Shelby County farmer taking "local food" to new heights.

Lily Roadcap has called her family’s farm home for her entire life  having grown up in this small Shelby County community. As such, the fourth-generation farmer has always known she wanted to do something related to agriculture having grown up on a farm that began as a dairy and is now a predominantly cattle and hay operation.

“My family started out raising Ayrshire dairy cattle and now we have a couple of beef cattle herds and hay while still keeping some dairy cows that we show. We also raised tobacco at one time,” she said. “So, the farm has always been a part of my life, and I always knew agriculture was my passion.”.

But the family also has quite a history in the roadside market produce sales with 19-year-old Lily taking years, yes years, of experience in this sector to the next level and keeping a farming tradition alive.

“When I was 13 and wanting a job to have a little extra spending money, not a lot of places would hire someone that young, so I began a roadside market,” she said. “My mom and her brothers used to sell produce at a roadside stand when they were in their teenage years, and she came up with the idea of me starting a garden and selling the extra produce myself. And each year it just kept getting bigger and bigger.”

For a farm family already experienced in selling their produce directly to consumers, the idea of this came somewhat naturally to Lily. From the crop growing to the produce-selling, she has embraced this side of the ag business and is taking it to a new level.

What used to be the old dairy barn on the farm has been many things over the years, but Lily decided it would make a great indoor market and allow her to grow her farm market to include her home-grown produce and much more.

“I'm actually a third-generation member of our family to have a business in this building, including Masters Equipment Company, which was owned and operated by some of my family members after the dairy went out," she said. "And through the years, it's been other things and had sat empty for a decade until I bought it last January and spent the winter getting it ready for the market which opened in April."

Lily said she has always had her eye on the structure and knew this would be the place in which she wanted to expand her business.

“It's exciting to host a business in the same building that my family members did,” she said. “It means a lot to be able to keep the history alive in here. It makes me feel kind of happy that people are shocked that a 19-year-old could run this kind of business.”

The name of “LilyBud” Farm Market is actually the one Lily and her brother use when showing their dairy cows.

“I knew that name already had a bit of a following so we thought it would be a good name for the market,” she said.

The local food perspective

As the old saying about location, location, location being the key ingredient in real estate sales, Lily has found that keeping the business close to the home farm is key to getting the freshest produce to her market.

“During the growing season, most all the produce in the market comes from our farm which is a hop-skip-and jump away, and what we don't raise ourselves, we get supplied from in Shelby County or as close as we possibly can,” she said. “I'm very fortunate to have some nice neighbors who let me use some of their property for gardening, as well.”

Some of the produce grown on the farm includes a large variety of tomatoes, from heirlooms to canning tomatoes, green beans, peppers, sunflowers for cut flower bouquets, turnips, kale, and pumpkins.

"We also sell beef, lamb, and sausage from the farm and we get jams and jellies from the Jam House in Scottsville, Kentucky and chicken salad, pimento cheese, and Benedictine which is made by Cottage Cafe in Middletown, Kentucky,” Lily said.

She said it's important to her to have local foods whether they are from her farm, surrounding operations, or other parts of the state.

“Everything in the market is from this state and I plan to stay open all year and will get produce from farms farther south in the winter months," she said. "There are not many places like this market in our small community, so we are glad to be a part of it. The summer was very busy, and I didn’t expect that, but it has been great and we are excited about it.”

Of course, a busy market needs a lot of help and most of Lily’s help is homegrown, too, including members of her family.

“My family is really pleased with the business that I've grown, and they're also very proud,” she said. “None of it would be possible without them, from getting the picking done and getting it into the store and the planting and all that, it's not a one-person show, that's for sure, and they really are a big help.”

Plans for the future

This young agricultural entrepreneur is certainly not resting on the success she has seen so far but rather planning for growth in the future, something she has done since beginning this venture as a 13-year-old.

“I already have a greenhouse that was gifted to me by a family in Simpsonville, Kentucky and I see a high tunnel in the future, and I hope to keep expanding each year,” she said. “I have a whole back half of the building that is just used for storage right now, but I hope to eventually add a commercial kitchen and do soups, salads, and sandwiches with our products and other local farmer's products and have a little café.”

The future looks bright for Lily and the market, and she gives credit not only to her family but organizations in which she participated in growing up.

“I was very active in 4-H and FFA in school and I’m still involved in my community's 4-H,” she said. “I spend lots of time educating younger children, especially. I always promote these programs and I certainly would not be here without them.”

LilyBud has also become one of the newest members of Kentucky Farm Bureau’s Certified Farm Market Program.

The Farm Bureau is really good about promoting businesses like mine through that program, and I think that's wonderful,” she said.  I’m using my Facebook platform and posting what we do on our farm to give people a real insight of the work that goes into it.”

As time has changed on the farm over the years, Lily Roadcap is doing all she can to keep the tradition going taking what she has learned from her family to new heights with her LilyBud Farm Market. But there are still reminders of the farm ‘s past heritage.

“I use our old tobacco setter to plant nearly every crop I have,” she said.

Some things never go out of style.