PCG Farm Grant

Piedmont Culinary Guild is awarding three $3000 Farm Grants to farms in North and South Carolina – and you help to choose the winners!

These grants are intended for new and innovative agricultural project ideas designed to help increase the productivity and profitability of a farm.

Projects must increase farm income and/or maintain employment opportunity – plus be self-supporting.

Check out the proposals and videos below, then vote for the one you feel is most deserving. Voting deadline is 11:59 pm, Wednesday, March 11. Grants will be announced Sunday, March 15.

The 2020 Grant Applicants

@fairsharefarmnc

@fair_share_farm

Applicant

Emma Hendel
Fair Share Farm
Pfafftown, NC

Owns Land
Acreage: 5
Income Derived From Farming: 100%

Insulate/Refrigerate Delivery Vehicle

Total Budget: $7,000

This would make packing and delivery more efficient. It takes less time to put produce in boxes and onto the truck than to put it in coolers and load the coolers onto the truck. It would also protect the quality of our produce on hot delivery days and could serve as an auxiliary produce cooler if we loose power on the farm.

It would also allow us to carry more produce at one time by eliminating the insulated coolers that we load our produce in currently to keep it cooled to temp. If we can pack produce in boxes, we can fit more onto our delivery truck.

Finally, we could load extra produce onto the truck since more space is freed up and try to sell additional items to our customers as we make our deliveries.

@coddlecreekhoneyfarm

@coddlecreekfarms

Applicant

Steve Young
Coddle Creek Farm
Mooresville , NC

Owns Land
Acreage: 120
Income Derived From Farming: 50-75%

Hydroponic Greenhouse

Total Budget: $8,000

Our hydroponic greenhouse will be an area for us to grow herbs for our customers and our partner Feed NC, a non-profit organization providing meals for those in need. As we and our herb garden grow it will fill an opportunity for us in our store, restaurants we cater to, and farmers markets. This grant will help us achieve our goals at the farm, because for us, community matters. By starting this new venture it will not only help our farm but our community.

@Wild-Turkey-Farms-93717365145

@wildturkeyfarms

Applicant

Lee Menius
Wild Turkey Farms
Salisbury, NC

Leases Land
Acreage: 45
Income Derived From Farming: 25-74%

Orchard Revitalization

Total Budget: $4000

Over 20 years ago, I used to take my Ag students to help a neighbor process sorghum syrup and learn a process that’s been handed down for generations. I now have the opportunity to buy equipment from one of the few (if not only) sorghum syrup (molasses) operations in Rowan county due to the owners declining health and wanting to retire. I have raised sorghum and made syrup with these gentlemen in the past and have found it to be a profitable venture for us.

We are well positioned to take advantage of this opportunity due to the fact that we have all of the farm equipment and the experience in growing and harvesting sorghum cane. By adding this enterprise, we will be adding a high value, shelf-stable product to our product lineup and allow us develop an additional revenue stream. While we have the equipment to grow and harvest, this grant will allow us to purchase the equipment needed to process the cane into syrup. Some of this equipment is nearly 100 years old and is getting harder to find every year so this will also be an opportunity to maintain a long-lasting southern tradition.

@evansfamilyfarmmtulla

@evansfamilyfarmnc

Applicant

Jessica Evans
Evans Family Farm
Mt Ulla, NC

Owns Land
Acreage: 9
Income Derived From Farming: 100%

On-Farm Poultry Processing Expansion

Total Budget: $3800

In order to continue to grow our pastured poultry enterprise, we need to be able to process more efficiently on farm. Paving, plumbing, and adding drainage to our processing area will be an enormous timesaver and reduce the backbreaking labor of moving heavy equipment and chill tanks over gravel. It will also help increase our capacity for processing for ourselves and other small farms, 4H groups, and homesteaders.

These improvements will help us continue to be a part of the solution for the lack of poultry processing for small farmers in North Carolina, growing not only our business but helping other small farms grow as well.

