A lot of side businesses start out with a dream of financial success, personal fulfillment and maybe even a little bit of fun. But Ty and Tracy Woodard, who farm a variety of row crops near Darlington, South Carolina, were inspired to start their Covered in Cotton business by an actual dream.
In 2017, Tracy woke from a dream that seemed to be sent from heaven. She was told to start a business using some of the farm’s cotton crop to make and sell blankets. The dream even told her the name of the company. “I wrote it all down and I woke up Ty and I said, ‘This sounds crazy, but this is what we’re supposed to do,’” she explains on the latest episode of Farm Journal’s new Grow Getters podcast, which celebrates entrepreneurial farmers and ranchers who create new businesses to complement their ag operations.
Blankets hold a special place in the Woodards’ hearts because two years before Tracy’s dream, their three-month-old son, Tobin, was hospitalized with a severe form of bacterial meningitis. Even after undergoing emergency surgery the prognosis was bleak. If he survived, he more than likely would be blind and deaf and perhaps stunted developmentally.
Ty and Tracy spent 35 nerve-jangled days and nights at the hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. They took comfort in a blanket a nurse gave them on the first night. “It was a source of practical comfort but then even afterwards it was this reminder of the Lord just covering and protecting our family,” Tracy tells host Davis Michaelsen on Grow Getters.
Somehow, Tobin made a full recovery. Today he’s a straight-A student who plays sports and, Tracy says, he’s “the funniest kid you’ve ever met.”
Covered in Cotton has continued to grow in the years since the dream. While Ty, his brother and his dad farm over 4,000 acres of row crops, mostly cotton, corn, soybean and peanuts, the couple manages the blanket business. They’ve also created Cotton with a Cause, a program through which they donate a blanket to a children’s hospital for every ten blankets they sell.
Watch the full interview on Grow Getters.
Read the full story about the Woodards on AgWeb: https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/cotton/rooted-love-and-purpose-how-south-carolina-couple-helps-others-find-comfort
Find out more about Covered in Cotton: https://coveredincotton.com/
