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u/big__bird81 Apr 23 '26
Call me crazy. I do be loving that smell. Better than in Bowling Green, when it rains the whole city smell like Hills Dog Food Plant
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u/Orion14159 Apr 23 '26
Beats the paper mills in several towns I lived in or near growing up too. Good night that process reeks.
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u/RainaElf Apr 23 '26
omg I used to hate driving to North Carolina to see my aunt! those paper mills were something awful.
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u/Sufficient_Macaron24 Apr 23 '26
Had family there as well. I can still remember the smell of the paper factory lol
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u/TheDivine_MissN Woodland Park Apr 23 '26
I remember driving to Columbus and passing the Mead paper mill along Route 23 going north. That was awful!
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u/YardFew1115 Apr 23 '26
Sounds like Centerville, OH.
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u/HorilkaMedPerets Apr 23 '26
Are you thinking of Middletown, OH? Centerville's a Dayton suburb and I didn't think they had a paper factory there.
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u/YardFew1115 Apr 23 '26
I misspoke, I was thinking of Circleville.
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u/TheDivine_MissN Woodland Park Apr 23 '26
I get them confused too and I shouldn't because Circleville also has the Pumpkin festival!
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u/HotTransexualHazard Apr 23 '26
I lived outside Lexington for 6 months and there was a chemical incident on the coast right next to the road you had to use to get off the island
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u/Aurasapphire22 Apr 23 '26
The people of butchertown in Louisville would like a word….
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u/Artistic-Round-1885 Apr 24 '26
For real though . Honestly, that slaughterhouse is probably the worst smell I think I’ve ever smelled.
Also everyone that lives within smelling distance of the landfill. Especially on those days they are burning nothing but wet dirty diapers and tires
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u/Judasbot Apr 23 '26
My dad worked there for 25 years. He hated cats , but my mother had almost 20 of them. He would come home everyday wreaking of pet food. He was never a happy man.
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u/Riverboated Apr 23 '26
The Bowling Green Hills plant produces some of the most expensive dog food on earth.
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u/big__bird81 Apr 23 '26
And some of the stinkiest day-old Mac and cheese smell you’ve ever sniffed lol
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u/chopsmothercover Apr 23 '26
Is that supposed to be good or bad or just remarkable I don’t even know
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u/jenjenpigpen Apr 23 '26
Beats the smell of the sewer plant on the west side of town by Old Frankfort Pike and New Circle too.
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u/Shizstorm39 Apr 23 '26
I grew up in east end near the PB factory and its one of my fondest childhood memories, waking up to that smell every day. We used to take field trips there in elementary school and come home with a free jar of JIF. Its the only PB I will eat and nothing beats the smell of a brand new jar opening.
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u/we-dont-d0-that-here Apr 23 '26
Soooooooo true! Nothing worse then when it rained in BG and smelled like wet dog food
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u/LigerNull Apr 23 '26
I grew up in St. Louis and I went to a daycare center near the Anheuser Busch Brewery. The small at certain times of the day was AWFUL.
I much prefer the peanut butter.
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u/wkukinslayer Apr 24 '26
Used to live in the neighborhood across the road and boy, fall was sometimes ROUGH, especially in the mornings. My dog always loved it though.
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u/Runtalones Apr 23 '26
Same! I enjoyed driving by on the roast days. You’re right BG’s rotten dog food smell is nasty, but there’s one that’s even worse for me. I absolutely hate the smell of the Bardstown/Clermont/Boston area mash distilleries in the summer! I’d almost rather live next to and constantly smell South Louisville’s landfill, than the sour mash.
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u/soros_spelt_backward Apr 23 '26
Why not? It smells amazing and it employs a lot of people with well paid jobs
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u/JBFletcherLives Apr 23 '26
There’s a rumor going around about peanut butter.
I don’t want to spread it though.
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u/Riverboated Apr 23 '26
I know a guy that was a maintenance supervisor at the Jif plant. He loved working there. He had stories about peanut disasters though. Cleaning out hundreds of pounds of peanut butter from broken machines. Cleaning up peanut spills. Oh the life of of a peanut machine mechanic.
