A MANAGEMENT NEWSLETTER FOR THE KENTUCKY AGRITOURISM INDUSTRY Office of Marketing, Division of Agritourism • Amelia Brown Wilson, Director • (502) 782- 4136 • amelia.wilson@ky.gov

Kentucky Department

of Agriculture

James R. Comer, Commissioner November 2015

The Bed & Breakfast Association of Kentucky (BBAK) will hold its 2015 Annual Meeting and Vendor Showcase Nov. 8-10 at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore.

The gathering is for those interested in becoming an innkeeper or refining their innkeeper skills. Also, the group will interact with vendors whose companies offer products or services for Kentucky B&B inns.

Innkeepers and aspiring innkeepers from across the Commonwealth can network and learn along with 15-20 industry vendors and 60-80 innkeepers attending this 27th annual event.

The Asbury Inn & Suites at 859-2-ASBURY is offering “BBAK Conference Rates” when the conference is mentioned while booking rooms.

Rooms may also be reserved with BBAK members 1898 Red Bud B&B, Coleman House B&B, Corner House B&B, Scott Station Inn, or The Ashley Inn at Meadowlake Equestrian Center.

Presenters, vendors and exhibitors from throughout the nation will include Linda Hayes, IJK Partners, LLC; Julia Truitt Poytner, Transylvania University; Linda Griffin, Grass Roots Market Systems, LLC; and more as listed on the conference schedule.

The association states on its website that the conference will help participants strike a balance between host sensibilities and guests’, host privacy vs. guests’ demands, and the host’s capacity to get things done vs. what industry voices say the host should be doing.

Other items of discussion include the struggle to keep heads in beds during the winter season, indecision when looking at the bottom line, and striking a balance among success, happiness, and sanity.

More than 10 concurrent breakout sessions will discuss the hottest topics facing B&Bs today, including discussion of “Airbnb” (the online direct lodging-booking service) and its impact on the B&B industry.

There will be hands-on workshops involving marketing, green cleaning, and breakfast trends, along with other topics.

Two networking receptions are scheduled, including a bourbon and wine social at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill.

The conference will also conduct the association’s annual meeting and awards presentations.

Conference registration form: www.kentuckybb.com/cms_files/RegistrationForm_kz3to3.pdf. Conference schedule:

www.kentuckybb.com/cms_files/2015ConferenceSchedule_jm85hs.pdf.

The BBAK Seal of Approval.

AgritourismMonthly

B&B Association annual meeting in Wilmore next week

2 • Agritourism Monthly • November 2015

Tours are flourishing through artisan cheesemaker Ed Puterbaugh’s Lexington business, leading up to the grand opening of Boone Creek Creamery’s Kentucky Proud Store later this month, Puterbaugh told AM.

“Last month we had over 70 cheesemaking tours come through here. One recent day we had seven tours, including a busload of 53 people from Ohio, all wanting to take some of our cheese and other Kentucky products back home with them.”

Puterbaugh says The Kentucky Proud Store at Boone Creek Creamery will be the largest purely Kentucky Proud store in central Kentucky.

Puterbaugh plans to open for business this month and hold an official grand opening at the end of November, he told AM.

Largest purely Kentucky Proud store sets Nov. opening

Kentucky Horse Park announces winter hoursAnnual Southern Lights Holiday Festival returns as seasonal highlight

The Kentucky Horse Park begins its winter season with new hours and family events for the holiday season. Through March 16, the park will be open Wednesdays through Sundays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Southern Lights holiday festival returns for its 22nd year. The fundraiser for the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation has become a holiday tradition for families throughout the Bluegrass and beyond. Southern Lights is a drive through brilliant light displays, featuring a variety of holiday and Kentucky themes, followed by the Holiday Festival attractions located on the park’s main campus. The festival includes Santa, a petting zoo, model train displays, and holiday and craft vendors.

The lights are on 5:30-10 p.m. nightly Nov. 20-Dec. 31, with the Holiday Festival open each night with the exceptions of Nov. 26 and Dec. 24-31. Admission is $25 per personal vehicle (up to 7 passengers) Friday through Sunday nights, and $15 Monday through Thursday nights. An extended van, RV or limousine (up to 15 passengers) is $35; a mini-bus (up to 25 passengers) is $60; a school bus is $75; and, a motorcoach is $150. Companies and organizations may pre-purchase discounted admissions by contacting the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation.

Families will get a preview of this year’s Southern Lights on Thursday, Nov. 19, with the Southern Lights

Stroll. Participants may walk, run or stroll through a portion of the light displays by registering online.

New this year, a competitive 5K race features chip timing. Strollers, wagons and dogs on leash are permitted in the stroll portion of the evening, and all participants are asked to bring nonperishable food items to donate to God’s Pantry Food Bank or a local animal shelter.

