Jody and Heather Lawson are the owners of Harrogate Plant and Produce, an “old time fruit and vegetable market” in Harrogate, Tennessee. They recently branched into CEA growing by founding Town Creek Hydroponics and building a hydroponic greenhouse. The GAP-certified, hydro-grown produce now supplies their own market, as well as many other clients in the region. We spoke with Heather Lawson about her journey and what she’s learned as a CEA entrepreneur.
Heather, it’s a pleasure to speak with you. I’d love to hear the story of Town Creek Hydroponics!
I taught school for 15 years and I have a doctorate in education. But before that, I grew up on a farm, just like my husband. About ten years ago, I decided to follow my dreams and open up our own local market to sell the family’s produce, but it took years of work and planning to bring that vision to life.
My husband is the one who’s always been obsessed with hydroponics. He first learned about it back in his FFA days and has had the vision ever since. But the whole thing really clicked for us when he watched a video about an AmHydro project in Torrington, Connecticut. We realized that if we could get access to some grant funding, we could build our own CEA greenhouse, grow hydroponic produce year-round, and have a financially-sustainable operation by integrating the two businesses. So while we were finally opening the market, we were already at work on the greenhouse too.
You mentioned your husband’s interest in hydroponics. Did either of you have any experience with it before committing to this project?
Not at all. But we both grew up with farming and could see the obvious benefits. He grew up doing hard farm labor. He’s still working full-time for another two years as a nuclear boilermaker. He wanted to be able to retire from that job and get back to working with plants. Hydroponics is safer and easier on the body, and it just feels so innovative. We wanted to be the first to do it in our county.
So what about experience on the business side of things? Plenty of people get into CEA as a hobby, but you felt confident going straight for a commercial-scale project.
Oh sure, I’ve actually had several business in the past, including running retail shops. I know how to make a business plan and manage a bottom line. But really I just saw such an incredible opportunity here. All the lettuce in our region is historically shipped in from up north or from the west coast. It’s no good. We didn’t want to just grow for ourselves. We wanted to do it for the community.
Were there any challenges that surprised you?
Where to begin! There have definitely been setbacks. Imagine our surprise when a brand new motor quit working on the Fourth of July and every single plant died in the heat. We got it replaced and three weeks later it died again. Come find out, our electrical box was at the wrong end of the greenhouse. The place is so long that the amperage drops from one end to the other. So that got sorted, but there were plenty of other tough lessons to learn along the way.
I call the greenhouse my glass baby because I’m in there twice a day to check up on it. That all said, I was expecting a learning curve, and there actually haven’t been as many hiccups as I expected.
As an entrepreneur, are there any personal habits you rely on to stay grounded?
I am a very structured person. I believe in keeping good records and I believe in routines. I have a checklist. Mondays we do this. Tuesdays we do this. If you don’t have a consistent balance, that greenhouse will swallow you.
Let’s talk about sales and marketing. Obviously you sell some produce yourself at the market. How do you approach that, or how have you gone beyond that?
The latest thing we’re still excited about is that we got our GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certification. It was very hard to get – you have to be almost organic; you have to write a 35-page manual. But it matters because major distributors require it.
Now if you know me, you know I’m just passionate about what I’m passionate about. When we had our first lettuce, I went live on the Harrogate page to our 15,000 followers. I said: “Look at this lettuce. It was just harvested. You can get down here and buy lettuce that’s an hour old.” And people come buy it, because you can’t get that ANYWHERE else out here.
I just believe in the product and I believe that anyone who tries it will want more. I put together portfolios, presentations, samples, and I went to restaurants; I went to distributors. When the competition is at least five days old and browning around the edges, it’s an easy sell. You just have to get out there and sell it.
So, this whole operation is running with an AmHydro hydroponic system. How did you get connected to AmHydro?
That project in Torrington really impressed us, so AmHydro was the first company we were aware of. But we did our research and concluded that AmHydro’s quality and support really was what we needed.
Because we were working with the government to secure their grant funding, we had a lot of oversight. At one point, they pushed back on us and said we needed to select a cheaper system and we had to say “No!” We absolutely made the right choice. There have been so many times that I’ve called up Shaun with a new question, and he’s always been available to walk me through the solution. We’ve had challenges, but none of them have come from the AmHydro system doing something it’s not supposed to.
Any other advice you would share with aspiring CEA entrepreneurs who are motivated by your story?
I like to tell people if they have a dream, go for it. You can accomplish anything and be what you want to be if you’re willing to put in the work. It’s easier than traditional growing but it’s still hard work and you will have to make sacrifices. For instance, sometimes my friends call me, invite me to lunch; invite me to the beach, and I have to say no. I need to fill my contracts.
That’s frustrating! But we feel a sense of purpose, because we are changing the way that farming is done. We are bringing fresh produce to the table year-round. It’s so rewarding to sit down at a restaurant and see your name on the wall with the other purveyors. At the end of the day, it’s worth it.
