RIVERSIDE, Ala. — Just outside Pell City in Riverside, Kovered Farms is building an agricultural operation that is about much more than growing fruits and vegetables. From massive seeded watermelons and fresh seasonal produce to cold-pressed juices, the St. Clair County farm is working to create a stronger connection between local farmers and the people who want to buy what they grow.
Led by husband-and-wife team Kristy McKinney-Forman and Adrian Forman, Kovered Farms offers an assortment of locally grown produce that changes with the harvest. Recent offerings have included peaches, purple hull peas, snap green beans, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, apple pears and several varieties of seeded watermelon, along with roasted peanuts and fresh cold-pressed juices.
And then there are the watermelons.
Kovered Farms proudly calls itself the “Home of the 54.3 Pound Red Meat Seeded Watermelon,” and the farm has been producing red-, orange- and yellow-meat seeded varieties. The unusual colors, impressive sizes and old-fashioned seeded varieties help make the melons one of the farm’s signature products.
But what is happening at Kovered Farms today is also part of a much bigger story about McKinney-Forman and her journey into agriculture.
From Law Enforcement to Farming
Before becoming a farmer and entrepreneur, Kristy McKinney-Forman spent part of her professional career in law enforcement as a Birmingham police officer.
Her transition attracted statewide attention in 2022 when AL.com profiled her move from law enforcement into Alabama’s emerging hemp industry. McKinney-Forman had to learn the agricultural side of cultivating hemp as well as the production of CBD products. Her career change also caused her to reflect on her previous work enforcing marijuana laws and the impact of the War on Drugs, particularly on Black men.
That journey helped establish Kovered Farms as part of Alabama’s developing hemp industry. The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries has subsequently listed Kristy and Kovered Farm’s LLC among licensed growers/handlers in St. Clair County.
Today, however, the agricultural vision extends well beyond hemp.
Kovered Farms is producing traditional fruits and vegetables while looking at ways technology, entrepreneurship and cooperation among farmers can change how locally produced food reaches consumers.
Building a Direct Connection Between Farmers and Families
One of the most interesting concepts under development at Kovered Farms is a full-scale farm-to-table delivery operation designed to connect farmers directly with consumers.
Think of some of the convenience associated with services such as Uber Eats—but instead of primarily connecting customers with restaurants, the concept would create a direct connection between consumers and farmers.
The vision is to eventually provide access not only to fresh fruits and vegetables, but also locally sourced beef, pork and wild game through participating producers.
For consumers, that could mean another way to know where their food comes from while gaining convenient access to locally produced products. For farmers, especially those with smaller operations, it could create an additional sales and distribution channel that allows them to reach customers beyond a traditional roadside stand or farmers market.
Kovered Farms is also working on a seed buy-back program, another component of a larger effort to build an agricultural ecosystem rather than simply operate an individual farm.
Those initiatives are still being developed, but they point toward what Kovered Farms ultimately hopes to become: a platform capable of connecting production, farmers, consumers and entrepreneurship.
More Than a Farm
Agriculture remains at the heart of the Kovered Farms story, but the brand has expanded into other entrepreneurial ventures as well.
One of those is Kovered Farms Decorative Rock & Wood, a Pell City-based custom engraving operation. The company creates personalized products using materials including stone, granite, wood, metal, glass, slate, leather and acrylic.
Its services range from custom memorials and tribute pieces to cutting boards, plaques, awards, personalized gifts, business-branded merchandise, outdoor markers and other custom-designed products.
The diversity of those businesses demonstrates something important about the Kovered Farms model. Farming may be its foundation, but entrepreneurship and finding new ways to turn skills and resources into sustainable businesses are increasingly part of the overall vision.
You can find out more about Kovered Farms Decorative Rock & Wood at https://www.kovereddrw.com/
Business opportunities don’t stop at the farm. Much like Kovered Farms works to get the most from what it grows—from fresh produce and cold-pressed juices to future products such as plum jam—the Kovered brand extends that same entrepreneurial mindset into construction. Through Kovered Contractors, Kristy and Adrian Forman have built capabilities that span commercial and residential contracting, including renovations, remodeling, home improvements, painting, sheetrock, repairs and other construction services. The company’s broader construction capabilities also include excavation and site work, while the Kovered brand offers bulk gravel, sand and other landscape and foundation materials that can be delivered by the ton for projects ranging from driveways and drainage to new-build preparation. Whether they’re growing food, developing products or helping prepare the ground for what’s being built next, the Kovered philosophy seems to be simple: find the opportunity, use the resources available and build something from it.
A Local Agricultural Story Worth Watching
For residents of Pell City, Riverside and communities throughout St. Clair County, Kovered Farms provides an opportunity to buy locally while supporting an agricultural business that is bringing some fresh ideas to the way food moves from the farm to the consumer. And its reach extends beyond the immediate area. Kovered Farms also takes orders and delivers fresh produce and other available farm products to customers as far away as Birmingham, giving more families access to locally grown food without necessarily making the trip to Riverside. That growing delivery network fits directly into the farm’s larger vision of connecting local farmers with consumers and making fresh, locally sourced food more convenient and accessible across the region.
A basket of fresh vegetables or a seeded watermelon may be what initially brings someone to the storefront but behind those products is a larger effort to rethink how small and independent farmers can grow, collaborate, sell and ultimately get their products onto the tables of Alabama families.
That makes Kovered Farms more than another place to pick up fresh produce.
It makes this Riverside operation a local business worth watching as its farm-to-table vision continues to grow.
Visit the store front at 12104 Hwy 78, Riverside, AL 35135 and follow Kovered Farms on Facebook for current harvests, produce availability, cold-pressed juices and updates on what’s growing at the farm.