Rich Hill Farms
by Mandy Catoe
A stop at Rich Hill farms is like a visit home. Beverly Hovis, 56, stands under the carport with a smile and a spread of fresh homegrown vegetables and fruit. If it’s harvest time, her two daughters, Hannah and Rachel, will be busy gathering the crops in the ever-expanding field surrounding their home.
For nearly a decade, the Hovis family has been growing produce. Every year they add a few extra vegetables, an acre or two and a new piece of farming equipment.
Beverly’s husband, Kirk Hovis, 49, tilled a little piece of his land nine years ago to busy their daughters’ idle hands. At the time Hannah and Rachel were 16 and 13 and their dad thought they needed to learn how to work.
“We planted a few squash and tomatoes that first year,” Kirk said. “The next year we added cantaloupes and the next year we bought a tractor and the year after that more equipment.”
The girls wanted some spending money, so their parents allowed them to sell what the family didn’t eat. They set up a makeshift fruit stand under the carport of their home which sits right beside the Rich Hill Fire Department on Rocky River Road.
“We couldn’t quit now if we wanted to,” Beverly said laughing.
Kirk grew up farming. Beverly grew up working in the family garden.
Hannah and Rachel were members of Future Farmers of America at Andrew Jackson High School. Rachel earned the 2016 American FFA Degree, the highest honor an FFA member can earn.
Twice over the nine years, the family agreed to go bigger. One was just after the younger sister celebrated her 18th birthday in 2014 and the other was this past year when they decided to add strawberries.
“They turned 18 and were still farming,” Kirk said. “That is the age where if they still do it, they enjoy it.”
The once two-crop farm now produces squash, tomatoes, corn, watermelons, cantaloupes, broccoli, cabbage, kale, cucumbers, okra, turnips, mustard greens, collards, butter beans, field peas, and green beans.
In 2014, the family started a Rich Hill Farms Facebook page.
“Oh my goodness,” Beverly said. “That brought the people.”
Kirk said they often update Facebook on their way to the field just before bringing produce to the carport. Last summer, they posted that they were pulling corn. By the time they loaded the truck and drove a few hundred feet to the house, a line of customers had formed.
“Before we could go in and get a drink of water, people were standing in line and waiting for it,” Kirk said.
The decision to add strawberries brought extra work and everyone agreed to do their part.
So last October, Kirk cleared a little more land and they set out 18,000 strawberry plants.
Rich Hill Farms has outgrown the carport. The family hopes to build an enclosed vegetable stand near the road before that first red, juicy strawberry is picked.
“We plant them in October and they have to survive the winter,” Hannah said. “They should be ready in April.”
The strawberries have to be covered when the temperature dips below 20 degrees.
The family talks about their new crop like it’s a newborn baby. Kirk hurries home from his job at Resolute to check on them each day noticing the slightest change.
Hannah, dressed in mud boots and a heavy camouflage jacket, talked about the trials of farming. She can quickly access any farm-related statistic from the past decade. She recalled the historic flood of October 2016.
Her dad added humor, a survival skill of farmers.
“We lost all our collard plants that year,” he said. “All 8,000 plants washed away in 12 inches of rain. Even the FBI could not have found them. They were gone.”
Farming is year-round commitment with a harvest from May through New Year’s.
Beverly can’t recall a vacation other than a drive to Georgia for some farming equipment.
The family gets the land ready in March by rolling black plastic with a drip irrigation hose beneath. Their methods yield an early harvest which minimizes their use of pesticides.
“I am as limited with chemicals as I can possibly be, because I eat it too,” Kirk said. “I’m not scared to pick anything off the vine and eat it right there in the field.”
The Hovis sisters have gained some big life lessons from farming. They realize so much is out of one’s control – like the weather and life-threatening challenges.
Last April, just as they began planting for the coming season, Beverly began a battle with breast cancer which was discovered at her annual mammogram. She encourages all women to get their yearly exams. She had her last chemo treatment January 10 and has begun the first of 30 radiation treatments. She believes the early detection saved her life.
With life and farming, you work and prepare.
“And then,” Hannah said, “All we can do is pray.”
Hannah, 24, teaches second grade at Heath Springs Elementary. Last October, she married her high school sweetheart, Tyler Denkins, 24, who helps out on the farm. Rachel, 21, works full time at CVS as a pharmacy tech and attends college full time at USCL. Even with a full load, she will graduate a semester early with a degree in public health and an honors-level GPA.
Despite having full-time jobs, each family member pitches in to make the farm a success. Beverly works in the Rock Hill School District office. Tyler works at ADM in Kershaw.
“We do all this after hours until dark and on the weekends,” Beverly said. “Even Sundays after church. We are always picking something. We gather it and sell it fresh for our customers.”
Kirk said he has no regrets about encouraging his girls to work nine summers ago.
“They learned how to work. I taught them that,” he said. “If I leave this world today, they would be alright without me. They would be able to survive.”
Both girls agree that working hard in the field made them appreciate the less labor-intensive jobs they work during the day.
Interest for this year’s crops is already growing on the Rich Hill Farms Facebook page. One regular customer is Heath Springs resident Linda Stover.
“The produce is so fresh and right out of the field,” she said. “The family is so friendly and helpful.”
When people stop by Rich Hill Farms, they give and get recipes, share personal stories about their families, their challenges, and their triumphs. They hug. They even pray with each other.
“Our customers feel like family to us,” Beverly said.
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