HEMINGWAY, S.C. —
Driving down any road in South Carolina, you’re bound to come upon a field lush with crops of many different varieties. The state is well known for its tobacco, corn, soy beans and other plants that handle the heat and humidity of the state well.
In Hemingway, there’s a farmer that isn’t your stereotypical tractor-driving, acres of land owning farmer. He conducts his farming in a small building behind his house and grows one of the more unique crops in the state: mushrooms.
Jay Lewis of Rebecca Farms in Hemingway grew up an animal and plant lover and now, he’s taken that childhood fascination and turned that into a way of life that he believes can help Williamsburg County in the long run.
His foray into mushrooms didn’t begin until a year ago, when he was given a mushroom growing kit, and from there, Lewis has managed to grow his business into one of the burgeoning mushroom producers in the state.
Although he’s managed to make a solid foothold at local farmers markets, Lewis says that he’s still learning.
“This is still an experiment,” Lewis said. “I’m still learning what to plant and when… I’ve had whole batches just go ‘poof,’ gone…”
Even though he’s made some mistakes along the way, Lewis and his business are taking steps forward to increase the size of the yields, while not outstripping his production capabilities.
The key to Lewis’ operation is his grow room, which keeps the humidity steady at 70 percent while keeping insects and other organisms that could contaminate the mushrooms outdoors. The farming of mushrooms in South Carolina would be nearly impossible if not for the grow house, where multiple varieties of mushroom grow.
Although the grow room has proved integral to his business, Lewis says that without some of the raw materials that mushrooms need to survive and procreate and being all over again, his operation would face serious obstacles.
“The raw materials are here in South Carolina for very large, large scale production and that’s what I would really like to get into,” he said. “Then, we could get these things out to (Myrtle Beach) so we could sell these to tourist and start bringing some money into this area.”
For Lewis, his goal is to bring in money from people that don’t live in the area via tourists, instead of recycling money from one local to another.
“Too often with agriculture in the area, we find people that say they’re buying local and yeah, that’s great, but we need to bring money in from outside the state,” he said. “The only way to do that is to patronize these tourists.”
Lewis lives true to his word, too. All of the material he uses to grow the mushrooms comes from South Carolina, with most of it coming from local farms.
With strains of mushrooms from Anderson, SC, straw from Hemingway, supplements from Georgetown and cotton seed meal from Kingstree, Lewis believes that locally grown products can have a positive effect when sold throughout the communities they’re grown in.
“Rather than me acquiring my stuff from Washington state… the shipping is more and so you’re going to use more gas to get it here,” he said. “It’s not as economical or as feasible as it is to get something from within the state and helping out the local economy.”
With only one year of experience under his belt, Lewis is hopeful that Rebecca Farms can maintain the trajectory he’s firmly placed it on.
So far, the reception from within the community and regionally has been very positive an this will most likely bring about a set of incremental expansions throughout the state, with restaurants being the main attraction.
“I’ve got a farmers market that buys from me and I’m starting to move into some of the restaurants on the beach and they’re buying here and there,” he said. “I’ve got be very careful, though, since my production is very low right now. I don’t want to outstrip my production and have people run away.”
One of Lewis’ main goals is to move into one of the vacant buildings in downtown Hemingway and to make that his headquarters for a state-wide business, as well as doing his part to revitalize the once bustling main street.
“What I want to do is supply a few restaurants and keep myself afloat and then move into one of these building uptowns and convert it into a growing space,” he said. “I’m just really looking to revitalize this area down here, too.”