Delta Dirt’s story is rooted in farming and family
Five generations of the Williams family have worked the Delta soil, turning what they grow into something lasting — a spirited success grounded in the land.
Delta Dirt Distillery sits on Cherry Street in downtown Helena-West Helena. The simple storefront in what once was a grocery store now hosts guests who come to sample a remarkably smooth set of spirits starring sweet potatoes.
Thomas Williams is a fifth-generation member of a family that began working a particular farm back in the 19th century. “Papa” Joe Williams sharecropped on the land, growing grains and cotton over 86 acres. His son, U.D. Williams, continued farming that land. He was eventually able to buy it outright — by coming up with a new product to sell.
“It became part of the Williams family land in 1949,” Thomas says. “He owned it outright. He did that with moonshine on the side! And he actually took the cotton [he grew] to a different buyer and got the actual value for it. They paid off that land with the proceeds from the moonshine.”
He points over to the corner where a portrait of U.D. Williams stands.
“That’s U.D. Williams there,” he says. “He had cotton, that’s why we have cotton there that my grandfather dug out from the farm. … And that’s one of the jugs he had moonshine in. So, that’s his corner.
“We like to do things with meaning. U.D. Williams is a prominent figure around here because without him, we wouldn’t have a farm. So, we try to pay homage and have him represented very well.”
Farming forward
U.D. Williams’ son, Harvey Sr., changed what the Williamses grew. Eighty-six acres isn’t a large farm, and it doesn’t bring in a lot with grain or cotton, so he turned it over to growing produce.
“It seems each iteration is doing something different with the farm,” he says. “So [my grandfather] said, ‘Yeah, let’s turn those crops into sweet potatoes.’”
His big products — sweet potatoes and squash — were so successful that he managed to build up national distribution for the goods.
It was Harvey Jr. who had the idea of using those sweet potatoes the way his grandfather used corn — making distilled spirits. The fourth-generation Williams spent his post-college years working for a variety of food-related firms, from Tyson to Sara Lee, moving his family from place to place across the United States. He and his brother found inspiration at an event.
“They went to a vegetable conference over in Carolina,” Thomas relates, “And the theme that year, ‘Made in North Carolina,’ was sweet potatoes. This was during the sweet potato boom. Everybody wanted to use sweet potatoes — mashed, pies, fries, all things sweet potatoes. They saw one booth where there was distilled sweet potatoes.
They were making vodka. [This man] was showing off what he did with sweet potatoes, and that caught my dad’s attention. He’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I love that, all the things they’re doing with sweet potatoes.’” He continues, “He started doing research, visiting all these distilleries. How much it would cost? What would it take to open the distillery?”
That research continued a few years, before the Williams family finally took the plunge.
Thomas says, “My mom and dad had a conversation, and it was like, ‘Look, you’ve been researching down the rabbit hole of how to open a distillery for years now. Either do it, or let it go.”
That was 2017. Within a month or so, Delta Dirt Distillery was officially registered as a business. Harvey and Donna Williams had a huge project to dive into.
“That’s when they bought the building,” Thomas says. “We started ordering equipment and doing all the renovation work — that took a very long time.” The grocery store in which Delta Dirt eventually set up, had skylights, which allow for a sufficient height for the stills. The floors, though, were worn through years of use and had to be removed and replaced. Once the building was refinished, the production line and equipment was moved in. The still within the shop comes from Canada, but was welded together by hand by the Williams family.
Still growing strong
The Williams farm grows all the sweet potatoes, corn and barley used in the four products they offer. The most famous of those, the Arkansas Brown, is similar to a bourbon, except sweet potatoes are the main ingredient. Using them leads to a fuller mouthfeel, while retaining much of the sweetness of traditional bourbon.
Growing all those sweet potatoes is a big commitment.
“When we’re processing, we’re going through a thousand pounds per cook cycle, one to three cook cycles a week,” Thomas says. “It’s a lot of sweet potatoes that we’re going through. Year one obviously, we didn’t grow enough because we didn’t know what the demand would be. Year two, we were good, all the way to the last month, and we had to go to our neighboring farm and borrow sweet potatoes from them. But I think every year since then, we’ve been able to use all of our own sweet potatoes. We’ve been able to forecast a little bit better.”
Even when they needed more sweet potatoes, they kept it local.
He says, “We’re going to keep it as small a circle in Arkansas, in Phillips County, as we can.”
Today, while Harvey and Donna Williams run the company and brand, fifth-generation brothers Thomas and Donavan oversee the day-to-day happenings at 430 Cherry St. Thomas is the head distiller, and Donavan is the head of operations. They’re usually on hand when the shop is open, on weekends and by special event.
Thomas says this family legacy will continue to grow.
“My parents started this operation thinking, ‘What can I leave for our children?’ That’s not just about money. It’s about what we can leave on this Earth that is built by us. How can we incorporate the farm to ensure it will continue to stay in the family?”
