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Dear Friends in the Craft Spirits Community:
It’s raining. Actually, buckets of drops are falling as fingers hit this keyboard. Checking the current weather, it appears this storm system stretches over 1,800 miles. Whoosh. That’s a lot of rain. Grey, gloomy and wet—it could be depressing but for knowing that we desperately need rain as our reservoirs are extremely low due to a lack of snow this winter in D.C. and its surrounding states.
As a kid, I recall my farming relatives in Illinois listening attentively to the daily radio weather forecasts. I learned early on about the importance of moisture in soil; planting, growing and harvesting were dependent upon the current condition. Reading Prairie Farmer during my undergrad days (I thought I wanted to pursue a law degree with a focus on agriculture) I read about how one might maximize fields productivity through irrigation. Stories about new and improved seed, predominantly corn, also caught my attention.
Here I am—eons later—still thinking about corn.
Did you know that according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the U.S. intends to plant 92 million acres of corn next year? If last year is any indicator, corn will continue to highly dominate the grain used in U.S. spirits production with TTB reporting that last year, 189,957,302,011 pounds of corn were used. Contrast that amount to 91,977,997,989 pounds of corn used in spirits production just 10 years prior (2022). With a 107% increase in one decade, it underscores the importance of our farming community, corn boards and grower associations to production of corn in the U.S.
The Heartland Spirits Competition—an event hosted by more than 20 corn organizations and organized, developed and executed by ACSA—is now open for registration. If you produce whiskey and are in one of the states supporting this competition, you may enter to win Best in State honors in addition to a receiving a medal. This year, as a new feature, we are also accepting RTDs if produced using corn as one of its ingredients. Another new feature is that of farm distillery (not in a legal/regulatory sense) but if you raise your own crop for production of your spirits, you may be eligible to medal as the Farm Distillery for Heartland Spirits 2023. Cool, right?
This month’s Mash is fully of interesting articles. In case you missed it, we’ve recapped our stellar packaging webinar and conversations with Sonat Birneckert from KOVAL Distillery and Lucy Farber from St. George Spirits. If I wasn’t craving a cocktail prior to watching our president, Gina Holman, whip up a spring libation, I certainly am now! Read on to see what you might be missing.
The weather may not be letting up, but my mood is brightened by reflecting on what we’ve done and what’s up ahead. Sunshine is clearly in our future!
Cheers,
Margie |
