The History of Our Watermelon Business
Sweetpotatoes have always been our bread and butter, with other row crops in the mix to diversify our business and maintain a healthy amount of crops in our field rotation. So why did we start growing watermelons? Well, we’re glad you asked!
In 2004 at the age of 14, Johnny’s oldest child, Bethany decided she wanted to try to grow watermelons in a leftover patch of a field close to home. With the help of her dad, a neighboring farmer, and a retired Barnes Farming employee, she purchased plants, transplanted them, and set out to grow two acres of watermelons.
The first year came with lots of learning curves, like realizing that paying your labor at their lunch break before the remainder of the afternoon harvest was a mistake because they didn’t show up. But after lots of lessons, hard work, sunburn, and bug bites, that first year was largely a success. She received rave feedback from patrons at the local farmer’s market and even coined a deal with a local gas station to sell her melons as prepared slices. When Bethany began taking agriculture classes in high school and joined the FFA chapter, she realized the watermelon project could serve as her Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE). So Bethany continued to grow two acres of watermelons for the next couple of years. Along with her initial support team, her mom (and chauffeur), brother, Josh, and sister, Jacy, also helped out.
In her third year, she decided to add another melon to the mix: cantaloupes. And another half acre. In her fourth year, she increased to five acres. By this time, her siblings were old enough to offer real support. Josh became her right-hand man in discerning between a ripe and unripe melon (the key is the color of the stem) and Jacy became her trusty truck driver (truck being a loose term, it was actually a school bus with the top half cut off so it looked like an extra long flatbed truck). Furthermore, she began to garner enough profits to pay for all four years of her in-state college tuition.
When Bethany turned 18, Johnny encouraged her to incorporate an LLC so that the watermelon business would be its own entity. After all, it was growing steadily and the community was heavily invested in the story of a teenage girl growing watermelons to pay for college. After debating lots of variations of names, Bethany’s Best was born in 2008, spurring the brand and memorable logo of a “B” shaped bite out of a watermelon.
Bethany went on to study Agriculture Business at NC State but would return to the farm at the end of the spring semester ready to start planting watermelons. By her junior year, college extracurriculars and a study abroad trip made it challenging to run the watermelon business wholly. Josh quickly stepped in to run the operations while Bethany was away. The following year Bethany graduated and pursued a career in agriculture chemical sales. Josh fully took over operating Bethany’s Best with help from Jacy and his friends Drew, Chris, and Francisco.
By then, we had built up a strong network of customers. In addition to the farmer’s market patrons and L&L stores, Piggly Wiggly and Compare Foods became a large chunk of the customer base.
The business remained steady, and when Blayne joined the team in 2014 with a wealth of knowledge in growing watermelons, we had a renewed commitment to growing watermelons. Our acreage grew from 10 acres to 50, and so on. Today we grow 500 acres of watermelons, all under the Bethany’s Best brand.
Next time you’re shopping for a watermelon, be sure to look out for a sticker with a B-shaped bite!