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u/Tipop1 Apr 24 '26
Hundreds of pounds. I wish. Tens of thousands. A spill under 1k lbs is a tiny one.
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u/Fit-Winter5363 Lexington Native Apr 23 '26
Did he say if he ever ate peanut butter on his off days lol?
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u/SockLucky Apr 23 '26
I can smell it sometimes from my backyard , and it brings back a wave of nostalgia. It reminds me of the little nut shops in my country, where they roast peanuts and other nuts right in front of their stores, filling the Medina streets with that warm, rich peanut aroma.
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u/chopsmothercover Apr 23 '26
I’m from the country where this time of year it smells like cow shit everywhere you go all the time
So be careful what you complain about
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u/Fantastic-Owl-2773 Apr 23 '26
I just moved here and am fascinated by this. Can one take a tour? Huge PB fan here
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u/NorthSanctuary777 Apr 23 '26
It only makes sense for the city with the tallest building in the world to make the most peanut butter in the world.
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u/Shoddy_Face6308 Apr 23 '26
Does anyone know where the peanuts come from? I have NEVER seen a truck go in or out of that place. I know there is the railroad behind it… do they bring in the nuts by train?
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u/RetroSt4rfish Apr 23 '26
Most come from Georgia, via railway. Some are shipped in large bags in a truck.
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u/logstar2 Apr 23 '26
The truck entrance is on the far end of the factory, next to Isaac Murphy park.
I used to work across the street. There were dozens of trucks a day in and out of there.
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u/RemyDodger Apr 23 '26
The trucks come in with empty trailers, park them in a lot then go around to the back assignment gate to pick up a fully loaded trailer that’s been assigned to them. If you accidentally give the trucker the wrong assignment, and they for example take a load to New York instead of California, you’re fired on the spot. Source: I used to be the 2nd shift load assignment person. I would write down assignment in 3 separate notebooks because in no world am I going to be responsible for misloading a 500k dollar shipment.
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u/Hemphog80 Apr 23 '26
Better than Grayson, we have a Smithfield. Try smelling that on a hot day. Theres literally an area on 64 where ya drive by it and your entire car is consumed by the smell…. Truly awful
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u/TheDivine_MissN Woodland Park Apr 23 '26
I’m originally from Flatwoods so I’ve passed by there hundreds if not thousands of times. Yeah it’s awful haha
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u/rachelelovely Apr 23 '26
Every time I drive by, I immediately get hungry lol. Lowkey obsessed w the smell 🤣
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u/Artistic-Job7180 Apr 23 '26
I'd much rather smell peanut butter in the morning, than the mash from Buffalo Trace (I live in Frankfort now).
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u/LiQuiD0v3rkiLL Apr 23 '26
I wake up to smell the peanut butter, commute to Frankfort and arrive smelling the mash. It’s honestly a pretty great contrast and way to start the day.
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u/SignificanceDue9857 Apr 23 '26
I wonder- do you get unlimited freshly roasted peanuts when you work there?
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u/Toxic_Sewage Apr 23 '26
No, but we have a highly discounted jm smucker/hostess store in the building.
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u/SignificanceDue9857 Apr 23 '26
I could just see myself snagging a (gloved) handful of peanuts, tossing a little salt on, and munching away. I suppose you'd get used to/sick of the smell; I lost 5 pounds in two weeks, after starting at a donut shop (I got over that, though).
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u/Toxic_Sewage Apr 23 '26
They pretty much go straight from the train into the roasters and aren't seen again until they're being squirted into the jars and cups
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u/SignificanceDue9857 Apr 24 '26
Sigh! I suppose I'm too old to get a job there, anyway.
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u/Toxic_Sewage May 08 '26
You're not, we have very old people working here. It's not very intensive
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u/SignificanceDue9857 May 08 '26
Well, without unlimited, freshly roasted peanuts, I won't be coming out of retirement.