@Tega-Hills-Farm-139779675404

@tega_hillsfarm

Applicant

Mindy Robinson
Tega Hills Farm
Fort Mill, SC

Owns Land
Acreage: 2
Income Derived From Farming: 100%

Area Farmers Market(s)
Charlotte Regional Farmers Market, Matthews Community Farmers Market

Area Restaurant(s)
Barrington’s, Bistro La Bon, BLT Steak, Carpe Diem, Fern, Flipside Cafe, Foxcroft Wine Dilworth, Foxcroft Wine Southpark, Foxcroft Wine Waverly, Gaston County Country Club, Global, Good Food, Goodyear House, Halcyon, Hello Sailor, Indaco Charlotte, Jia, Kindred, King’s Kitchen, Legion Brewing SouthPark, Lights Juicery, Lily’s Bistro, Longview Country Club, Lotus, Living Kitchen, Napa at Kingsley, Napa on Providence, NC Red, New South, Orrman’s Cheese, Pine Island CC, Pizzeria Omaggio, Plated Palette, Pump House, Pure Pizza 7th Street, Pure Pizza Central, Sanctuary Bistro, Sante, Spice Asian, Stagioni, The Stanley, Vintner, Fig Tree, Upstream

Out with the Bad Bugs. In with the Good.

Total Budget: $3500

We want to use predatory insects and exclusionary netting to control destructive insects, improve our profitability, and put more “clean” in our produce. Tega Hills Farm grows 100% of its lettuce, greens, microgreens, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in greenhouses. While the greenhouses provide an excellent environment in which to grow this produce, these controlled environments also provide an excellent place for damaging insects to thrive and reproduce. In order to consistently provide our high quality produce year-round to farmers’ market and restaurant customers, we have in the past relied on organic pest controls to reduce white flies, aphids, thrips, and caterpillar pests that could damage our crops to the point of being unsellable.

Even with the use of these pest controls, however, we regularly throw away produce that has become infested with these insects or damaged by them and their excretions. With the help of this grant, we will install, at the end of the greenhouses, insect-exclusionary netting that will mitigate the introduction of damaging insects into the greenhouses. We will additionally purchase and develop a system of maintaining beneficial predatory wasps that will destroy the damaging insects that do manage to enter the greenhouses.

The net effect of the netting and beneficial insects will be 1. More produce to sell because we do not have to throw it away; 2. Less time and money spent on applying pest controls, and 3. Even cleaner, higher quality produce to sell to our market and restaurant customers.

@Clearview-Farms-113228522082199

@clearviewfarms133

Applicant

Cindy Digh
Clearview Farms
Lincolnton , NC

Owns Land
Acreage: 5
Income Derived From Farming: 100%

@dovervineyards

@thefarmatdovervineyards

Applicant

Elizabeth Anne Dover
The Farm at Dover Vineyards
Concord, NC

Owns Land
Acreage: 14
Income Derived From Farming: 50-75%

@WindcrestFarmOrganics

@windcrestnc

Applicant

Mary Roberts
Windcrest Farm
Monroe, NC

Owns Land
Acreage: 14
Income Derived From Farming: 76-99%

The Garden Wagon

Total Budget: $3750

Our project is to re-purpose our former motorcycle trailer into a mobile shop for all things plant related – whether you want to grow your own with Windcrest Farm garden plants and soil amendments, or get your vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers “pre-grown”, freshly harvested and ready for pick-up.

The Garden Wagon – it’s a farmer’s market, it’s a garden center, it’s a florist shoppe, it’s a farm stand – and it’s on wheels!
With the Garden Wagon, we can bring a mobile marketplace to more markets, events and neighborhoods as well as using it as an on-farm market stand when it’s not on the road. Adding a trailer gives us more cargo room for more goods to sell in more places.

To make our vision of the Garden Wagon a reality, the trailer transformation will require interior and exterior upgrades. These upgrades include interior siding, farm/logo signage, shelving, a roof vent modification, ramp door and side-door climate curtains, an on-board generator and roll-out awnings.

@awayoflifefarm

Applicant

Sara Jane Davis
A Way of Life Farm
Bostic, NC

Owns Land
Acreage: 42
Income Derived From Farming: 100%

Farming into the Future: Establishing Tree Crops

Total Budget: $5500

We make our living growing Certified Organic produce on just two acres of fields, but we’ve been working to bring perennial crops to other parts of the land for several years. This fall, we made significant headway when we planted seven acres with almost 200 trees, with another seven acres planned to be planted in the next three years. We raised these Chinese chestnuts, American persimmons, and pecans over the past few years, many from seed and then grafted them with choice varieties. These perennial trees will provide food to our customers at the Charlotte Regional Farmers’ Market, CSA members, and local chefs in as few as five years, and help to insure the farms’ viability and resilience for generations to come. The scale of this orchard planting will yield harvests that will expand our markets to regional wholesale, making these delicious, sustainable, and uncommon crops available to a wider audience.

