Press Releases
Sales of Kight's Pecans go nuts after KDA matches family farm with Kentucky Proud distributor
For Immediate Release
Monday, November 4, 2013
For more information contact:
Ted Sloan
(502) 564-1138
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kight’s Pecan Orchard in Kevil, Ky., got a little more than it bargained for when it participated in a Kentucky Proud Farm to Table Dinner July 30 at Cynthia’s California Tuscan Ristorante in Paducah.
Steve Kight, son of the company’s founder, 85-year-old Roby Kight, met Agriculture Commissioner James Comer at the dinner. When Comer learned that the Kights had a surplus of pecans they needed to sell, he asked the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s marketing staff to help the Kights find new markets. One of those was longtime Kentucky Proud distributor Town and Country Specialty Foods in Bardstown.
“I’m happy that our outreach in western Kentucky was able to connect a Kentucky Proud business with a Kentucky Proud market,” Comer said. “That’s the beauty of Kentucky Proud and one of the benefits of being a member – networking with other Kentucky Proud members.”
Steve Hayden’s initial order of 500 pounds of pecans for Town and Country sold out in four days. Hayden offered samples of Kight’s Pecans at the Kentucky Proud Incredible Food Show on Oct. 26 in Lexington and showed them to customers on his delivery route in Louisville.
“Everybody was amazed that those pecans were grown in Kentucky,” Hayden said. “It went unbelievably well.”
“We’re very happy,” said Steve Kight, whose pecans were sold only on the farm and to local markets in the past. “We are hopeful that, with his [Hayden’s] sales contacts, our pecans can be sold all over the state.”
During the week of Nov. 3, five retail locations in Louisville, including three ValuMarkets, will receive bags of Kight’s Pecans from Town and Country.
Hayden has ordered another 500 pounds of pecans from Steve Kight.
“I think it can go beyond that, depending on the availability of his products,” Hayden said. “I’m tickled to death.
“They’re great products, and it’s the right product for the right time of the year,” Hayden added. “I’m very appreciative of being introduced to him [Steve Kight] by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Kentucky Proud program.”
Roby Kight started the orchard in 1985 and steadily grew the business. Their 1,200 pecan trees were ravaged by a historic ice storm four years ago. But now the trees are fully recovered, and Kight’s harvested a bumper crop of 30,000 pounds of pecans this year.
You can order Kight’s Pecans directly from the farm by contacting Steve Kight at skight@comcast.net or (270) 554-4673. If you are a retail store interested in carrying Kight’s Pecans, contact Hayden at foods@bardstowncable.net or (502) 507-2974.
