WADDY, Ky. – Lily Roadcap has had a love for farming all her life. The 19 year old fourth-generation farmer says her roots are firmly grounded in her family’s Shelby County farm. The farm was a hotspot for tobacco many years ago and is now a predominantly cattle and hay operation. Her father and grandfather started out raising Ayrshire dairy cattle and now tend to a couple of beef cattle herds and hay.

“The farm has always been a part of my life, and I always knew agriculture was my passion,” Roadcap said.

She graduated from Martha Layne Collins High School in Shelbyville, where she served as president of her FFA chapter. Roadcap also served on Teen Council at Shelby County.

“I’ve been very involved with agriculture since I was in 4-H at age 9, and even before I was even in 4-H. FFA has been a big part of my life, especially when it came to showing cattle. I’m still involved in my community’s 4-H. I spend lots of time educating younger children, especially. I always promote these programs and I certainly would not be here without them.”

Upon graduating from high school, Roadcap enrolled in college. That wasn’t her “cup of tea,” as she puts it.

“I was in my freshman year in college and I quickly learned that college wasn’t for me,” she said. “I tried it, but I’m a farm girl, I have to be working in the dirt. When I was in class all I could think about was being back in the store, wondering what I’m gonna do when I get back home, what am I gonna grow in the greenhouse.”

Raising cattle and various conventional crops have been a part of this family’s history, but so too is the roadside market. The latter has been a very small part of the family’s income but Roadcap soon discovered it could be something she could sink her heart and soul into and make it flourish.

“I started with a roadside stand when I was just 12. I needed a job and I always wanted to do something in agriculture,” she said. “Growing up on a farm I wanted to have a garden and sell what we had left over. My mom and her brothers used to sell produce at a roadside stand when they were teenagers, and my mom came up with the idea of me starting a garden and selling the extra produce myself. Each year it just kept getting bigger and bigger. For example, what started out as 200 tomato plants suddenly grew to 6,000 tomato plants. It kept getting bigger and bigger.”

She calls her expanded roadside stand Lily Bud Farm Market. Lily Bud Farm Market recently became one of the newest members of the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s Certified Farm Market Program. The name of “Lily Bud” Farm Market is actually the one she and her brother use when showing their dairy cows.

An old dairy barn on the property was empty and has served as many things over the years, such as her grandfather’s Masters Equipment Company. Roadcap bought the structure from a family member last year and spent the winter getting it ready for the market, which opened last April.

“It’s exciting to host a business in the same building that my family members did,” she said. “It means a lot to be able to keep the history alive in here.”

Providing fresh produce for those in Shelby and surrounding counties is her goal.

“During the growing season, most all the produce in the market comes from our farm, which is a hop-skip-and-jump away, and what we don’t raise ourselves we get supplied from in Shelby County or as close as we possibly can,” she said. “I’m also very fortunate to have some nice neighbors who let me use some of their property for gardening as well.”

Her produce also includes green beans, peppers, sunflowers for cut flower bouquets, turnips, kale and pumpkins.

“We also sell beef, lamb and sausage from the farm and we get jams and jellies from the Jam House in Scottsville, Ky., and chicken salad, pimento cheese and Benedictine which is made by Cottage Café in Middletown, Ky.,” said Roadcap, who added that it’s important to her to have local foods whether they are from her farm, surrounding operations, or other parts of the state.

“Everything in the market is from this state and I plan to stay open all year and will get produce from farms farther south in the winter months,” she said. “There are not many places like this market in our small community, so we’re glad to be a part of it.”

Roadcap is a high-energy entrepreneur who isn’t about to slow down anytime soon.

“I already have a greenhouse that was gifted to me by a family in Simpsonville, Ky., and I see a high tunnel in the future, and I hope to keep expanding each year,” she said. “I have a whole back half of the building that is just used for storage right now, but I hope to eventually add a commercial kitchen and offer soups, salads and sandwiches with our products and other local farmer’s products and have a little café.”

Thoughts of expanding into adjacent counties is not in her plans.

“My goal is to keep it in Waddy because all we have here in Waddy are two small truck stops and a Dollar General store,” she said. “I also want it to be a place for the community to come together and mingle and find local goods.”