A Cumberland County honey producer shared North Carolina Small Farmer of the Year honors with a farmer from Warren County. The 2024 selection of James Hartman of Secret Garden Bees in Cumberland County and Patrick Brown of Brown Family Farms in Warren County is the first time in history there has been a tie for N.C. Small Farmer of the Year.
Hartman and Brown were honored March 27 at a luncheon during the 38th annual Small Farmers Week, held March 24 – 30 at North Carolina A&T Cooperative Extension.
Hartman is a Veteran who runs a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) producing premium raw honey. Hartman turned his land, near Linden in Cumberland County, into a beekeeping operation as a way to manage post-traumatic stress syndrome. Hartman served 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal officer, including two tours of duty in Iraq.
Hartman and his wife Christi bought 23 acres in Cumberland County in 2014 to move away from suburban living and back to their country roots. They started with three hives and today, Secret Garden Bees includes more than 30 hives and sells raw honey to retailers, wholesalers and people who enjoy all-natural raw honey. Customers include 60 Fresh Market stores in 12 states with plans to expand to another 70 stores this summer.
Hartman has partnered with the Soldiers to Agriculture program through Cumberland County Cooperative Extension. Soldiers to Agriculture helps soldiers transition to agriculture after leaving the military. Hartman has also partnered with the Veterans Farm of North Carolina, which helps Veterans become self-sufficient farmers. Both programs send Veterans to Secret Garden Bees to learn farming and farm business practices.
“I’m actually excited to share this award this year because I am 100 percent convinced that there’s enough success to go around for everybody and everybody can be a winner,” said Hartman in a press release. “This is indicative of that.”
Brown is a fourth-generation farmer who grows hemp and vegetables. In 2019, he created his own line of hemp extract products, now known as Hempfinity. He produces hemp as a cash crop and has contracts with Biophil Natural Fibers in Lumberton and an R&D Partnership with VF Corporation, an apparel company based in Denver.
Small Farms Week was launched in 1985 to connect with small-scale farmers, including minority farmers and those in limited-resource communities, to ensure they receive the latest research-based information on farming techniques, new tools and technologies.
Watch a video about James Hartman and Secret Garden Bees here. Watch a video about Patrick Brown and Brown Family Farmers here.
To wrap up the first day, attendees were able to meet up for a social event at the Brad Halling American Whiskey Ko. in Southern Pines where a $10,000 check was presented to the Joint Special Operations Foundation for their scholarship fund. Photo pr
The three-story, 200,000 square-foot business incubator space is located at 420 Maiden Lane. The building features an elevator, construction has begun on handicap bathrooms for the first floor and the second and third floors feature window walls offering views of Segra Stadium.
Image provided by FTCCFocused on building the local workforce and streamlining the education process through real world learning, the Hope, Opportunity, Prosperity through Education Program at Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC), also kno