Getting these trees off to a healthy start is key to their success in the long haul. Water is the most vital need to get the trees established. We’re fortunate to have an abundant source of water from a well, but the orchard location doesn’t have access to it. This grant will help us extend water lines up to the orchard and install an irrigation system. In a changing and unpredictable climate, having a reliable water source will be a huge asset in allowing the trees, and our farm, to grow and thrive.

The irrigation plan will be designed by WP Law, Inc. Trenching will be completed by Jeff Belflower. Jamie, Sara Jane, and Joe Camp will install the system. Estimates include: Trenching- $2500 • Pipe and fittings- $1300 • Irrigation controller and wires- $400 • Irrigation lines, emitters- $900 • Zone valve assemblies- $400

@honeytreefarmnc

Applicant

Casey Ostwinch
Honey Tree Farm
Conover, NC

Owns Land
Acreage: 1
Income Derived From Farming: 76-99%

@streetfarefarm

Applicant

Ben Street
Street Fare Farm
Concord, NC

Leases Land
Acreage: 80
Income Derived From Farming: 100%

Semi-Pro Propagation House

Total Budget: $3,450

I start all my vegetables from seed, so a dedicated greenhouse with environmental controls is essential to grow high-quality transplants that mature into high-quality vegetables. I am currently renting greenhouse space I have to commute to, sometimes three times per day, to ensure the transplants are thoroughly watered and thriving. Building a greenhouse using an affordable, prefabricated caterpillar tunnel kit and adding supplementary propane heat, a double-layer of inflated plastic, roll-up sides, and temperature-regulated ventilation, will provide an affordable yet professional-grade propagation space to maximize efficiency and product quality on the farm, minimize risk of failures, as well as save time that can be put towards increasing productivity, explore new opportunities for other revenue streams (i.e. plant sales, nursery production, etc.) and, more importantly, effectively enabling a more balanced work/life schedule.

@sharonhillfarm

Applicant

Gina Decker
Sharon Hill Farm
Sharon, SC

Owns Land
Acreage: 18
Income Derived From Farming: 25-74%%

Local Supporting Local

Total Budget: $4500

Sharon Hill Farm raises pastured broiler chickens and laying hens. Two of our main farm goals are to support as many local businesses as possible and continually strive to improve the biosecurity of our farm for the safety of our animals and visitors/customers. This year we have been able to source locally grown non-GMO corn as well as rent a grinder through a separate local farm to mix and grind our non-GMO feed. Previously we sourced our feed from a local feed mill who was able to put the feed into our 12 ton grain bin directly from their feed truck. Now that we are sourcing from local farms we need to transport and store the feed in a way that keeps it as fresh as possible while also maintaining biosecurity.

We would use this grant money to buy a dump trailer with a minimum 2.5 ton capacity ($3000-$3600) to transport the feed as well as a 35-50 foot grain elevator ($600-$800) to move the feed from the dump trailer into the grain bin. We are currently using bulk bags to transport and store the non-GMO feed. This will not be ideal when we are at maximum chicken production later this spring as we will need 4 tons of feed for the 2700 birds we will have on-farm at one time. While we will be turning feed over quickly with that many birds, our current method presents storage challenges as the bags take up a lot of room as well as biosecurity concerns in keeping rodents and bugs out of the feed.

A dump trailer would have a lot of potential uses on the farm, including allowing us to buy the pine shavings we use for the chicken brooders in bulk from a local supplier. A dump trailer and grain elevator will ultimately save us money and improve efficiency to help generate more profit for the farm as we are able to lower our costs while supporting other local farms and businesses.

@thechefsfarmer

Applicant

James Swofford
Old North Farm
Shelby, NC

Owns Land
Acreage: 2.5
Income Derived From Farming: 100%

Caterpillar Tunnel Project

Total Budget: $3400

We are laying the ground work for our new farm property this season. Our biggest goal currently is to build infrastructure and raise capital. This grant will assist with both.

Additionally, we are witnessing more erratic weather patterns as the climate shifts. With the continuing shifts, water mitigation and protection from the elements are essential. A grant that affords us two Farmers Friend Gothic Caterpillar Tunnels will provide 2800 square feet of protected growing space for year-round production. This will allow us to grow quality ingredients into the shoulder seasons, thus helping us to increase farm profits and keep employment opportunities year round, while proactively adapting to changes in weather patterns.

Piedmont Culinary Guild is awarding three $3000 Farm Grants to farms in North and South Carolina – and you help to choose the winners!

The 2020 Grant Applicants

Voting has ended. Winners will be announced at Sunday March 15.