Frederick County leaders award local farms with grant money to go towards expanding innovation

FREDERICK COUNTY, Md. ( DC News Now ) — Frederick County is making more efforts to make sure the county’s farms have the tools to improve their overall innovation by awarding eight agricultural businesses with funds to help overall operation.

“It was really encouraging to find out that Frederick County thinks of us as a farm that’s that’s worth investing in,” said Owner of Good Soil Farms, Casey-Mae McGinley.

Casey-Mae McGinley and her husband have been running Good Soil Farms since 2017 and say over the years electrical additions have been needed to help the flow of business.

“When we had the barn built we were set up like a farmer’s market tent every week when people came to pick up vegetables,” said McGinley.

“Having the barn and then having electricity in the barn has just made such a big difference for people coming to the farm, as well as helping us out with all our workload,” McGinley adds.

Arthur MacLarty manages an Apeary Farm and says he plans on using the money to establish a facility to process honey.

“Being able to have this dedicated facility will allow not only the more efficient processing but increased production of a lot of our products,” MacLarty explained.

“I think that would increase our ability to get our sales out as well,” MacLarty adds.

Both MacLarty and McGinley agree that county leaders continuing to invest in their local farms in return helps them provide a needed service to their communities.

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