SFOP Agent of the Year Keeps Busy Doing What She Loves
Susan Cheek isn’t afraid to embrace new challenges. In fact, she thrives on them.
The philosophy she shares with others is, “If you want to do something, just do it.” She’s quick to add, “I don’t think you should ever be told you can’t do something. I see that as a challenge and decide I’m going to make it work.”
So that explains why she has been a florist, chef, horticulturalist, army reservist, restaurant owner and currently a part-time agricultural management agent with the Virginia Cooperative Extension Small Farm Outreach Program (SFOP) at Virginia State University (VSU). The SFOP helps new and beginning farmers, as well as minority, veteran, women and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, develop sustainable and profitable operations.
Cheek said she enjoys her SFOP job traveling around the state assisting small farmers by sharing information and resources. “My husband says I’m like a butterfly; I just fly around and do,” she said. And perhaps that comparison is on point, since she clearly likes to be as busy as a bee, if not a butterfly.
Cheek, who has owned a floral business for 21 years, started working with the SFOP program in 2013. She was hired to provide outreach to Hispanic farmers and soon began working with retired Extension agent Clif Slade on SFOP’s 43,560 Project, which showed farmers how they could earn that much return in dollars from growing diversified crops on just one acre of land. Cheek helped manage the field for the project and took over field management when Slade officially retired. In recent years, she developed a niche educating small farmers about cut flower production and marketing. Cheek likes working with flowers because their bright colors and fragrant smells make people happy. “It’s kind of like having a smile or a rainbow right in front of you. It just makes your day better.”
In 2018 and 2019, she coordinated highly successful and well-attended cut flower conferences for the SFOP. “I’m starting to see a lot more interest in flowers because people are realizing it’s another source of income.”
Horticulture is a growing industry in the U.S. and in Virginia. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2014 Horticulture Census, the most current available, the industry generated nearly $14 billion annually, and was experiencing steady growth.
Flowers do more than provide beauty, Cheek added. They are used for medicinal purposes, in edible arrangements in the culinary arts industry and are also needed to attract beneficial insects, like bees and butterflies, to pollinate certain crops.
She had to gently nudge for three years before getting permission to plan a cut flower conference because it wasn’t thought that traditional farmers would be interested in flower workshops. But now the programs are in demand. Many of the farmers she works with don’t solely grow flowers, but diversify their operations by raising animals and growing produce, as well.
Cheek’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. At the Small Farm Outreach Conference last October, she was named SFOP Agent of the Year. “I didn’t expect it. I don’t do things for acknowledgement. I do them because I like to share with people.” She feels it would be wasteful not to share all that she’s learned over the years in her diverse professions with others who could benefit from that knowledge.
Cheek is passionate about her work, said William Crutchfield, SFOP director. “I think she’s very deserving of the award. She works hard and is a great team player. She coordinated several events, and is always visiting or teaching. No one I can think of has worked any harder than her.”
Cheek clearly possesses an entrepreneurial spirit and a drive to extend knowledge. Before joining the SFOP, Cheek owned a combination restaurant and a floral shop, bringing together her two interests, culinary arts and horticulture. She purchased the floral business at age 22 from her boss who was relocating and selling the business. While a single parent and business owner, Cheek simultaneously pursued associates degrees in both horticulture and culinary arts at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. She earned her first degree at age 30, and at 32 she joined the U.S. Army Reserve and served as a reservist for five years. That helped her further her education and get a bachelor’s degree in Individualized Studies, specializing in horticultural business management from VSU. She has since earned a master’s in Education Leadership from Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. Cheek said she wanted to join the military after high school, but her grandfather, a World War II veteran, was against it, so she waited until he had passed away and her two children were older to “just do it.”
Cheek has methodically checked off items from her bucket list that she’s always wanted to do, like owning a restaurant. She worked in restaurants since she was 16 and always wanted one of her own, so in 2011 she again decided to “just do it.” Running a restaurant proved to be an expensive venture and not everything she had hoped. So, she closed it after 14 months and returned to running the floral business from her home in Chester before reopening a brick and mortar flower shop last June. Around the time she closed the restaurant in 2012, she was offered a job at SFOP because she had experience growing produce and flowers. (Much of what she used at her restaurant and florist she grew herself.) Cheek also spoke Spanish and had developed a rapport with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who sometimes met at her restaurant, so she was able to build relationships with Hispanic farmers, as well.
She now works as an SFOP agricultural management agent at-large, helping farmers around the Commonwealth, and also assists with some of the SFOP’s programs aimed at helping military veterans who are new and beginning farmers.
Rob Davis, owner of Heavenly Hideaway Lavender Farm in Prince George County, is a military veteran and new and beginning farmer. He opened his farm in February 2019 and said Cheek’s advice and encouragement have been invaluable. She coached him on how to set soil conditions, find a reliable and quality nursery for field plugs and also helped arrange for a special implement to be loaned to him to assist with planting his first lavender crop. “Susan Cheek has been there supporting every step of the way, from before I even planted a test row till today,” Davis said. “She really goes that extra mile to make sure she takes care of all the farms she supports through VSU.”
Working at the SFOP has been a good fit for Cheek, allowing her to “fly around and do,” while learning and extending knowledge. She’s learned from SFOP agents and Virginia Cooperative Extension specialists, like the late Andy Hankins, who worked with alternative crops and served as her mentor. Cheek feels honored to have learned from some of the best and to be able to extend that knowledge to others. Her favorite part of being an SFOP agent “is being able to help and teach people,” she said. “Because if you walk away and nobody knows any of the things you’ve done, seen or learned, it’s wasted.”
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