Exclusively funded by the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission
Myco Rhizing Apiary Upgrade Grant Award: $10,000 Myco Rhizing sells mushrooms and honey at their farmstand, as well as weekly markets and festivals. This year, they will upgrade their apiary with all horizontal Layens hives, making honey harvesting easier while providing … View >>
Brindle & Brown Apiary, LLC Honey Extraction & Processing Upgrades Grant Award: $10,000 Joshua currently sells pure raw honey and value-added honey and beeswax products through partnerships with local retail shops and directly to consumers at the Foothills Farmers’ Market … View >>
Beeman Jones Honey Extraction Improvement and Value-added Processing Grant Award: $10,000 Fred has approximately 25 beehives and sells 50-150 gallons of honey per year. His current operation is bottlenecked by the uncapping process: preparing frames for extraction takes nearly three hours, … View >>
Bee. honey + hive LLC Enhancing Capacity and Food Safety with Climate Control Grant Award: $10,000 Bee. honey + hive has installed an energy-efficient mini-split system in its 900 sq ft honey house to address a major production bottleneck caused … View >>
Darlene Myers, D & M Russian Apiaries Automated Equipment to Overcome Challenges with Honey Bottling Grant Award: $8,000 Over the past four years, Darlene has impressively scaled her honey production from 500 to 1,500 pounds annually. However, this rapid growth … View >>
Ray & Carol Maxwell, Bee Sweet Bee Farm Honey House Improvements Grant Award: $8,000 Ray and Carol are transforming their honey bottling operation into a buzzing hub of innovation and agritourism! By upfitting an existing building on their property, they … View >>
Jessica Wehr, Wehrloom Honey Wehrloom Honey Soda Expansion Grant Award: $8,000 To capture more of the local and regional market, Jessica plans to add soda to their popular lineup of honey products which includes honey, skincare products, beeswax candles, and … View >>
Fred Crawford, Dogwood Farm of Whittier, LLC Dogwood Farm Infrastructure Improvement Grant Award: $8,000 Lack of infrastructure at the farm buildings at Dogwood Farm is limiting productivity and creating inefficiency. Since the honey house does not have electricity or … View >>
Devin Gentry & Lindsay Green, Bee. honey + hive Honey Bottling Tanks for Increased Capacity Grant Award: $8,000 Bee. honey + hive have upgraded their honey storage and bottling system to handle their current honey inventory and future growth … View >>
Julia Austin, McNeilly Enterprises Enhancing Capacity with Multi-purpose Facility Grant Award: $6,000 The owners of McNeilly Enterprises are constructing a 20-foot by 25-foot multipurpose building. They have purchased a commercial honey extractor and other equipment and supplies to facilitate processing … View >>
Karen and Ed Speer, Sweet Betsy Farm Season Extension and Irrigation for Specialty Peppers and Vegetables Grant Award: $6,000 To address a lack of availability of plant starts and problems with irrigation, erosion and fungal diseases that have negatively impacted … View >>
Renea Winchester, Butterfly Cove Botanicals Medicinal Herb Expansion Grant Award: $6,000 In the wake of the COVID crisis, many people became first-time gardeners and the demand for seeds skyrocketed. There was also an increased demand for medicinal herbs, particularly elderberry … View >>
Christa Kelley, Land of Milk and Honey Apiary Expansion and Increased Efficiency Grant Award: $6,000 Christa will be expanding the farm’s hives by 50%, adding eight colonies to their current apiary of 16 hives. With the expansion, honey production is … View >>
Michelle Mejia, Moral Bees The Local Honey Bee Project Grant Award: $6,000 Michelle’s grant let her expand queen production, honey, bee products and bee colonies to consumers and other beekeepers. Michelle has developed an innovative system to overwinter locally bred … View >>
Jordan Michael Smith, Two Girls Honey Company Commercial Conversion and Equipment Upgrades Grant Award: $6,000 Using his 2018 AgOptions grant to expand from 18 to 36 colonies, Jordan has since grown to over 47 production hives, investing profits from the … View >>
Ryan and Launi Higgs, Blue Ridge Apiaries Value-Added Diversification with Session Mead Production Grant Award: $6,000 Before starting their successful small-scale apiary that now supplies 12% of the total North Carolina honey crop, the Higgs were employees of the largest … View >>