Joe Tennis
Restaurant owner and farmer Kristin Smith feeds her hogs on her farm at Williamsburg, Kentucky.
Kristin Smith stood under an oak tree with a lively call to nature.
“Here, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig ... PIG!”
Joe Tennis
Caramelized Brussels Sprouts are a popular appetizer at “The Wrigley.”
That’s Smith’s way of talking to the swine stars of her 130-acre Faulkner Bent Farm (606-344-0021), bordered by the Cumberland River at Williamsburg in Whitley County, Kentucky.
This is where she savors the days and nights of autumn.
“My grandfather always told me that if anybody ever visited Whitley County in the fall, they would never leave,” Smith says. “It’s like a watercolor painting. Every day, the leaves just change another hue. And the river fog hangs in the air just a little bit longer.”
Smith, 39, grew up as the sixth generation on her family’s farm, learning to put up 500 canned items every year, like sausage, squash, beans and corn. “And we pickled all kinds of stuff—sauerkraut mainly,” she says. “We probably put up about five hams.”
Smiling, she says, “My mother was put through college on hogs.”
Joe Tennis
Southern Skillet Steak is a favorite at the Wrigley Taproom & Eatery of Corbin, Kentucky.
Faulkner Bent Farm is now a free-range home to 72 beef cattle plus three breeding hogs (Hammy Wynette, Dolly Porkton and Reba Bacontire); a male pig (Porkner Wagoner); and several no-name piglets that are raised for pork production.
Taste Smith’s ham for yourself at the Wrigley Taproom & Eatery (thewrigley.com), a restaurant owned and operated by Smith in Corbin, Kentucky, about 25 minutes from her visit-by-appointment farm.
“We’re a chalkboard menu, farm-to-table,” Smith says. “I’m a beef eater and a beef producer. And farm-to-table food is my passion.”
House specialty: Southern Skillet Steak. It’s a shoulder tender, seared in an iron skillet and topped with pimento cheese butter plus tobacco-straw onions.
Favorite appetizer: Caramelized Brussels sprouts, glazed with local honey. “It was an experiment, and they just took off,” Smith says. “We were just playing around with ingredients.”
Open since 2014, the Wrigley takes its name from a Wrigley chewing gum mural in the dining room that was once on an external wall.
Come October, the restaurant and farm unite.
“We have farm-to-table events in the fall,” Smith says. “We also have folks who like to come and just work. They want to be more connected to the farm. And that is also part of the whole farm-to-table experience.”
TRAVEL PLANNER
Farm: Faulkner Bent Farm, Williamsburg, KY.
Stay: Best Western Corbin Inn, Corbin, KY. (606-528-2100).
Do: Farm tours by appointment only
Eats: Farm-to-table fare at Wrigley Taproom & Eatery, Corbin, KY. 606-261-2008 (owned by farmer Kristin Smith).
The story above is from our September/October 2019 issue. For more like it, subscribe today or log in to the digital edition with your active digital subscription. Thank you for your support!