GroundUp Oxford’s Juice is on the Loose

Local women jar the system with fresh, healthy juices.

Oxford’s Annie Haymans and Katherine Beard wanted to get back to raw foods, but with convenience. The result is a growing cottage industry, GroundUp Oxford, that first began supplying friends with variety packs of mason-jarred fresh juices and most recently has made a juicy splash at local farmers markets, flying the proposition, “Lettuce turnip your beet.”

HottyToddy.com chatted with Beard about GroundUp Oxford.

HT: Where did the idea for GroundUp Oxford come from?

KB: One day I took Annie my veggies to make me some juices, and she juiced them and delivered them to my door. I was a happy girl seeing all those colors in my fridge. Then I drank them, and the energy was incredible. Trying to eat from the ground up has been a practice most of my life. Annie and I now both have three children age five and under, so the convenience is no longer there. Having juices for the week allowed us to get the nutrition to go, so to say. I then immediately called her to see if she wanted to start GroundUp Oxford—serving customers their “daily dose” of nutrients. We started April 24, 2013 with a Facebook page and have been juicing ever since.

HT: What is the process for creating the juices?

KB: We hunt for the organic fruits and veggies when available and do our recipes accordingly. Now that the farmers are harvesting, we are utilizing what we can when we can. We have two different juicers we are currently using, one being the centrifugal (low or no pulp) and the other our Breville masticating (with pulp) juicer. With the demand, we justified ordering the Nutrifaster commercial juicer and are counting the days until it is here.

HT: What varieties of juice do you offer, and which are the most popular so far?

KB: We offer freshly made juice combos swimming in antioxidants. We are always creating and experimenting in our kitchen with all ingredients from the ground, so seasonal specials are always exciting. GroundUp offers four-pack juice boxes of four 16-ounce jars, such as the Daily Dose, Color Me Happy, Rebel Recovery, Beet Box (all beet concoctions), and, of course, cocktail mixers. Our most popular juices so far have been the Tang Tang, Morning Green Glory, WakeUp Watermelon, and the Good Beets. We also offer cleanse programs and monthly juice delivery/pick up as well.

HT: How can people get GroundUp juices?

KB: While we are negotiating our brick-and-mortar location, follow us on Facebook and see daily specials for pre-ordering. Message us on Facebook or email to groundupoxford@gmail.com to place your order. Feel free to call or text as well at (662) 816-1231. You may order a four-pack for Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. We will contact via text you when your order is ready for pickup/delivery. And keep up on Facebook to see if we will be at the local farmers market on Saturday or the Oxford City Market on Tuesday.

HT: What are GroundUp’s future goals?

KB: To add a brick-and-mortar kitchen/bar to bring even more convenient nutrition to the Oxford and Ole Miss community.

— Tad Wilkes, tad.wilkes@hottytoddy.com