Over the winter some of the resident horses will continue to work and train in the Breeds Barn, weather permitting, allowing visitors to learn detailed information about the breeds during self-guided tours. Also available to the public are the horses in the Hall of Champions and the “gentle giant” draft horses stabled in the historic Big Barn.

The park will host many horse shows and special events throughout the winter season, beginning with the nationally recognized US Dressage Finals Nov. 5-8 in the Alltech Arena; KHSAA state cross country, cheerleading and wrestling championships; rodeos; equine mounted games; and home and trade shows.

Complete schedule of events: www.KyHorsePark.com. Information on Southern Lights or the Southern Lights Stroll: (859) 255-5727 or visit www.SouthernLightsKy.org. Information on the Kentucky Horse Park: (859) 233-4303, (800) 678-8813, or by email at info@kyhorsepark.com. Information about park programs and activities is also online on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and Periscope.

Agritourism Monthly • November 2015 • 3

Artist Adrian Landon installs moving sculpture at park

With a 10-foot-wide steel and stainless steel body, 100 bearings, 30 feet of chain, 23 articulating joints and one small motor, a new Mechanical Horse sculpture welcomes visitors to the Kentucky Horse Park.

The sculpture was recently installed by New York sculptor Adrian Landon and is the newest exhibit secured by the International Museum of the Horse for guests visiting the park for events such as the CP National Horse Show, the Breeders’ Cup Festival and the Breeders’ Cup.

The Mechanical Horse sculpture, on display through October 2016, is located at the park’s Visitor Center.

Landon has a large portfolio of work with metal as his preferred medium. He feels that his work with horses is among his most passionate.

“There is something epic in representing horses in metal, and my

Equine sculpture is a moving greeting to Kentucky Horse Parkpassions for both come together quite well,” Landon says on his website.

For more information about the Mechanical Horse or the International Museum of the Horse, contact the Kentucky Horse Park at (859) 233-4303 or (800) 678-8813, at info@kyhorsepark.com, or at www.KyHorsePark.com.

— Kentucky Horse Park press release

4 • Agritourism Monthly • November 2015

Amy and Zane Burton, vintners at Sinking Valley Winery in Somerset, have been in the winemaking business since the turn of the century, which places them among the first-wave practitioners of the modern Kentucky winemaking revival. From their long-term perspective, they advise other vintners in Kentucky to keep their eyes on, and adapt to, changing market conditions.

By Jim Trammel Over the past decade-and-a-half, “we grew the company up to a pretty decent size and actually moved over to the main road with our store about four years ago,” Zane told AM.

Following the familiar pattern, their efforts put through a referendum allowing sales in their tasting room in 2003. At the time, it was the only place in Pulaski County allowing alcohol sales.

Then Somerset went wet three years ago, so Amy and Zane opened a store there. It was a good move at the time because they had started losing market share in their first location.

Moved to the highway

The tasting room had been about two miles off Highway 461, the corridor from I-75 to Somerset. “We got a chance to rent an old filling station on Highway 461 and converted it to a tasting room. That

increased our sales about 25 percent just by moving. It’s a convenience thing – people will pull in here that wouldn’t drive a mile off the road,” Zane said.

Amy told AM, “At one time people had to make a plan to come see us, and go off the main road. Now they can drive by and drop in accidentally.” She added that the nearby fruit and vegetable market, Peach City, helps bring in impulse traffic, including many local wine-receptive fans of authentic local produce.

The current location’s ample parking draws in tourists who are pulling boats or trailers toward a visit to Lake Cumberland (500,000 tourists per summer) who would have been hesitant to drive to the old location down a more narrow country road.

Going into wholesale

Suspecting that the number of wineries in their part of Kentucky may be reaching a saturation point, the Burtons continue to adapt to changing market conditions by supplying their products wholesale to local liquor stores. “We’re in about 15 liquor stores now,” they said.

Sinking Valley started wholesaling four or five years ago to liquor stores that requested their products because the stores’ customers were asking for them. “We have a lot of customers in the Lexington, Louisville and Bowling Green areas. We’re in Liquor Barn. Really for us it’s working to have both [wholesale and retail outlets],” Burton said.

Wholesaling (supplying your product directly to retailers to resell) has the advantage of not requiring a storefront or spending time behind a tasting counter,

The wine business: A 10-year overview, from A(my) to Z(ane)

Zane and Amy Burton’s Sinking Valley WInery vineyard as seen on their

website. Zane advises those considering winemaking to take up that art before

attempting viniculture.

Agritourism Monthly • November 2015 • 5

Zane said. Wholesaling increases the market without increasing overhead costs, but it is an avenue not immediately available unless you have at least some direct demand for what you’re bottling, he cautioned. Zane estimated 75 percent of Sinking Valley’s business is still direct retail.

