A yellow forklift is parked in front of an industrial warehouse in a rural area just outside the Water Valley business district. Plastic containers and sacks of Mississippi corn are stacked on wood pallets beside the entryway. Inside, corn dust covers the concrete floor decorated with small footprints that lead around the corner to large silver machines.
Louisa, 8, and Graham, 5, sweep corn dust into piles while their mother, Becky Tatum, pours corn into a silver mill that is fed into the separator. Eventually, Delta Grind Grits fall from the bottom of the machine where they are collected and packaged.
Eight years ago, Becky and her husband, John, knew they would have to make changes. The Oxford restaurant where both worked was set to close, and Becky, the mother of a baby girl, had to decide whether to seek another full-time job or become a stay-at-home mom. Instead of facing the “daily grind,” she opted to grind grits.
Because the idea of staying home daily without a creative outlet seemed boring, Becky decided to buy Delta Grind Grits, a flexible part-time business that enabled her to care for her children and work simultaneously. Today, she is the only employee of the small company that has doubled in size since she purchased it in 2008. Becky typically grinds grits twice a week for two to four hours using 10–20 sacks of corn each time.
The Chattanooga native studied art history, architecture and historical preservation at the College of Charleston while her high school sweetheart and future fiancé, John Tatum, attended Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., on the opposite side of the state.
After the death of his father, John bounced around a bit in his early 20s, but eventually returned to Charleston to be near Becky and work as a cook while she sold tickets at Charleston plantations and worked as a concierge at a historic luxury hotel in an attempt to have a job related to her college major.
“One day, after trying to make ends meet, we discussed the option of moving to Mississippi because it was cheap,” Becky said.
The two moved to Oxford and were married in 2003. While John continued to work as a cook, Becky found a job as a bank teller. Then, a friend tipped them off to the low cost of living in the nearby town of Water Valley, about 20 miles south of Oxford.
“A person in the kitchen told us they had just moved to Water Valley and bought a big house on Main Street for something crazy, like $60,000,” Becky said. “When we rolled into town, there wasn’t much there, but the houses were really cool, and that appealed to my background.”
After six months of living in Water Valley, John and Becky bought a house off Main Street and decided to open a restaurant.
“We had stars in our eyes because everything was so cheap, and his grandfather had left him some money,” said Becky. “Neither of us was really happy doing what we were doing.”
The two renovated a historic building and opened the Main Street Grill offering casual, country lunches with fresh foods, such as mashed potatoes and green beans. At night, the Southern fare included steaks, chicken and catfish.
“Nothing was out of a can,” Becky said. “He just wanted to bring quality food to a place that really didn’t have a lot of restaurants at the time.”
The Main Street Grill closed after two years, and the Tatums still debate why it wasn’t a success.
“Some said the place looked too nice and thought it might be too expensive,” Becky said. “My husband likes to think we were boycotted because of our bar. At the time, beer was not legal. All we could serve was wine and liquor, and a lot of older people in the community looked at that and didn’t agree with it. I like to think we didn’t do our research. We started off too big. That doesn’t work in business.”
After their restaurant venture, the Tatums found a renter for the property and decided to return to work.
Becky waited tables at L&M Kitchen, an Italian restaurant off the Oxford Square on North Lamar, and later served as manager.
“While I was there, the lady who had started Delta Grind Grits came in, and she got that in my head,” Becky said. “She was looking for the right person to buy the business.”
John encouraged Becky to buy it.
“The owner taught me everything she knew, and it was a fairly easy business to get into. All the clients were there. It was already making money for her. I just had to make enough and be able to pay myself more than I was making at the restaurant. The more I learned, the more I liked it.”
Becky purchased the business name, the client list and the equipment and moved it to Water Valley.
“It’s a one-woman operation,” she said. “I can handle it. I’ve learned to be organized and to write everything down because you can’t make mistakes. With a business this small, you have to keep your customers happy.”
Since buying the business in 2008, Becky said the brand is now recognized more throughout the state.
“When I go to a farmers’ market, sometimes, with some people, I’m kind of a rock star,” she said. “And it’s kind of crazy, because it’s just food. These people get really excited just knowing that someone cares enough to make something like this, make it fresh and have it locally sourced.”
Delta Grind Grits has expanded from the Memphis and Oxford market since Becky bought it. She now sells grits to more than 20 restaurants and a few grocery stores throughout Mississippi, as well as restaurants in San Francisco, Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Most clients learn about Delta Grind Grits by word of mouth. She takes orders Mondays and Tuesdays and grinds on Tuesday afternoons. She delivers to Memphis on Wednesdays, the Mississippi Delta on Thursdays and Jackson on Fridays. She has hopes of hiring a few distributors.
“It’s an easy job for me, personally, and the whole process is so methodical,” she said. “There’s really nothing to it. But you make it fun by going to farmers’ markets and talking to people.
“The funniest ones that I have come into contact with are the people who think I’m selling bleached coffee. There was another lady who said, ‘Polenta? Isn’t that made out of bananas?’ Even out in Texas, there are people who call me, and they are like, ‘People out here don’t know what grits are.’ I’ve had calls from Texas, Oregon, Chicago and New York asking.”
Becky is just one of many women of Water Valley who has started businesses with a modern take on the stay-at-home-mother concept, capitalizing on flexible hours.
“Water Valley is kind of big on women in business,” Becky said. “Most of the businesses, even the Main Street businesses, are run by women. There’s only a handful of them run by men. So it’s like we are all in it together.
“April has a dance studio and a coffee shop. Tammy owns the Caboose Boutique. Coulter is an art studio owner. She’s redoing another building that will have textiles, sell fabric and sewing supplies. Alexe had a dream of opening a grocery store, and she did, dammit. Liz owns the funeral home. Jessica runs a gift shop. Ten after three, the buses come, and the children run into their moms’ stores instead of running into their home.”
Despite the high number of women who own businesses in Water Valley, Becky has encountered some old-fashioned skeptics who stare at her in awe, she said.
“When I go pick up my corn, I do have people look at me like, ‘What is she doing with all of that corn?’” she said. “My facility is in the middle of three industrial buildings. I’ll have neighbors come in and stand at the doorway and watch what I do. A couple are like, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t think my wife could do that.’”
“It’s empowering to know that you are not alone, because so many women in Water Valley do run businesses. But when you see how some of the older generation watches you with all of the mechanical and heavy lifting, you kind of put them in their place by picking up that 60-pound sack of corn, heaving it over your head like it’s a little baby, and saying, ‘Yep, I can do it.’”
STORY LaReeca Rucker
PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis