Business, much like life, is merely a model of risk and reward. What I found on the farm of Congaree and Penn is that reward is not just commas in the bank account or having your name featured in an array of print. It is taking a project from concept to completion and bootstrapping your way through two years of entrepreneurship. Scott Meyer of Congaree and Penn is not conventional by any means. There is no business degree hanging on his wall, and no preconceived master plan complete with Roman numerals to plot the next five years. However, what he does bring to the table are the skills and character traits that have set up Congaree to be a household name in Northeast Florida.
How did this rice storm even happen?
Scott will tell you that this story starts with a plot of land that his family has owned for decades. What used to be a tree nursery in the ‘80s and ‘90s is now home to Congaree’s four rice paddies, about 800 mayhaw trees and numerous rows of muscadine grape vines. Scott has a repertoire of careers that has kept him outside and if you ask him, he plans to “keep it that way.”
Prior to Congaree, he was a soil tester for BP and cultivated and maintained fish hatcheries for the University of Miami.
He is honest in saying he doesn’t even really remember the months that led up to him being back in Jacksonville because they moved so quickly. When asked what brought him back he said, “It was a combination of being overworked for the University, and I was also tied to a fish farm in Ft. Pierce, but it wasn’t going anywhere, and my dad kept talking and talking like, ‘What are we going to do with this land?’ We started working on this master plan of this kind of this diversified small-scale farming. Then we just kind of started doing it all.”
So, while he was working in Miami in the fish hatchery research business and living on his friend Enrique’s couch, his wife Lindsay, who also doubles as Congaree and Penn’s badass graphic designer, was in Jacksonville living in their new home. He eventually made his way back to Jacksonville, like we all do.
Initially, being back in Jacksonville meant that Scott would help start the Mellow Mushroom in Avondale, all while putting the master plan into motion. What I didn’t know, but Scott spent time researching, is that rice was historically grown in Florida and other Southern marsh landscapes.
Next thing you know he is standing on his family’s land and imagining everything that it has the potential to be, and the rest is history.
Running a farm isn’t all plowing and puppies.
There is a lot of time and resources that have been poured into the soil of Congaree and Penn. Scott tells of the frustration that comes with not having years of farming experience and how grants are not easily accessible. Even though he grew up hanging out on a mayhaw orchard with his father, who has years of nursery experience, he is seen as entry level in the industry.
Each day is a new form to fill out and another inspection to facilitate. However, the tedious day-to-day is not done in vain. What you can expect to see come from the farm at Congaree and Penn is more than the best rice you can find in Jacksonville. The product line will include various shrubs to make into soda, hard mayhaw cider, muscadine grapes, jellies, honey and even mead.
Scott is collected and freaking awesome to be around. I guess it’s the sunshine and pups running around that create the optimum work environment for the psyche. Just a year ago I interviewed the team of Congaree and Penn when the fields that now are full of life and sweet vegetation were merely four plots with a few feet of water and some stalks of rice. What no one would ever guess is that those stalks would grow to be a legacy of sustainability and vitality to a parcel of Jacksonville that many do not experience. Scott Meyer is not just an entrepreneur, he is a breed of human that Jacksonville needs more of — a trailblazer.
