Flat Aggie visits Joy Lane Produce

Flat Aggie traveled to a little town in southern Illinois to see the Spray family. Andrew, Heather, J. J., and Emmitt Spray are the owners of Joy Lane Produce, a family-owned business south of West Salem, Illinois, in Edwards County. Edwards County is located in the southeastern part of Illinois and is the smallest county in Illinois. 

The Sprays built a greenhouse in 2015, then started growing spinach, kale, and at least three kinds of lettuce by using hydroponics. Hydroponics uses water to grow the vegetables, then they add the nutrients for the plants. Aquaponics uses fish to get the nutrients for the plants.

They wanted to get back to the family farm, which works well with row cropping since they help with Heather’s family farm. At first, Andrew wasn’t sure about the whole idea of the greenhouse, so it did take a while for it to take off. It took a while to get the customer-base built so they could make a profit. Now they sell to 20 regular businesses weekly and have at least three more customers that are seasonal.

They chose lettuce because it was a continuous crop year around, unlike the company that they first read about in the Agri-News. They grew tomatoes and cucumbers which would be harder to recover from if something went wrong with the plants. 

The lettuce crop takes about 6 weeks in the summer, from seed to harvest, but it takes about 10-11 weeks in the winter. The difference in length of growth is because Andrew doesn’t have any artificial lighting in the greenhouse for the winter weather.

The greenhouse has a thermometer which measures the temperature and humidity. If it gets too warm, the cooling system takes over automatically. There are 4 steps that can be taken to get it at the adequate temperature for growth. 

Water is used to cool off the greenhouse, and sometimes fans are used.

When the lettuce is harvested, they keep the roots on the lettuce to give it a longer shelf life. One can depend on the lettuce staying fresh for 3 weeks, but it could stay fresh longer if water is added to the roots. Andrew said that one time he was taking the excess lettuce to his grandparents to feed to the sheep, but his grandma took the outer leaves off, then kept the inside since it was still good. She told him it lasted her 6 weeks.

Their busiest time of year is right before Christmas since families are fixing meals for their gatherings and people are having parties. Other holidays seem to boost their sales, too. Romaine is the most popular lettuce they sell, then Bibb and Spring Mix is third. They do stay busy, though, all year around.

The five advantages of raising and selling hydroponic lettuce are:  it’s local, has an extended shelf life, it’s got great taste, it looks great, and it’s clean. A few months ago there was a scare with Romaine lettuce causing salmonella poisoning; but, once people found out their produce was clean, Joy Lane Produce couldn’t keep it growing fast enough.

Since the lettuce keeps longer than most, they usually don’t have any trouble selling all of it before getting more ready to sell. But, if they do have an excess amount of lettuce, they donate it to the local food pantries. They always try to give back to the community.

They would like to expand their business with possibly another greenhouse, but things are being held up right now with the government. The shutdown and the Farm Bill have put a hold on that for now.

 

Their family really enjoys working together to make Joy Lane successful. (Heather even says Andrew is happier now that he works at home and isn’t a supervisor anymore.) The boys are 4 and 6 years of age, and they help drop seed, then Andrew and Heather take care of them as the plants grow and harvest the crops. He has two people who come in on Mondays to help harvest the crop. Andrew’s grandfather rides with him when he takes the produce to businesses on Tuesdays. Their farthest trip is about 100 miles away.

Joy Lane Produce recently received the ”Excellence in Agriculture Award” for Illinois and placed in the top 10 at the national level. This award deals with Farm Bureau involvement, community involvement, is based off of singles or couples who don’t solely rely on row crop, and the impact with agriculture. 

In addition to selling produce to businesses, they have a little store that they sell produce at their home, and it is based on the honor system. 

This means that don’t stay in the store all the time. When people stop by and purchase any of their products, they just leave the money in their box. Andrew said that he comes out about even.

Here are some pictures of their little store, and of course, Flat Aggie had to get in the refrigerator with the yummy-looking lettuce:

Flat Aggie had a fun time visiting Joy Lane Produce and learning how they’re making their new business successful in agriculture. If you’re in the area, stop by and check out their delicious lettuce, spinach, or kale. You’ll be glad you did!                 

Their address is:  2129 Illinois Route 130, West Salem, IL 62476.