in my life, so I messed up over and over and over again."

In 2013, Dustin Cornett moved home to Beattyville.

He thought his stay in Beattyville would be temporary— he was moving back to America after six years in Japan, where he met and married his wife, Mai. Because his father and brother still lived in Beattyville, Cornett saw his hometown as “a landing spot” until he and his wife, who is from Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan, decided where to settle permanently.

Around the same time, the Cornetts were looking for a home. On Highway 11 in Beattyville, a motel that came with a house was for sale. After securing a loan, Cornett bought it, and they moved in and started renovating what became Chocolat Inn and Café. Today, the inn features eight rooms, each of which is themed after a city across the world. The inn also features the café, which sells Cornett's candies and 14 original chocolates.

“I never anticipated that my wife would like it here,” Cornett said. “She fell in love with the people, the nature, and just felt at peace.”

After years away, Cornett had a new perspective of his hometown.

“I thought tourism might be something that could actually boom here,” he said, but he wasn’t yet sure what to do.

Then he found his grandmother's candy recipes. She had stopped making candy when Cornett was in elementary school, but he had a vague memory: The chocolate was so good that his mom would hide it from his dad.

“I thought, ‘I’ll give it a shot,’” Cornett said. “I had never made candy before in my life, so I messed up over and over and over again.”

chocolate himself—"that's something I could bring to her candies," he said. So he started creating chocolate bars to sell at the café as well.

His grandmother was still living, but she had dementia, so Cornett couldn't ask her directly about the candy. But sometimes she would tell stories, and one day, “a nugget fell out of a story that helped me create the candies,” Cornett said.

So, not wanting to let the family tradition die, Cornett started making and selling candies at a café he and his wife opened in Beattyville. His grandmother had always used Hershey's candy, but Cornett decided to make the chocolate himself—"that's something I could bring to her candies," he said. So he started creating chocolate bars to sell at the café as well.

With a Small-Scale Farm Grant from Kentucky State, Cornett bought a tempering machine and other equipment to make chocolate and candies. Two of Cornett's chocolate bars are value-added, using ingredients from Kentucky farms. A dark milk chocolate lavender bar features lavender from Positive Attraction Soaps in Beattyville, and a bourbon dark chocolate bar features bourbon from Jeptha Creed.

The grant came at a good time: The COVID-19 pandemic had halted the tourism industry and created a “fear of losing everything” for Cornett.

“The grant helped kickstart [the chocolate] because it helped me financially be able to produce what I needed to,” Cornett said.

Unhappy with her program evaluation job, Mehera Baugher started volunteering at an urban farm in Chicago. Then she did a year-long apprenticeship with the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Baugher quit her job and has been farming ever since. She worked at several different urban farms in Chicago before deciding to move closer to her hometown of Louisville. Baugher had connected with Connie Lemley, who was looking to mentor a farmer who could then lease and take over farming on Lemley's Franklin County farm.

“That was an incredible opportunity,” Baugher said.

So in 2021, Baugher moved to Frankfort and worked with Lemley before taking over the farm herself in 2022.

“I’m doing everything myself, from the crop planning, deciding what I’m going to grow, preparing all the beds, planting, harvesting, selling, transporting, accounting,” Baugher said. “Of course, I’m getting mentoring from Connie, which is great.”

Baugher said her first year on her own went really well.

“I made a lot of mistakes, but I learned tons,” Baugher said. “The work was long and exhausting, but I’m proud of how I did my first year and I’m really looking forward to improving and changing the way I do some things next year to make them work even better.” “I’m lucky enough to have a lot of that infrastructure available to me already, so I wanted to get more tools and small equipment that I thought would help make me more efficient as a single person doing all of the work. Efficiency is key to be able to run this business.”

Fortunately, she said, she has moved into a wonderful community that Lemley had been part of for years. Baugher has continued to sell greens to loyal customers at the Franklin County Farmers Market, including a customer-favorite spicy mix. Baugher is also selling basic-cut sunflower arrangements at the market.

Her purchases included a precision seeder, which is a huge help with growing baby greens, and insect netting, which protects her plants. The netting gives her “much nicer looking, higher quality products.”

“I’m doing it just because it makes me happy, but customers seem to actually really like them as well,” she said.

Her customers' happiness has been a highlight of Baugher's farming experience— like when a customer returns to the next week's market to tell her that the head of lettuce she sold them was the best they'd ever had.

With the $5,000 she received from Kentucky State’s Small-Scale Farm Grant Program, Baugher purchased an assortment of supplies and equipment. “I’m lucky enough to have a lot of that infrastructure available to me already, so I wanted to get more tools and small equipment that I thought would help make me more efficient as a single person doing all of the work. Efficiency is key to be able to run this business.”

“To have customers be so happy with what you’re growing and really, really enjoy it is so meaningful. It makes it feel like what I’m doing is worthwhile.”