About Us
"Rooted in tradition, Growing with love"
Cheryl is a third-generation farmer. She and her husband, Jason, took over her father's 100-acre orchard, J&M Farms, 15 years ago. When neighboring farmers decided to retire, in 2023, Cheryl and Jason had an opportunity to expand and diversify their business. This included acquiring a large retail Farm Stand with 8,000 square feet of cooler space.
J&M Farms' new retail Farm Stand is located just two miles from I-26. This is a prime location and Cheryl and Jason invested six months of time and money upgrading the facility. Now, for the first time, they are conducting retail business. This is a significant change of operations and they have gone from being a 100% wholesale based farm to an 80% retail based business.
More than 50 apple varieties are grown at J&M Farms and the new Farm Stand offers apple donuts, baked apple goods, apple cider, jams and honey. They also offer local beer, wine and crafts. Amazingly, Cheryl and Jason operate the Farm Stand and their orchards with no full-time employees, despite being open seven days a week, from 9am to 6pm, June thru December. They do have four part time employees and a weekend crew for the Farm Stand. Cheryl and Jason do the vast majority of the farm's labor - both work over seventy hours per week.
While Cheryl is new to retail sales, she is not a stranger to risk. She learned the importance of diversification, as a tool to balance risk, from her dad. In addition to operating his orchard, her dad had a greenhouse for plant sales and ran a trucking company to assure a regular income flow. Cheryl indicated wholesale buyers had reduced their quota for apple purchases this year. If J&M Farms hadn’t jumped on the retail opportunity in 2023, she wasn’t sure they would still be in business. Challenges that Cheryl and Jason face include the rising cost of supplies, and the loss of nearby farmland they may need for future development.
J&M Farms has a presence on Facebook and Instagram. Cheryl enhances their customer experiences with a weekly newsletter. J&M Farms received support from ASAP’s marketing program to create rack cards. From ASAP, they learned about the ScaleUp course at Mountain BizWorks.
Participating in the ScaleUp course was eye opening for Cheryl. She realized the value of focusing on Cash Flow and Profit & Loss statements. Learning to analyze the numbers provided confidence in taking the next steps in new J&M Farms ventures. An additional course take-away for Cheryl came from hearing cohort’s challenges and learning how they handled them. While the cohorts have diverse businesses, their issues were universal business issues. ScaleUp provided Cheryl with support and invaluable feedback on issues she shared with the group.
Cheryl had known that J&M Farms needed continuing diversification before she took the ScaleUp course. The course provided the opportunity to analyze the numbers which affirmed business decisions. Cheryl and Jason could see that investing in improvements and expansion would increase their margins and buoyed their confidence in recouping their investments in the long run. On the basis of the numbers, they decided to open a bakery and quickly garnered a following for their apple donuts. They expanded the retail market space in the Farm Stand to accommodate a wider range of agricultural products. They expanded into the outdoor spaces around the Farm Stand, and now offer seasonal activities and farm animals for their customers to enjoy. Cheryl and Jason are using their new cooler to extend J&M Farms apple season and renting some of their ample cooler space to other apple growers. While these expansions felt risky when Cheryl and Jason first started thinking about them, running the numbers allowed them to know they were mitigating long term risks, and building long term profits and business value by undertaking the expansions.
J&M Farms' current goals are to expand their online presence, expand the scope of their customers experiences, add a food truck to their offerings for increased customer reach, and stay open year-round. By creatively increasing the value of their financially successful business, Cheryl and Jason are experiencing less pressure to sell their land to developers. They do have increased expenses due to their new retail Farm Stand, but they also have increased margins, and a new sense of control and focus that comes from analyzing their business numbers.
What Cheryl likes about farming is the hard work, scheduling flexibility and fun times that happen in the flow of her ag based life. She especially likes building a new arm of her business from the ground up. Her dad is an active supporter and is often seen on the farm sporting his ever-present John Deere hat. Cheryl’s two children, who are young adults, are also finding their place in the business. Cheryl appreciates the down time in the off-season to recuperate, reflect, and go on family camping trips. She recognizes that maintaining this much appreciated work/life balance will become an increasing challenge once the Farm Stand is open year-round.
Cheryl leads with a ‘can do spirit’, creativity and a passion for her profession. She embodies the entrepreneurial spirit that results in a thriving business.