Farmer Carol Bontekoe And New Dawn Fields
Carol Bontekoe, better known locally as Farmer Carol, is the owner of New Dawn Fields, the incubator farm at Grow Benzie.
Last year Carol began New Dawn Farms with the mission to "heal, empower and employ women and non-binary people who are survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence." In 2019 she hosted survivors from across the country and a trafficking survivor from Michigan. It was a learning experience- and therapeutic- for everyone.
Her Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program continues in 2020 when she will be focusing her growing activities on garlic (20 varieties), shiitake mushrooms and flowers. While continuing her efforts at Grow Benzie, she will continue looking for the right piece of farmland locally to expand her operations.