the land of beautiful women, fast horses, and good whiskey
Kentucky is about a one-day’s journey from 75 percent of the population of the United States. The Commonwealth is known for many things, especially horses and bluegrass.
So what is “bluegrass?” My hero in Kentucky Blue Bloods wants to know. So he asks the heroine at lunch.
Silence enveloped them. It was awkward. Uncomfortable. Lingering.
“I’m curious,” he said, breaking the deadlock first.
She glanced up from her plate, laid down her fork, and wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. “About what?”
“Is bluegrass really blue?”
The look she gave him said he’d grown two heads.
“What?” he questioned her glare. “I’m serious. I’ve wondered about it for years.”
“Well, sure it is, if you don’t cut it,” she said. “When you see meadows of seeding bluegrass waving in the June breeze, it appears blue. The blades of grass are not blue, just the flowers and seeds.”
“Well, that clears up the mystery then.”
I found an article on the Internet that explains it even more.
“… settlers found the bluegrass growing on Kentucky’s limestone-rich soil, and traders began asking for the seed of the “bluegrass.” Bluegrass is not really blue; it is green. In the spring it produces bluish purple buds that, when seen in large fields, appears to have a rich bluish cast, from which derives the familiar term, ‘Bluegrass State.’ The unique and beautiful bluegrass seed and orchard grass seed were profitably traded and widely distributed in the early years and remain internationally known today.”
Now you know the truth behind the “bluegrass” in Kentucky’s nickname.
When we first married, we lived in Oldham County and sodded our front lawn in bluegrass. It was pricey but beautiful. There’s no grass in the country as pretty.
Where did you live in Oldham County? My son lives in Goshen.