Scott and Lindsay Meyer are the owners of Congaree and Penn, a farm, a restaurant and more. It is located at 11830 Old Kings Road, Jacksonville.
Tell us a bit about the history of Congaree and Penn. What inspired you to start it?
Scott was offered the land by his father. It was a weedy, overgrown, vacant lot before we began. Scott had just finished graduate school at The University of Miami, and we weren’t sure what we were going to do with the rest of our lives. So, when these acres came into the picture, we were given a blank canvas that was ultimately shaped by the requests of chefs and the Jacksonville community.
Tell us about your background, especially as it applies to your career.
Scott studied environmental science and fine art, and eventually aquaculture in graduate school. I studied graphic design and advertising, so with our “powers” combined, we’ve been able to build a business with a lot of our own knowledge and creativity.
What do you like best about what you do?
Scott enjoys being outdoors; he’s most fulfilled by working with hands, by building the next project. Though they’re a small part of my own workday, I love moments with the animals. The feeding, the collecting the eggs, the presence of the horses. It’s so romanticized, but there is muck and mud and a lot of poop. And I still love it.
We both enjoy the way that most days are different — there’s always something new developing. And at the same time, it’s really nice to rely on seasonality and the rhythms of what we’ve already built.
What is a typical day like for you?
Every day is different. Scott juggles 1,000 balls all at once — permitting, managing, building the next bridge, ordering parts for broken farm equipment, canning cider, payroll, hosting and shucking for oyster socials, hosting and frying fish for Friday night fish fries, brainstorming the next big thing, etc.
My own days are a bit more of a routine — lots of communicating, managing social media and our website, planning events and designing packaging, menus, logos and all of the other details.
Are you from this area originally, or did you settle here from somewhere else? If the latter, what brought you to this community?
Scott grew up in Avondale, and I grew up on a farm in a little place between Las Cruces, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. We met at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas.
What do you like best about living here?
Scott loves the diversity of the terrain of the city, the way he can surf in the morning and go on to fish on the Trout River in the evening. He’s also a dedicated Jags fan.
I love that we can live on our own acres and enjoy a rural lifestyle, yet we’re still only a hop and a skip away from “town” and the airport and Target.
How do you like to spend your free time?
Most of our free time (and work time, honestly) is spent with our dogs, Wallace and Arnold. We hike the farm grounds with them daily. Wallace does a lot of swimming and Arnold is in constant pursuit of squirrels.
Scott loves fishing with our dogs, and he plays quite a lot of tennis. I’m an equestrian; most mornings you can find me riding at a barn called Sierra Run in Oakleaf.
What's next for you and Congaree and Penn?
We’re currently selling 10-acre lots to create a small agrarian community on our acres; the development is called The Eleven.
High Horse, our new restaurant, will open sometime in early 2027. It’s really just a transformation of the Quonset hut, where we held lunch and dinner service since 2020. The Quonset hut will be enclosed, remodeled, air conditioned (!) and transformed into High Horse.
We’re also working towards refining the farm grounds even further; we would like to create sprawling formal gardens and with incorporated outdoor art installations.
After that, who knows what’s next? Maybe we can retire one day.
