Young entrepreneur sets sights on healthy eating and creating community

by ANNETTE JOYCE

Eli Forehand is not your typical 19-year-old. As the founder of Brooks Home and Farm and a host of other endeavors, this enterprising young man has already accomplished more than many people twice his age.

Brooks Home and Farm and the other Brooks ventures including Brooks Wholesale Plants and Produce, Brooks Logistics, Brooks Agricultural Land Lease Holdings and Brooks Warehousing and Distribution Company evolved from Forehand’s desire to offer farmto-table groceries and other local products while creating a network of small North Carolina businesses that can help one another grow and prosper.

These days, Forehand is busy establishing his company’s base location in a building at the intersection of N.C. 68 and U.S. 158 in Stokesdale. To kick things off, Brooks Home and Farm opened an outdoor operation in April that has been offering a selection of plants and hanging baskets – but that’s just the beginning.

Once renovations on the building are complete, it will be home to a retail store that sells locally grown produce and some home goods to the community, a warehouse and a commercial distribution center that offers wholesale produce to restaurants and other retail stores.

With remodeling underway, Forehand is working to bring his entire vision to fruition.

“This is going to be a different type of grocery experience, very communityoriented and educationally based,” Forehand said.

For instance, there will be a greenhouse where classes can be offered on topics such as making hanging baskets, carving pumpkins and creating wreaths. The greenhouse will also have picnic tables, where customers will have an enjoyable place to eat when food trucks are on site – something that Forehand plans to make a frequent occurrence.

 Brooks Home and Farm is committed to providing the healthiest farm-to-table produce available.

 Through a partnership with a local strawberry farmer, Brooks Home and Farm offers fresh strawberries from April until the first frost in October or November.

In addition, Forehand has been talking with the local elementary schools about “getting some sort of garden clubs in place.” He also has plans to bring in local farmers, giving community members an opportunity to get to know the people who supply their food.

Before deciding to create Brooks Home and Farm, Forehand had planned to attend film school in Los Angeles and was focused on earning money for his college fund. His change in direction got its roots when he was 14 and took a job with a farmer who had a space at Piedmont Triad Farmers Market in Colfax. Within two years, Forehand was managing the space.

It was in 2020 that Forehand, a third-generation family farmer, launched Brooks Home and Farm and began selling the pumpkins and mums he grew with his grandfather to family and friends at the farmers market. When he wasn’t at the market, he threw the pumpkins into the back of his pickup truck and set up at various locations including his high school, Northwest Guilford, and local shopping centers.

Along the way, he lost interest in pursuing a film career and realized his passion was providing people with farm-fresh, local produce and products and connecting community and small businesses with each other.

Within a year, Forehand expanded his products and services to include candles which he sold at local flea markets and added commercial and residential decorating clients for fall and holiday displays that incorporated his crops and local artisan pieces.

Then in 2022, after his 85-year-old grandfather’s health took a turn for the worse, Forehand stepped up alongside his father, Frank Forehand, and took over the family farm. Together, they worked on creating a network of local North Carolina farmers and producers to bring the communities they called home the cleanest and healthiest products available.

“Our first partner, Mabe’s Berry Farm (in Walnut Cove), is the state’s only farm able to successfully grow strawberries all summer long,” Forehand said. “Through this exclusive partnership, Brooks is able to offer freshly picked strawberries from

April until the first frost in October or November.

In just five years, Forehand and his team have established “brick and mortar” locations in Stokesdale and Gastonia and they have space at Piedmont Triad Farmers Market in Colfax and the Western North Carolina Farmers Market in Asheville, April through September.

Forehand’s success can be attributed to several factors.

First, he is doing what he absolutely loves and is applying his understanding of technology to produce what he calls “modern world farming.”

And, he has lots of new ideas and isn’t afraid to try them out.

He also is committed to buying locally and supporting other farms and small businesses.

That’s where his warehouse and distribution businesses come into play. He explained that a lot of small businesses store inventory in their garages or dining rooms and desperately need extra space, but can’t afford to rent an entire warehouse. His company is able to rent them warehouse space on a much smaller, therefore more affordable scale.

Although Forehand has already learned a lot just through experience, he’s also been intent on soaking up as much knowledge as possible from his classes in high school and reading about other people who have been successful in business.

“In high school, I took all the business and marketing courses I could take,” he said. “I also read about (successful entrepreneurs such as) Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos.”

In addition, he’s made it his mission to seek out people within his community who have been successful in business and study what they’ve done right and how he might apply it to his own business strategies.

At this point, Forehand is completely focused on his businesses and his free time is nearly nonexistent. He said he doesn’t require a lot of sleep, which is fortunate, because following his ambitions easily fills up his hours.

“I have a lot I want to do in my life and time is limited,” he said.

I noticed that signs for the new smash burger restaurant and the pizzeria in Oak Ridge Commons were installed several weeks ago – will they be opening soon?

“We’re not there yet,” owner Pepe Silva, who also owns Rio Grande in Oak Ridge Commons, told us recently. “It’s in the process, and we’re still trying to figure out some things,” he added, explaining that renovating the two restaurant spaces came with challenges beyond those he would have faced had he been building them from the ground up. Added to that has been the long wait time for specialized grills and a

Is there any update on Shaw Farms

Shopping Center opening at the corner of Spencer Dixon Road and N.C. 150 in northern Greensboro?

I thought it was scheduled for groundbreaking in late April.

Earlier this week we spoke with Tom James, who represents the shopping pizza oven to be delivered and installed, as well as final inspections and staff training.

Silva said it’s still too early to announce definite opening dates, but he hopes they will be “soon.” center’s developer, T. Cooper James & Associates. James told us his company is in discussions with several different grocers, but has not finalized an agreement with one yet. Plans for the initial phase of the 30-acre shopping center call for a grocer anchor tenant, other retail businesses and an outparcel fronting N.C. 150. Construction will get underway once a grocer has signed on.

“This area is one of the fastestgrowing areas in the county, and it’s an underserved area,” James said.