April/May Faulkner Lifestyle 2020

come to mind are Chris Hiryak from
Little Rock Urban Farming and Brandy
McNair from BellaVita Jewelry.
Bell Urban Farm
Owners: Kim Doughty McCannon
and Zack McCannon
Business Location: 2001 and 2011 Tyler
Street, across the street from the Faulkner
County Library in Conway
How long have you been in business?
This will be our 4th growing season
(Since Spring 2017)
Tell us about what you do. We are
a certified naturally grown farm that
grows cut flowers, plants, mircrogreens,
herbs and eggs. We recently got our
property re-zoned to support an
on-farm grocery store and we just ran a
successful Kickstarter campaign in order
to raise money to complete our store!
What are the specific products you
make? We focus on cut flower bouquets.
We offer a bouquet subscription service
for Conway businesses and residents,
and we sell our bouquets, microgreens,
herbs, plants and eggs at our self-serve
stand at our farm. We also host several
educational and community events and
workshops at our farm each year.
How did you first become interested
in urban farming? Kim: I first got
interested in urban farming when I
took some time off work to volunteer
at Little Rock Urban Farming. I was an
apprentice there and lived on farm for
about 2 years. After that I applied to
Arkansas GardenCorps and took a position
with the Faulkner County Urban
Farm Project and the rest is history!
Did someone influence/inspire you
to start your business? A lot of small
business owners have inspired me over
the years. I like seeing people passionate
about what they do! Two people that
What is your favorite part about
doing something that you love? I
love that when I wake up I get to do
something new every day. There is no
working for the weekend anymore!
Growing good food and beautiful
flowers make people happy, and I love
seeing other people happy!
Do you collaborate with or use
products from other local businesses
in your business? If so, who? Yes!
When we get our local foods grocery
store up and running, we will be working
with many other local farmers, bakers and
artisans from all over the state to source
products for our store. We will be selling
everything from local meat and cheese to
kombucha, soap, ice cream, locally roasted
coffee, pasta, seasonal fruit, veggies and
more! We will be working with Rabbit
Ridge Farms, Loblolly Creamery, White
River Creamery, Red Roof Cheese Co,
Farm Girl Meats, Bradford Valley Farms,
Heifer Ranch and Whispering Willow
Farm just to name a few!
What advice would you give
someone who is interested in
starting a business as an artisan?
Make a plan, get ready for a lot of hard
work and just go for it! If you are going to
spend your whole life working, it better be
something that you love doing! I always
tell myself I would rather fail at doing
something than never even try it at all.
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