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When Josh’s grandfather came home<br />
from serving in World War II, he and his<br />
brother purchased 4,000 acres. After their<br />
death, the land was divided among family.<br />
Josh and his siblings inherited 80 acres<br />
each from their mother. The Hornsby<br />
Farm is located about eight miles outside<br />
Auburn.<br />
After Josh graduated from Auburn<br />
University in landscape horticulture and<br />
married Beth, he operated a landscape and<br />
design company. When the market had a<br />
slowdown, they lost the business and their<br />
home.<br />
They moved to Pike Road in Montgomery<br />
where Josh began working for the forest<br />
commission in 2009. While working there,<br />
he began growing crops at the farm, which<br />
was 35 miles away.<br />
Josh’s neighbor at the farm was managing<br />
the Auburn War Eagle Supper Club and<br />
let him set up a vegetable stand in the parking<br />
lot to sell produce on weekends. The<br />
second year he made more funds selling<br />
produce from the back of his pick-up truck<br />
than he was making at his full-time job<br />
with the forest commission.<br />
At that point in 2012, Josh and Beth<br />
decided to start farming the land that had<br />
been his grandparents’ and then Josh’s parents’<br />
where they had farmed. “We started<br />
by growing too much at first,” Josh says.<br />
“We had trouble getting rid of it.”<br />
One Friday afternoon, Josh was covered<br />
in dirt from farming all day, but he decided<br />
to gather two of every vegetable they had<br />
in a basket and take it to Acre Restaurant,<br />
which had just opened. He took the basket<br />
to the hostess stand and told her to give it to<br />
Chef David Bancroft and ask him to call if<br />
he was interested.<br />
When Josh drove off, he didn’t see<br />
Bancroft trying to chase him in the parking<br />
lot. Chef Bancroft called Josh right<br />
away and told him he was interested. The<br />
Hornsbys began taking fresh produce to the<br />
restaurant every week.<br />
Josh and Beth then began home delivery<br />
service for boxes of fresh produce. People<br />
could sign up for every week or a month at<br />
a time. Every Tuesday they would deliver<br />
a 30-dollar box of fresh produce. They did<br />
that for years.<br />
One year, they had a bunch of strawberries<br />
and jalapeno peppers. Beth decided she<br />
would make strawberry jalapeno pepper<br />
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Greg King<br />
1451 Gateway Dr. Ste. B<br />
Opelika, AL 36801-5463<br />
(334) 559-1887<br />
GKing@alfains.com<br />
EAST ALABAMA LIVING 11
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