Ever wonder what all those tobacco farmers have been doing with their land and talents as profits for cigarettes are being snuffed out by market trends?
Turns out, they’re going back to their roots as grape growers.
The iFarmer has a good friend who was a Kentucky extension agent for years, helping tobacco farmers make the transition to alternative crops. No doubt it’s been a rough row to hoe.
Kentucky farmers have been growing tobacco, a lucrative cash crop, since Prohibition dried up the grape markets in the 1920s.
But this U.K. College of Agriculture magazine informed me that before then, Kentucky was a grape-growing powerhouse…the number three producer in the country.
We got a sampling of the state’s newest cash crop on our trip to Louisville on Friday. One of our first stops, after dropping off our bags, was at River Bend Winery.
I wasn’t a big fan of all the wines we tasted. But we walked out with three bottles, which is more than I usually buy after a tasting. Even though Chambourcin and Traminette grow nicely in Kentucky’s climate, those weren’t my favorites.
I ended up buying a bottle of the Rose, a bottle of Rhubarb, which has a nice smooth flavor (and surprisingly is one of the iFarmer’s favorites), and a bottle of Chocolate Decadence, which has a bit of a Tootsie Roll aftertaste.
In the pic above, note the bottles — bright orange. The label is courtesy of Sharpie. We asked about those and it turns out they got a deal on them.
Ha. Love it.
Virtual Farmgirl 