History of adaptation

Zane became a farmer in the 1990s, starting out in cattle and tobacco, working hard during uncertain times until finally realizing something else was going to have to step in to replace federal price supports for burley.

When the tobacco income dried up, he tried his hand at heirloom tomatoes, an effort which, while not as successful as he had hoped, showed him that locals would respond to locally-produced food. That started him thinking about wine.

Zane planted vines in 2001. They weren’t yet productive in 2006, a lag time typical for grapevines.

At this stage, Zane cautions new producers, vineyard and winemaking operations are two separate enterprises requiring separate skills and aptitudes, and if one must choose between the two, he recommends first going into winemaking. “If you can find growers and concentrate on making and selling the wine, I’d advise that,” he told AM.

Distillery in future?

Zane would love to add a distillery to the Sinking Valley operation. “There are compatibility issues with the licensing now. We can’t have both. But if we could, we could go to Burnside or Somerset and open a distillery. Making brandy would be a logical next step and would increase our market,” he said.

“That’s what we’ve looked at the most, and we’ve even considered switching over to being a distillery completely, even though we’d have to give up our winery license. That’s something not everyone would be in a position to do, but in this area, there’s no distillery,” he explained.

Zane said he would entertain discussion with a partner to establish a distillery under an arrangement that would satisfy the legal requirements for separation of winery and distillery functions. “I’m looking for

someone to partner with in an arrangement where I would do the distilling and fermentation and not necessarily have the legal ownership,” he said.

There has been some work on the state level to try to get distilling added to winery licenses as an option, but that effort is still in the early stages, and its fate is uncertain, Zane said.

Tastes evolve over the decade

Amy told AM that lately most of Sinking Valley’s customers these days want sweeter, redder wines.

“We don’t sell very many whites – the only white we have right now is 100 percent apple,” she said. She had been quoted in a web profile written in 2006 mentioning Riesling whites among the product lines they had then.

Some fruit wines continue as strong sellers – blackberry and blueberry were two wines Amy mentioned among their current products. An exception was their effort at strawberry wine, which she said didn’t sell very well.

One thing Amy said hasn’t changed over the intervening decade: Many customers, then and now, say they are trying red wine for its health benefits, on the advice of their doctors.

6 • Agritourism Monthly • November 2015

The Paducah Convention & Visitors Bureau was recognized on Oct. 22 as one of nine 2015 Governor’s Awards in the Arts recipients.

The Kentucky Arts Council recognized the honorees in a public ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort.

The Paducah bureau was named in the government category. Paducah is the first CVB to be so honored in the commonwealth.

Mary Hammond, executive director of Paducah CVB, said: “I couldn’t be prouder. We have the opportunity to influence people. We influence travel, and we share what Kentucky and Paducah has to offer, and we’re very proud of that.”

The arts council writes on its website, “The diversity of artists who are part of Paducah and McCracken County’s creative cultural community have enriched the city and broadened its international horizons through events like ‘Meet the Artists Day,’ the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Week, or the variety

Paducah CVB among state government award honorees

of groups performing at Maiden Alley Cinema.”The council also recognized Paducah’s designation

in 2013 as a Creative City of Craft and Folk Art by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The distinction makes Paducah one of only seven Creative Cities of Craft and Folk Art worldwide, and the second in the United States, following Santa Fe, New Mexico.

— CVB press release

Kelley Beekeeping expansion to boost Clarkson tourism Company to invest nearly $7.5 million; predicts adding 50 jobsKelley Beekeeping, which manufactures beekeeping products for the hobbyist, small business, and commercial markets throughout the world, will create 50 jobs and invest nearly $7.5 million in an expansion project in Clarkson in Grayson County, company officials have announced.

The company has purchased 20 acres of land for construction of a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing and showroom facility.

The company expects the expansion to attract additional tourism to Kentucky. Currently, more than 300 visitors tour the operation each spring weekend.

The company has added jobs overall, seeing seasonal swells that reach 110 employees.

Dan Ferrise, CEO of Kelley Beekeeping, said he expects the expansion to open by June 2016, coinciding with the company’s annual Field Day event. More than 300 beekeepers from across the central U.S. visit on that occasion to learn and share knowledge with other bee enthusiasts.

Kelley Beekeeping, established in 1924, manufactures more than 3,000 beekeeping products. Those products include a range of specialty supplies, such as woodenware units for keeping hives, protective clothing, honey extraction equipment and a variety of bees. The company made its home in Kentucky in 1934 and opened a facility in Grayson County in 1952. Frandsen Corporation bought the company in September 2014.

The Clarkson community celebrates its ties with the Kelley Company and the beekeeping industry durijng the annual Clarkson Honeyfest each September. Clarkson is a Certified Bee City USA.

— Kelley press release