BISMARCK — Jay and Valorie Lee operate a diverse farm, raising a variety of vegetables and berries, as well as pigs, chickens and cows. They operate JV Farms under the premise “Know your farmer, know your food.”
The Lees are the 2016 Hot Spring County Farm Family of the Year. They own approximately 20 acres and lease another 30 acres, with the center of their operation being the milk barn, which is a combined office, store and kitchen.
They sell their meats, eggs and homegrown vegetables directly to the consumer, either at their farm or at farmers markets.
“We are not your traditional farm family,” Valorie said. “We are honored to be recognized. We work hard.”
Jay added: “It is a different way of doing things. We are working to be a part of community-supported agriculture.”
Jay is a fifth-generation farmer; he traces his roots back to the 1850s, when his ancestors traveled from Kentucky and Tennessee, “searching for a better future and land to farm,” he said. “They were the real homestead farmers.”
The milk barn the Lees use for the hub of their farm belonged to Jay’s grandparents, Maggie and Gilliam Thornton, who operated a dairy.
Jay said his mother, Marsha Lee, and his brother, Jacob Lee, help on the farm, as do neighbors at times, but “Valorie and I do 95 percent of the work,” he said.
Valorie said they started with eggs and whole-hog sausage and have evolved into the operation they have today.
The Lees raise chickens, pigs, cattle and some goats primarily on mixed grass — an old hay meadow — that is free of chemicals. In addition to raising laying hens, they also raise Cornish cross broilers that are processed on the farm at 8 to 9 weeks of age. They keep the broilers inside chicken tractors, which are moved daily to new grassy locations.
The Lees raise a variety of seasonal produce, including potatoes, onions, squash, zucchini, cabbage, mixed kale, Swiss chard, green beans, wax beans, corn, sweet corn and blackberries.
By this fall, they hope to be milking the two dairy cows they have and offering raw milk for sale off the farm.
According to the website realrawmilkfacts.com, the Arkansas Legislature in 2013 approved on-farm sales of raw cow’s milk up to 500 gallons per month, with labeling and state inspection.
The Lees offer monthly shares of their products through the Share in the Harvest program. Information on that service is available at JV Farms, 5754 Sycamore Drive in Bismarck, or by contacting the Lees at (501) 721-9093 or jvfarms71929@gmail.com.
The Lees sell to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays at the milk barn on their farm. They usually participate in the Hot Springs Farmers and Artisans Market on Saturdays and in the Bernice Gardens Farmers Market on South Main Street in Little Rock on Sundays. They also keep a selection of pork, chicken and eggs at the Old Country Store in Hot Springs.
The Lees would like to become involved in agritourism in the future.
“People want to go to farms,” Jay said.
The couple offer hands-on learning classes and events and prepare four-course “farm dinners” several times a year. Information on these events can be found by contacting them on their Facebook pages www.facebook.com/jvfarms or www.facebook.com/dirtybarefootgirl.
Jay and Valorie have been married for 20 years. They met at the Hot Spring County Fair in Malvern.
“We’ve always farmed,” Valorie said. Shortly after the couple were married, they managed a ranch and eventually moved to Texas with the ranch. They moved back to Hot Spring County several years ago and began developing JV Farms; they began selling their produce to farmers markets in 2009.
Jay grew up in Hot Spring County and is a 1991 graduate of Bismarck High School.
Valorie, who grew up in north Arkansas, graduated from Magnet Cove High school in 1995.
Jay said they became interested in growing their own produce and meat “for our own health, first. We looked at the way our grandparents lived and wanted to get back to that way of life,” he said.
“Our end goal has always been to work for ourselves,” Jay said, noting that both he and Valorie attended college.
“I always wanted to be a rancher and a farmer. When I was 21, I was offered the job to manage that ranch. When I was 12, I was doing anything on a farm that was to be done, … from milking to baling hay,” he said.
“These past 12 months, things have grown dramatically,” Valorie said. “We are working hard to promote our farm.”
Jay said some restaurants in Hot Springs use the farm’s products. These restaurants include Superior Bathhouse Brewery, Deluca’s Pizzeria Napolitano, Little Penguin Tacos and It’s Gud Fud.
“Some restaurants want to use locally grown food,” Jay said. “Customers want to support that.”
Valorie said their way of farming has led to no debt.
“We have no debt,” she said, smiling. “We paid the farm off last fall. That affords us a little leeway to expand our farm as we go.”