I took the picture at left of Curtis Congleton last year. I visited Congleton Farm outside Versailles, Kentucky (that’s ver-SALES) to watch Curtis and his sorghum partner, Randal Rock, make sweet Country Rock Sorghum from sorghum cane grown on the farm.

I enjoyed learning about the ways Curtis and Marti Congleton are diversifying their farming post-tobacco so they can continue living on their beautiful Woodford County land with their children. The scale and openness at Congleton Farm give real meaning to the their statement on the Kentucky Department of Agriculture website, “Know where your beef comes from.”

This week Congleton Farm got some good press in our local paper, which allows access to its online articles only for a week, so is not blog-friendly. Here’s a link to an online version of the story that I hope is longer-lived, though it lacks the handsome pictures that ran with the original.

Note that Congleton’s beef, fed partly on bourbon mash, wows Chef Jared Richardson, who uses it for the scrumptious burgers at Cleveland’s at the Woodford Inn in Versailles. Congleton Farm’s Country Rock Sorghum may be available at Boyd Orchards and at Good Foods Market (depending on supplies.) Congleton Farm’s telephone number is 859.873.8497.

Bonus: Country Rock Sorghum is among several from Kentucky listed in the National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association’s online directory at the moment.