On the stretch of Scenic Highway 98 between Fairhope and Point Clear, tucked beside the old-school charm of Battles Wharf Market, Lorie Ward built Fairhope Juice Company around a simple idea: that fresh, raw, organic, cold-pressed juice can be one of the most enjoyable ways to eat well. Her small shop turned a longtime passion for nutrition into one of the Eastern Shore’s more distinctive local businesses, and her story is as much about second acts and community as it is about carrots and ginger.
Ward’s approach blends her background in health education with years of study in food healing. Ask her about the ingredients in her bottles and she will talk about ginger and turmeric, both long valued in traditional cooking and folk remedies, or about beet juice as a source of energy and cilantro as a staple of her greener blends. For Ward, juice is not a fad but a way of healing with food, and she is quick to cast herself as a health coach as much as a business owner.
From Southern California to the Eastern Shore
Ward grew up in San Diego, and she likes to joke that she has always been “Southern” because she came from Southern California. She earned a bachelor’s degree in health education and went on to spend 18 years in pharmaceutical sales. Through all those years, her real passion was nutrition, particularly the idea of healing through raw food.
Eventually, she came to a conclusion that reshaped her career: she wanted to work in health care, not what she calls “sick care.” The demanding corporate sales job took a great deal of energy, so every year she treated herself to some kind of retreat. In 2018, that retreat was the first-ever Goodnature Juice conference in Venice, California, built around a design-your-own juice kitchen theme.
She came home so fired up about juicing that she made a large investment in a commercial cold-press machine, even though she did not yet know what she would do with it.
Fairhope entered the picture through a conference at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear. Like many visitors to the historic resort, Ward fell for the area and began imagining the lifestyle she wanted to live someday. That vision eventually became a move to the Eastern Shore.
Getting Started at Warehouse Bakery
Launching a juice business meant learning a lot quickly: branding, marketing and the regulations of the health department that govern food production. Ward found an important ally in Jennifer Hafner of Warehouse Bakery in Fairhope, who agreed to let her bring the cold-press machine into the restaurant and sell her juice blends there.
For a while, Ward worked both jobs, splitting her time between pharmaceutical sales and juicing. She founded Fairhope Juice Company in 2019 and left the pharmaceutical industry that October. She started with 18 juices in the cooler, and the business grew steadily from there.
A Pandemic Move to Battles Wharf
When COVID-19 shut down restaurants in 2020, business at Warehouse Bakery slowed. Ward had a friend in Ken Buck, then the owner of Battles Wharf Market, whose store was considered essential and allowed to stay open. Buck offered her a storefront next to his market. It needed repairs, so Ward slowly renovated the space herself and moved the company to the Battles Wharf location.
Battles Wharf is one of the small, historic communities strung along Mobile Bay between Fairhope and Point Clear, a stretch of Scenic 98 known for its oak canopy, bayfront homes and piers. The market itself has long served as a neighborhood gathering spot, and the juice shop’s location beside it put Ward’s bottles in front of cyclists, boaters, walkers and neighbors making their daily rounds.
The Blends Behind the Bottles
Ward’s menu reads like a produce stand. At the time we spoke, several blends stood out:
- Jubilee: her most popular mix, made with carrot, apple and lemon, plus ginger and turmeric. It shares its name with the famous Mobile Bay jubilee, when fish and crabs crowd the shallows along the Eastern Shore.
- Reclaim: a green blend of romaine lettuce, cilantro, celery, cucumber, apple, lemon and ginger.
- Soul Shine: apple, pineapple, cucumber and mint, a mixture Ward recommends for the skin.
- Geaux Skinny: a seasonal blend that takes advantage of Baldwin County’s local citrus, combining local satsumas, grapefruit and Meyer lemons.
Sourcing organic produce took effort at first. When she started, Ward drove to Whole Foods in Mobile four days a week to buy fruits and vegetables. She later began getting her organic produce through John Thomas at the Piggly Wiggly.
The local citrus in her seasonal blend reflects a real Baldwin County tradition. Satsumas, a sweet, easy-to-peel mandarin, have been grown along the Gulf Coast for more than a century, and the fruit remains a winter favorite at farm stands and markets across the county.
At the time of our conversation, Ward was producing about 400 13-ounce bottles of juice each week, with many returning customers and special orders. She also offered seasonal cleanses, in which customers received five cold-pressed organic juice blends each day along with a vegan broth intended to support gut health, plus a schedule and tips to guide them through the process.
Closing the Loop on Glass Bottles
Sustainability is part of Ward’s business model. Her juices come in 13-ounce glass containers, and she asks customers to rinse and return them. Returned jars are either reused or recycled through Don Bates’ Osprey Initiative, a Mobile-area environmental company.
Glass is heavier than plastic, but it can be sanitized and reused, and it does not absorb flavors from acidic juices. For a small producer, a return program reduces waste and keeps customers coming back.
Credentials, Community and a Blue Zone Dream
Beyond her degree, Ward holds certifications in food healing and health coaching. She has channeled that training into community work, getting involved in the Hope Community’s outreach and development initiative, which plans a teaching farm and teaching kitchen at the Anna T. Jeanes facility at South Section Street and Twin Beech Road in Fairhope. The idea is to help community members learn to grow and cook fresh fruits and vegetables.
The Anna T. Jeanes name carries history. Jeanes was a Philadelphia Quaker philanthropist whose early 20th-century fund supported “Jeanes teachers,” who worked to improve rural schools for Black children across the South.
Ward has a big-picture vision for her adopted hometown: she would like to see Fairhope become a “Blue Zone.” The term, popularized by writer Dan Buettner, describes places where unusually large numbers of people live to 100 or beyond, such as Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; and Loma Linda, California. Residents of those places tend to eat largely plant-based diets, walk as part of daily life and maintain strong social and faith ties. Ward believes that with education and resources, Fairhope, a walkable town already known for its gardens, farmers markets and close-knit community, could move toward that goal.
Loving the Work
Talk with Ward for a few minutes and it is clear the career change suited her. She gets to connect with people and talk about health all day long, and she describes the business as a dream come true.
At the time we visited, Fairhope Juice Company bottles were sold at Warehouse Bakery on Nichols Avenue in Fairhope and at the shop beside Battles Wharf Market, 18327 Highway 98. Hours and retail locations can change, so anyone planning a visit should check with the business for current details.