press releases
and websites.
A full slate of picturesque holiday events has been
arranged by the tourism officials of Bardstown:
• Candlelight Christmas continues through Dec. 11
and 12. Visitors will explore Kentucky’s iconic My
Old Kentucky Home and be entertained by carolers
from “The Stephen Foster Story” as live acoustic
Christmas folk music fills the halls. Guides in
elegant gowns, or coats and top hats, will lead visitors
through the mansion’s many decorated rooms. Santa
Claus will meet the children and read “The Night
Before Christmas” in the nursery. Cider and cookies
will be served in the historic kitchen. To reserve
tours ahead of time, call (502) 348-3502. Admission
is $12 for adults, $10 for children.
• Santa on the Square continues in Bardstown Dec. 12
and 19. Parents may photograph children with Santa
as the kids receive candy canes. (502) 348-4877.
• A downtown Holiday Open House is set for Dec.
11, sponsored by Bardstown Main Street. Carolers
will entertain shoppers through an extended
shopping day, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST.
• Maker’s Mark Distillery candlelight tours will be
held Dec. 12. Visitors will enjoy an evening tour of
the historic Maker’s Mark Distillery and a lighted,
decorated 1850s Victorian village, with refreshments,
shopping and holiday fun. (270) 865-2099.
* * *
Christmas at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville runs
through Dec. 27.
* * *
Ashland has a Winter Wonderland of Lights
continuing through Jan. 4. Families strolling through
Central Park will see over 800,000 lights spanning 52
acres. Free admission.
* * *
The Santa Express in Stearns offers children time with
Santa, a special gift, and carols during this special train
ride, through Dec. 19.
* * *
Hopkinsville Parks & Recreation sponsors the city’s
annual Christmas tree lighting at 5 p.m. CST Dec. 12.
Decoration awards, live holiday music, and children’s
activities will take place at Founder’s Square, Ninth St.
and Bethel. (270) 887-4290.
* * *
A “St. Nich” Christmas Fest will be held in
Nicholasville Dec. 12. A day of shopping, food, and
music will lead up to Santa’s Christmas Parade on Main
Street at 5 p.m. EST. Downtown shopping events will
include a Courthouse Crafts and Gifts fair, children’s
Polar Express Story Time, a make-your-own Christmas
ornament session, the Ugly Sweater 5K race, carolers,
dancers performing selections from “The Nutcracker”
ballet, and post-parade Santa visits and photos.
Information on scheduling and participation: Ronda
May, (859) 797-8360. For vendor information, call the
courthouse, (859) 885-4500.
* * *
The Newport on the Levee show, Light Up Levee,
takes place every 20 minutes from 6:10 p.m. EST
through 11:50 p.m., daily through Jan. 1.
Newport on the Levee and the Ohio-KentuckyIndiana LEGO™ Users Group are sponsoring the
return of BRICKmas, a holiday celebration of largescale LEGO displays. Exhibits include a 32-foot
model of the iconic Roebling Bridge and other creative
LEGO/Duplo structures. In the interactive children’s
area, kids can build their own “brick” masterpieces and
write letters to Santa. Hours are Wednesdays-Fridays
4-8 p.m. EST and noon-8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
through Jan. 1. Admission is $10 (children 3 and
under free), but organizers advise to watch for several
opportunities for coupon discounts.
Agritourism Monthly • December 2015 •
7
KHP photo James Shambhu
Southern Lights shine through 2015 at Ky. Horse Park
A family tradition in Kentucky, the Southern
Lights holiday festival, presented by Toyota Motor
Manufacturing Kentucky Inc., returns for its 22nd
year to the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington
through Dec. 31.
Park officials estimate that more than 125,000
individuals in more than 30,000 vehicles travel through
Southern Lights annually.
Following the driving tour, visitors are encouraged
to visit the Holiday Festival attractions. This nondriving portion of Southern Lights features the
KHP Gift Shop, holiday craft merchants, seasonal
entertainment, an exotic petting zoo, pony and
camel rides, the Mini Train Express, model train and
dollhouse displays, and photos with Santa.
The Bit & Bridle Restaurant serves holiday fare,
augmented by other food vendors including Papa John’s
Pizza, Original Kettle Corn, High Horizons Coffee,
and foods from Bluegrass Concessions.
The driving route is open 5:30-10 p.m. EST nightly.
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Agritourism Monthly • December 2015
The Holiday Festival attractions will be open every
night through Dec. 23. Best times to visit, officials
advise, are Monday through Thursday evenings.
The cost per car (up to seven passengers) is $15
Monday through Thursday evenings, and $25 Friday
through Sunday nights. Higher prices apply to larger
vehicles, up to $125 for a motor coach.
Companies and organizations may pre-purchase
discounted admissions to Southern Lights from the
KHP Foundation.
Military Night, Wednesday, Dec. 16, allows all
active and retired military and their families one free
car admission by showing a military I.D. at the gate.
“Thirsty Thursdays,” with giveaways from the Coca
Cola Bottling Company, will be held every Thursday
night.
Information: KHP Foundation, (859) 255-5727,
or by email at [email protected].
Online, visit www.SouthernLightsKy.org or www.KyHorsePark.com.
— KHP press release