Grace Summers named 2022 Small Farm Outreach Program’s Program Assistant of the Year by Virginia Cooperative Extension at Virginia State University
Summers seems to have been born to farm and to help farmers thrive.
Headshot Grace Summers
An amiable woman who radiates warmth, Grace Summers sows seeds of farming wisdom among the rows of Virginian and North Carolinian small-scale farmers who line up for her consultations and courses. As a result of her labor, the Extension employee reaped an unexpected harvest of appreciation at the Small Farm Outreach Program Conference, where she was named the 2022 SFOP Program Assistant of the Year.
“It’s one of my greatest highlights for all the years I’ve been in agriculture,” said Summers, who has been in agriculture her entire life.
Born and raised on her family’s farm in Guilford County, N.C., a recognized Century Farm that has been in her family since 1878, she learned the value of working the land at an early age—along with its challenges—from a long line of tobacco farmers.
With three degrees in agriculture—a bachelor’s in Agronomy, and a master’s in both Agricultural Education, and Plant Science and Horticulture—all her careers have been in agriculture.
Additionally, she owns and manages Summers Farms, where she raises vegetables, hemp, strawberries, chickens and turkeys. She also serves as a Women for the Land Southeast outreach consultant, Guilford County Farm Bureau board member, NC Farm Bureau Ornamental Horticulture Advisory Committee member and as a founding board member of Green Rural Redevelopment Organization and Feast Down East.
A transformational leader with impactful service, Summers has more than 30 years of greenhouse management and production experience and 20 years of high tunnel building and production experience. She managed and taught classes at N.C. Agricultural and Technical University’s Reid Greenhouse for 12 years, before transitioning to its Extension program. After retiring in October 2016, she joined SFOP at Virginia Cooperative Extension, which is overseen by Virginia State University College of Agriculture.
As an SFOP program assistant, Summers works collaboratively with U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service. She also manages the high-tech, high-tunnel project at Randolph Farm, provides farmers and Extension peers with information about greenhouses and high-tunnels, answers ag-related questions and install plastic mulch and drip-irrigation systems.
“I love my career,” said Summers. “The thing I like most about my job is seeing a farmer become successful because of something I helped them implement or do on their farm.”
Indeed, if time and resources were not an issue, Summers would like to see more one-on-one time invested in new farmers to provide them with more technical tips for growing and sustaining their crops and farm enterprises.
It is clear why Summers was selected for the annual award. “Grace is an all-around great person,” said William Crutchfield, director of SFOP, “Not only is she an expert in high tunnels and general agriculture who helps small-scale farmers in North Carolina and Virginia, but also is a sincere, caring individual who is able to connect with her clients well and effectively explain how they can best achieve their goals.”
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