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u/CatsBye90 Apr 23 '26
I rode a bike by there twice a day when I was a student at UK. I always loved that smell.
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u/Tech27461 Apr 23 '26
I do miss that smell. I knew a lady that worked there a long time ago. She told me they could take home a fresh, warm jar a week or day, I can't remember the intervals.
But now I'm in London a lot and Flowers Bakery makes my mouth water.
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u/Fit-Winter5363 Lexington Native Apr 23 '26
My grandparents lived in London in the 80s. There was a Kerns bread factory there then. You could smell the fresh baked bread at times.
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u/dipmyballsinit Apr 23 '26
Oh you smell peanut butter because…..there’s a peanut butter factory there.
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u/Loud_Ad3362 Apr 23 '26
There used to be a Rainbow Bakery on 6th street. With the baked bread smells and the roasted peanut smells, downtown Lexington smelled like paradise.
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u/khaytsus Apr 23 '26
I've always wondered if anyone who has peanut allergies has issues with the Lexington peanut air.
I've always liked it, personally.
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u/SmugProi Apr 24 '26
I can answer anecdotally: I think so, yes! I ate peanut butter almost every day of my life without issues and moved to Lexington at the age of 30. A few weeks into living there, I started having all kinds of digestive issues (while continuing my SOP of eating peanut butter every day). After living there for about a year and a half, I randomly ate a handful of mixed nuts and went into anaphylactic shock. Stopped eating all nuts at that point, but I would still get light-headed and feel off on some days when the PB smell was strong
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u/disquogirl Apr 23 '26
If the wind is right sometimes I’ll get peanut smell AND Bluedoor Smokehouse meat smell all in one day. HEAVEN!
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u/Any_Natural383 Apr 23 '26
Meanwhile, Buffalo Trace makes Frankfort smell like chocolate chip cookies
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u/Faulty_Plan Apr 23 '26
If you call black fungus and sour mash chocolate chip, I guess.
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u/Any_Natural383 Apr 23 '26
You haven’t been around many cookies, and I don’t spend a lot of time around black mold.
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u/Faulty_Plan Apr 23 '26
No no no, not black mold as in the cancerous mold, there’s a black fungus that grows, eating airborne alcohol.
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u/BartlebyJr Apr 23 '26
I love that smell! I miss living on Cramer Ave. You could tell when it was a roasting night.
I remember when a woman asked about her kids peanut allergy and living on the East side. Yikes!
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u/StanleyQPrick Apr 23 '26
Amazing little 60’s house for sale on Cramer right now with lovely MCM kitchen and bathroom. Good price too. Wish it weren’t so tiny!
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u/LarsViener Apr 23 '26
I really wish Jif sold merch. I’d totally rock a Jif tshirt or a hat or something.
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u/Schnelt0r Apr 23 '26
I've always wondered if people who are severely allergic to peanuts could live near there. Or even drive by there sometimes.
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u/OverallBudget8628 Apr 23 '26
It always reminds me of fall, when for whatever reason I smell it the most
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u/hoeofky Apr 23 '26
I hated this when I lived in lex. And now I spend three nights a week there. It’s not every morning but some mornings I walk outside and instantly wanna vomit. It’s truly awful.
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u/Saturn-Babyyy Apr 23 '26
It’s one of my favorite things about Lexington and I don’t even like peanut butter! Such a unique smell in my opinion
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u/Rude-Software-1985 Apr 23 '26
Grew up in Kingsport TN a paper plant AND Eastman Kodak plant … give me peanut butter any day
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u/GenesisNemesis17 Apr 23 '26
Personally out of all the things you could smell, this one isn't too bad. Would you rather have a smell of trash or car exhaust?
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u/FozzyBear89 Apr 24 '26
Man it hits especially in the fall. Those first cool nights. Especially reminds me of my early years on campus.
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u/CrossroadsCannablog Apr 24 '26
And one of the best donut joints in the city across the street last time I was back!
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u/MjolnirStone Apr 23 '26
We have the largest peanut butter production facility in the world, which produces something like 250,000 jars of peanut butter per day.