SHOW NOTES

Introducing Sofia Rose! 

Today we get to introduce you to another recipient of a $1,000 SAE grant.  Sofia Rose lives on what she calls a small, family farm in Saline, Michigan.  Her parents, in addition to their full time jobs, run an “Ag Entertainment” farm each fall with a corn maze, pumpkin patch, petting zoo and all the other attractions that come with agritourism.

Sofia has found a way to tie her experience in FFA plus entrepreneurship into this enterprise perfectly.  Sofia raises bees, and the grant that she was awarded is to help her increase the number of hives she has.  She started with two hives last year, and the grant is going to allow her to triple her production.

This year she will be harvesting honey for the first time, and she is going to sell it during the tourist season on her family’s farm under the name “Coleman Farm Honey.”  She will be selling it in glass jars and in squeezable plastic bears.

What I like so much about what Sofia did is that she picked an SAE that is immediately transferable to a niche she already has – agritourism.  This way she has a built in market for her products already prepared.

I hope you enjoy getting to hear about this exciting enterprise.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Honey Production and Sales

HIGH SCHOOL: Saline High School; Saline, Michigan

MASCOT: Hornets

FFA ADVISOR: David Mellor

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR SOFIA ROSE:

Click on the picture below to be taken to the Saline High School Website:

Sofia’s FFA Advisor’s Email Address: mellord@salineschools.org

Saline High School Telephone Number:  734-401-4222

Coleman’s Corn Maze Website: LINK

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA 

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000.  In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants.  With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

• Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world.  FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and insure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
• Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation.  The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
• Farmers, ranchers and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“Because American farmers are able to provide for so many of us, they give more and more of us the freedom to pursue goals and livelihoods beyond growing the food we need to survive.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack 

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