Luke Bryan Is Selling Popcorn Harvested On His Tennessee Farm For A Good Cause

“Maybe one day, if I’m the modern-day Orville Redenbacher, maybe this will turn into a multi-billion-dollar popcorn enterprise,” Bryan joked.

By

Madeleine O’Connell

| Posted on

August 23, 2022

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8:52 am

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Photo Courtesy Luke Bryan, Fendt

Something new is popping up for Luke Bryan. His collaboration with Fendt, the agricultural machinery manufacturer, is expanding in snack form.

Not only is Fendt an official sponsor of the country superstar’s annual Farm Tour for the second year in a row, but Bryan also has his very own Fendt 724 Vario tractor on his Tennessee farm.

“Fendt has been really instrumental in providing me with the equipment and the planters and all of the heavy equipment to do the farm and operation,” Bryan recently told Country Now and other media outlets.

In 2021, Fendt and Bryan produced the video series, “Rise Before Sunrise,” that showcased what’s on Bryan’s mind while he works on his farm using his Fendt tractor. This year, they have come together again to create their limited-edition farm-to-fan snack called, Boldly Grown Popcorn.

“Really excited about Fendt coming on board for the second year of Farm Tour and really loving all the opportunities that we’re able to do with them, certainly as a tractor company and then obviously on the charitable aspect, and now launching our popcorn,” he said.

YouTube video

The corn was harvested by Bryan and a few of his farmer friends from Merritt-Pop Co. Since he has earned 29 No. 1 hits in his career, and his favorite popcorn topping is butter, he decided on two flavors of popcorn – Bold Butter and Chart Toppin’ Churro.

“We sampled several different flavors and we went with, obviously, the classic with butter. You can’t go wrong with that,” he shared. “Then with the churro, it’s a little bit sweeter, not as sweet as candy corn, but just a different kind of contrast from the Bold Butter.”

In 2020, Bryan kept himself busy by planting several acres of sweet corn, which he later ended up regretting. He went viral on social media after sharing a video of him hauling a bunch of corn next to his fields with the suggestion to “never get bored during the pandemic and plant four acres of sweet corn.”

Since the logistics of sweet corn sales would be a bit more difficult to manage, he opted for popcorn instead.

“Maybe one day, if I’m the modern-day Orville Redenbacher, maybe this will turn into a multi-billion-dollar popcorn enterprise,” he joked. “But the main thing is just having fun, creating charitable events, partnering with Fendt and just having fun with it this thing.”

Like Bryan mentioned, not only is it a delicious snack, but the popcorn will also benefit a great cause. Once the supply of popcorn sells out, Fendt and the “Waves” singer will donate $25,000 to the National Future Farmers of America (FFA) Organization.

Photo Courtesy Luke Bryan, Fendt
Photo Courtesy Luke Bryan, Fendt

“I think just being a part of a social get together with the kids that all have the same interest of doing agricultural related stuff, anytime I can promote kids wanting to grow up in the ag [agricultural] industry, it’s pretty amazing stuff,” he said.

Sharing a bit from his past of living and working with his agricultural family in Georgia, Bryan explained that his new Fendt tractor is a step up from what he grew up using on the farm

“One of my first experiences in starting a tractor, we would have to bypass the starter with a screwdriver to get it started and almost hotwire it. It was an old Ford tractor that we knew how to kind of hotwire without the key. To go from just regular levers and shifting and manual transmissions to now, everything’s at the touch of a button. It’s really amazing when you can integrate your planters to the tractor, and you can see if one of your rows is not putting the seed out. It’s just such a different aspect of farming, the technology is so amazing.”

YouTube video

Luke Bryan’s current Fendt 724 Vario tractor also made an appearance in the music video for his current single, “Country On.” Growing up in the farming community, Bryan has great respect for the hard work that’s put into the fields each day. Because of that, he wrote this song, which not showcases his life on the farm, but also honors farmers and other important members of the community.

“There’re so many people that make this world go around and I really love how the song touches on everybody and touches on the heartstrings of the hard-working Americans out there. Love how the song finished up and love that we were able to put the ties to Nashville and Music City. I mean, the songwriting community is a very important thing for me, just like the farming community. So I look at the song and I feel like top to bottom, there’s really no stone left unturned on that.”

Luke Bryan is nearing the last month of his Raised Up Right Tour, which concludes on September 10 in Chicago. He’ll pick things right back up again on September 15 when his 13th annual Farm Tour kicks off in Monroeville, IN and will continue for several stops featuring special guests Riley Green, Jameson Rodgers and the Peach Pickers,

“All the cities that we’re at, we’ve been to some of them, but we’ve got some new ones thrown into the mix. That’s the beauty of Farm Tour, we get to check out new areas in the Midwest.”

He added, “It’s just been such a fun, successful, organic thing to be a part of.”

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Madeleine O’Connell graduated from North Central College with a bachelors degree in Journalism and Broadcast Communications before deciding to pursue her studies further at DePaul University. There, she earned her masters degree in Digital Communication & Media Arts. O’Connell served as a freelance writer for over two years while also interning with the Academy of Country Music, SiriusXM and Circle Media and assisting with Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast. In addition to Country Now, she has been published in American Songwriter, Music Mayhem, and Holler.Country. Madeleine O’Connell is a member of the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.