Victory Hemp Foods. Photo furnished
Victory Hemp Foods
Headquartered in Henry County, Victory Hemp Foods focuses on the nutritional value of hemp foods, which can be incorporated into many recipes, from smoothies to salads to hot dogs. Naturally gluten free, the company’s products include hemp hearts, hemp oil, hemp flour and hemp protein.
Victory supplements their Kentucky-grown organic hemp with hemp from other states and countries to keep up with the demand in the highly-regulated U.S. market. One of the company’s most exciting partnerships to date is the creation of Kentucky Hemp Dawgs, hemp-infused hot dogs introduced at the 2016 Kentucky State Fair in partnership with fellow Henry County business Webb’s Butcher Block.
Products from Victory Hemp Foods can currently be purchased online directly from Victory Hemp Foods and at Good Foods Co-Op; they will soon be available at the new Whole Foods location at the Summit at Fritz Farm.
Sweetgrass Southern Granola
Sweetgrass Southern Granola is produced by Jacob and Carolyn Gahn in their homestead commercial kitchen just outside of Crab Orchard, close to Berea. Since 2012, the couple has created a variety of granola flavors using regionally sourced hemp seeds, wild seedling pecans, chia seeds, Appalachian sea salt, and pure Kentucky sorghum. Flavors include combinations like Kentucky Harvest, Citizen Kane, and Cherry Home Companion. In 2016, Sweetgrass began producing a second product, EllieFinn’s Go Snacks – a healthy fruit and veggie energy bite purported to contain 20 percent of an adult’s daily recommended vegetable serving.
Sweetgrass Southern Granola products are available online directly from Sweetgrass Granola and Amazon, as well as from Whole Foods and the Good Foods Co-Op in Lexington. The company’s products are also sold in 50 Kroger locations throughout the state through the Kentucky Proud program, at Marksbury Farm in Lancaster, via Green BEAN Delivery, and at the Lexington Farmer’s Market.
Laura’s Hemp Chocolates
Winchester-based chocolatier Laura’s Mercantile is the newest venture of Laura Freeman, who many know as the founder of Laura’s Lean Beef. She started the smaller company utilizing the hemp crop being grown on her Winchester farm, using chocolate from Mt. Sterling’s Ruth Hunt Candies to create her products. The health benefits of hemp, with its high concentration of amino acids and its properties as an anti-inflammatory, combine with the antioxidants in dark chocolate to create a delicious yet beneficial dessert.
Laura’s Mercantile products include hemp and cranberry dark chocolate bark, hemp and dark chocolate wafers, and hemp dark chocolate truffles, and are available online directly from her website as well as from a variety of Lexington retailers, including Good Foods Co-Op, Lucky’s Market, Chocolate Holler, and select Kroger locations. (A full list of retailers is available on the Laura’s Mercantile website.)
Kentucky Hemp Works
www.kentuckyhempworks.com/home
Located in Crofton, Kentucky (near Western Kentucky’s Pennyrile State Park), Kentucky Hemp Works was established in 2014, when hemp advocate Katie Moyer participated in producing one of the first legal hemp crops in the country. In partnership with her mother, Janine, Katie Moyer presses hemp seed oil and mills hemp protein powder on-site to create a variety of natural health food and body products, from cold-pressed hemp oil and protein powder, to salve and balm, to firestarter kits. Backing up the claims about the versatility of industrial hemp, the company also produces a hemp ink pen, which is 3D printed from 100% hemp fibers. The company’s products can be purchased online directly.
Hemp Beer
In a joint project with the Kentucky Hemp Research Foundation, several local breweries have created experimental batches of hemp beers. To coincide with Lexington’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration, Rock House Brewing, located on Luigart Avenue in the NoLi District, and Mirror Twin Brewing Co., on National Avenue in the Warehouse District, rolled out batches of brown hemp ale. Mirror Twin’s brew, called Wolf Cola, was a stout brown ale that was available for only a limited time, as was Rock House Brewing’s Uncle Jon’s Brown. West Sixth Brewing, located in the historic Smithtown neighborhood at the intersection of 6th and Jefferson Streets, soon after released an experimental amber ale made with hemp that lasted only a few days.
All three breweries sold out quickly, but due to the popularity Rock House Brewing plans to add Uncle Jon’s Brown to its flagship beer menu. Follow Rock House Brewing for information on the re-release of Uncle Jon’s Brown.
Bluegrass Hemp Oil
A product of Kentucky Cannabis Company, Lexington’s Bluegrass Hemp Oil came into being after the company’s founders struggled for years to treat their son’s Idiopathic Generalized Epilespy. After years of trial-and-error with traditional medical treatments, they began to explore natural treatments, and they found that combining the most successful of those traditional medical treatments with cannabidoil (a non-psychoactive chemical compound found in both hemp and marijuana, also known as CBD oil) improved his health and quality of life to the best it had ever been. The company was born in an effort to help others struggling with chronic illnesses.
Bluegrass Hemp Oil has been lab certified for purity, and is sold as pure CBD as well as in other products such as Honest Abe CBD2 e-juice and Nature’s Rhythm Jams. The company plans to release a line of soaps, body washes, lotions and beard oil in the future.
Products can be purchased online directly from Bluegrass Hemp Oil and from their retail store on E. Reynolds Road in Lexington as well as at Lexington’s Robert’s Health Foods.
Olde Towne Distillery
Olde Towne Distillery in Harrodsburg – the creator of Elkhorn Bourbon, Moonshiner Chico Spirit Whisky, and Chaplin Hills Flavored Moonshines – claims to be the first distillery in the United States to produce hemp moonshine. Using live Kentucky-grown hemp seeds to distill the product produces a smooth and nutty flavor profile distinct from traditional moonshines.
The product can be tasted and purchased at the distillery’s tasting room and gift shop in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.