Finding a new path in farming

A family loss set high school student Kate Honeycutt on an unexpected career path.

Honeycutt, now a high school senior, was a sophomore when her grandmother moved into her parents' home for her final months. In preparing for her grandmother's funeral, Honeycutt helped her mom pick out the flowers. Afterwards, she dried flowers from the arrangements as a keepsake for family members.

This sparked Honeycutt’s interest in growing flowers. Farming wasn’t new to her, as her family grows sweet potatoes, soybeans, cotton, cucumbers, and wheat on their farm in eastern North Carolina. 

The then-15-year-old began researching flowers. She started following the Instagram account of a large flower farm on the west coast. Her mom shared crop budgets put together by North Carolina State University, which show estimated costs and profit for farming flowers. “There’s no telling how many hours I spent looking for seeds,” she says. Finally, Honeycutt placed her seed orders, including one from that west coast flower farm, and Sweet Honey Flower Farm was born.

During her first year flower farming, Honeycutt was at home because schools were online due to COVID-19. She started growing seeds under grow lights in the farm office. She also decided to plant a garden, thinking she would be “a little produce girl”. She planted 25 tomato plants, expecting half to die, but they all lived. She and her mom spent the summer making salsa and canning tomatoes for spaghetti sauce.

Her second year, she balanced being back in school, cheerleading, being president of the Future Business Leaders of America, and farming flowers. Instead of the farm office, Kate started seeds at each end of the farm’s greenhouses. It was so hot inside she ended up losing over half the seedlings before they ever got in the field. 

Last summer, Honeycutt started her third year by buying her own greenhouse. She put it together in the farm shop, then her dad moved it to a concrete pad outside. The day before he was going to anchor it, a storm flipped the greenhouse upside down, blowing out the panels. 

These and other obstacles have helped her become a better flower farmer. Even though there have been times she has wanted to quit, such as chopping weeds in the sunflower field or digging a trench to drain the field, she kept going. Through trial and error, she found her niche growing and selling zinnias and sunflowers. 

Honeycutt also developed skills in marketing her flowers. The first year, she sold flowers from the farm. Then, she started delivering bouquets to teachers. Each jar featured her logo, which she drew herself. She stared a Facebook page for her business where she posted updates and even hosting a giveaway to attract new followers. She added bouquets for graduation and anniversary parties, birthdays, and weddings, and also sells them at a local produce stand.

Honeycutt plans to major in elementary education in college. She is already getting practice teaching students. She spoke at a local farm’s entrepreneurship camp for middle school students, and one of her teacher customers invited her to speak to her science class and at the school’s career day.

Once teaching, Honeycutt plans to continue flower farming during the summer. Growing flowers is something she likes too much to stop. She will have flowers blooming in the fields and students blooming in her classroom.