The Farm Family of the Day program is a new addition to the N.C. State Fair. The program recognizes 11 farm families who work hard everyday to impact our state’s agriculture industry. Families either nominated themselves or were nominated by members of the community. The program is sponsored by Tractor Supply Company and will run from October 14-24, 2021.
The Conrad family may be fairly new to farming in North Carolina, but their business has taken off and flourished as quickly as their beautiful flowers! Conrad Farms, located in Cary, has been in the family for two generations and is well known in the community for providing beautiful flowers to local florists. The family current grows about 15 acres of spring and fall flowers at their farm, not far from Turner Creek Elementary School.
Farm owners Chris and Amy Conrad started by growing flowers from seeds in their greenhouses. Today, with the help of their son Gerald, they have not only grown the business, but become a staple in the community. They irrigate all plants from their farm with water from the pond on-site.
Once the flowers are ready to be harvested, the family not only works tirelessly to cut all the flowers on their own, but also delivers them to florists around the area. “It is truly the definition of a family owned business,” said Jodi Schuh, who nominated Conrad Farms to be a 2021 N.C. State Fair Farm Family of the Day. “They work very hard each year to produce a wide variety of beautiful flowers.” The farm is known for growing many beautiful fall and spring plants, including sunflowers, dahlias and amaranthus.
Not only does the Conrad family sell their flowers to local florists and shops around the area so that members of the community have access to fresh flowers, but when they have extras that they cannot sell, the family donates them to local senior citizen communities to brighten their day! This love for the community and desire to change lives one bouquet at a time, is one of the reasons they were selected as our Oct. 22 Farm Family of the Day.
As graduates from N.C. State University, both Amy and Chris grew up attending the N.C. State Fair and remember it all throughout college. Gerald, who is now attending N.C. State, has worked at the fair in previous years with his Apex High School FFA Chapter. He is looking forward to working this year at the 2021 N.C. State Fair with the N.C. State Agricultural Institute! Be sure to stop by and congratulate Gerald and his family on the honor of being selected as a Farm Family of the Day and look for flowers from their farm at your local florist!
