We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lavail Bailey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lavail, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The story behind the name Back to Eden, goes back to Genesis and the original intent of the Garden. When I think of Eden, I think of nature and life in its purest form. Everything we needed was in Eden. No fillers, no junk, just straight beauty from nature. The good stuff that grows right out of the ground. Back to Eden, in terms of juice means, I prioritize ingredients as close to Eden as possible. God gave us everything we needed in the garden.
When I moved back to the Imperial Valley, after being gone for a long time, I looked at this place with a new set of eyes. I saw the beauty in the small town. I saw the beauty in the fields full of green crops growing alongside our back roads and highways. I had a better appreciation for our local farmers and field laborers. It felt so much like the Valley, had become my Eden. This place full of life, where I’d come to build a deeper relationship with God and appreciate His work in nature.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Lavail Bailey. I’ve been juicing for 16 years. Health and wellness has always been a priority for me. Colorful, vibrant, plant based meals has always been a passion of mine. Turning it all into a business happened about 4 years ago, during Covid.
When I moved back to the Imperial Valley, after being gone for 15 years, I noticed the lack of healthy options. For a place known for providing the world with fresh produce, I didn’t understand why it was lacking in offering healthier options to eat and drink. God gave me a vision of this business, and I trusted Him enough to run with it. At the time I was solely delivery based, meeting people in parking lots to drop off their juice orders. I worked at a bank by day, juiced all night, and did juice deliveries before going into work. Eventually I was led to quit my day job, and juice full time. That later resulted in me making some huge investments into a better juicer, and then opening up an actual brick and mortar juice shop.
Back to Eden is so special, because it’s a necessity in this community. People get excited about juice. I love being the place where people are intentional about what they are consuming. What makes me the happiest, is when people tell me how much better they are feeling, from drinking juice!
I put my all into this business, while raising my three kids. I don’t take short cuts, and prioritize quality! True cold pressed juice, raw, no sugars, no preservatives or funny stuff. It’s my heart to do things the healthy way.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Back to Eden started as a side hustle. I was working as a bank teller at the time. I’d spend many shifts daydreaming about building a business around juice and smoothies. Never did I imagine it would grow to be an actual business on Main Street!
One day, I finally mustered up the courage to create a business Instagram page. I started small by posting a weekly juice menu on Instagram and taking preorders through DM. Slowly but surely, the following grew and word got out. At the time, no one in my area was doing bottled juice.
I started with a good quality home juicer. Then as business grew, I bought another of the same brand. By day, I was at the bank, then once I clocked out, I’d spend hours making juice on two juicers.
Before work, I’d bag up orders, and have juice pickups at 3 seperate locations throughout the valley. One of my dedicated customers would always tell me “one day your side hustle is going to become your main hustle.”
After some time, business started to grow and I made the leap into a real deal, commercial cold pressed juicer, which had been my dream from the beginning. It was an investment with an incredibly hefty price tag, but it was a game changer for my business. Offering real deal, cold pressed juice, meant better quality!
Eventually the time came where business had consumed my time, and God told me that it was time to quit the job at the bank.
From that day forward, I have seen this thing grow into something bigger than I could have ever imagined.
A few big milestones were when I was able to provide juice to collaborate with a local deli and coffee shop. What a joy it was to stock their fridge and watch people go in and buy it all up!
From there, it went to making the jump into opening my storefront. Soon after opening, I just couldn’t keep up with the demand, and made another huge leap into a bigger commercial juicer. Let’s just say, I could have purchased a brand car with the money, but instead, invested it back into the business and the community.
I’ve watched this business grow, from a seed, into a fruitful tree. God has truly been the source of all good things, that has come to Back to Eden

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

This business was truly built on resilience alone! I started it while going through one of the most difficult seasons of my life. A beauty from ashes type of story. When I moved back to the Valley, I was recently seperated, then a couple years later, divorced. I’m a single mama to 3 of the best kids God created. Resilience and faith kept me going through it all.
I’ll start with, many people didn’t believe this type of business/product would do well in my area. People would say that this area wasn’t ready for juice. To start a business that people don’t initially believe in, definitely requires some resilience.
Aside from that, I run this business solo and fully funded by myself. Every single detail, my hands are in. From juicing, to cleaning,to social media, shopping, all of it. On most days, starting at 4 am, and ending my night of juicing way later than I’d like. I do a lot of this work exhausted, but it gets done. Even on my worst days, I make sure to be present for my kids, and show up for this community.
I’ll admit, there are some days when a regular 9-5 job feels ideal, but my heart is so in this, I don’t really think I’d ever go back to corporate America.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @backtoedenjuice