JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18 — Last year, Lily Becknell and her father passed a produce stand on the side of the road. She said she would like to do that once she retires later in life. Her dad said, “Why not start now?”
So, they started to sell the produce they were growing in their four-acre garden. This year, Lily decided to take more responsibility into her own hands, and hired her best friend, Brooklynn Corson, to help.
Now they have a 10-acre garden where they grow and sell their own produce at Lily B’s Produce Stand. It's located along U.S. 27 in Nicholasville at Finch Lane, just up from Camp Nelson National Cemetery.
Last year, Lily plowed the ground, planted and harvested everything. This year, Brooklynn has started helping her around the planting, so she still plowed and put down plastic. She said, “It just inspired me. And then, after I got out here and was able to talk to people and make relationships with all the people, it made me want to continue to do this for the rest of my life, just to help also fun the farm as well.”
Brooklynn will be a senior at West Jessamine High School, and Lily just graduated, where she will be attending Eastern Kentucky University in the fall. But despite the distance that will be put between them, their bond will be as strong as ever. They are best friends, but also sisters. They are together every day.
“I call her dad ‘Pops,’ it’s just weird to call him Greg. And I usually call her mom ‘Mom.’ We just got back from vacation last week, so we’re even closer and we never get away from each other,” said Brooklynn.
They expressed that despite the hot temperatures and very late hours, there is nothing else in the world they would rather be doing. It’s not just a summer job for them, it’s time spent together making memories, from being on the tractor together to just sitting outside listening to music.
"It’s like something exciting that I like actually love doing,” said Brooklynn. “But it’s also because we’re both farm girls and women in agriculture. It’s just something we love to do.”
They sell almost everything you can think of, from peaches to ghost peppers to tomatoes, and they’re staying open for pumpkin season in the fall.
