I've put this off for too long. Kind of like opening the distillery.
A little back story though. Why this? Why a distillery, and why "in the middle of nowhere"? Let me start off with my first love: the Ozark landscape. I grew up a little ways outside of the city limits and my family struggled financially. A house without A/C in the summer was not a great place to hang out in so I spent a lot of time outdoors. I fell in love with the spring fed creeks, the wild woods, and the wildlife that inhabited it. With that comes agriculture. In all my years, my mom has never failed to grow a garden and can her own meat and vegetables. Growing a crop from simple seeds is a true wonder of nature and something I've always been fascinated with.
Additionally, I have an undying passion for the culture and the people that inhabit this region. We are industrious and resourceful. I grew up with "hillbilly engineering"- using what is available and what you can find to fix something that is broke or needs to be built. My great grandad in his life was a mechanic, a farmer, a bar owner, and a moonshiner. He was an expert in hillbilly engineering.
Ultimately, I want to bring together these concepts; the terroir, agriculture, and whisky culture of the Ozarks. I want to stay close to the land and source of supply that it comes from and you can bet I will be reinvesting in this rural landscape. However, that is another blog post. Stay tuned because the best is yet to come, and I'm bringing you the very best of the Ozarks!
-Gary Lee