A T L E D RT I D ILLERY
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Written by GABE TOTH Photos provided by DELTA DIRT DISTILLERY
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he Williams family has deep roots in the Arkansas Delta, going back more than a century to some of the most ignominious chapters in American history. But now, the family is trying to use their new and well-acclaimed craft distillery, Delta Dirt, to help create a rising tide in their longtime community of Helena, Arkansas.
RETURNING HOME It’s the only black-owned farm distillery in the country, a fourth-generation farm that Harvey William’s great grandfather, Joe Williams, worked his whole life as a sharecropper. His grandfather, U.D. Williams was eventually able to buy it outright. Harvey and his wife, Donna, had grown up in the area, went away to college, raised a family, and moved back in 2017. “So many people in the Delta leave for opportunity, go to college and get a job, and we did just that,” he said. “Lived in places all over the country, raised our family, and always had this longing to come back to the family farm, [or] at least the area.” The farm was passed to his father, Harvey Sr., who changed the focus of the farm from row cropping (soy, corn, and wheat) during a difficult time in the 1980s, and Harvey’s brothers Kennard and Andre stayed to help work the land. “A lot of farmers got out of farming. Some of them were able to expand by leasing additional land. Some, like my dad, were able to diversify,” he said. “That’s how he ended up in the whole vegetable farming operation and farming sweet potatoes.” He said he and Donna didn’t know exactly what they wanted to do or what kind of business they wanted to get involved in when they moved back. His father and brothers would attend vegetable farming conferences around the country, and that particular year they came back excited about what they had learned about sweet potatoes. They were sharing with Harvey about an experience meeting someone in North Carolina who had sweet potato vodka, and the pieces started to fit together. 51