Meet “Farmer Cee” of North Carolina’s Green Heffa Farms

Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley is the CEO of Green Heffa Farms, a flourishing medicinal plant and herb farm in Liberty, North Carolina. She’s also the country’s first Black-owned farm to earn Certified B Corp status. She started growing herbs to address her own anxiety and has developed a line of tasty blends that “help support adulting,” as she puts it cleverly. As she rakes in award after award, Clarenda also amplifies the voices of unsung farmers planting dreams the nation over. Meet our newest FACE of the South, Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley.

What was your childhood like?

After my parents divorced, we moved [from Texas] back to my mother’s hometown in the Black Belt region of Alabama. It’s known as the Black Belt — one, for its very rich agricultural soil. And two, for the number of Black people who live there. I grew up in a county that still, today, has a segregated school system. I grew up on my maternal grandparents’ farm. They owned 100 acres, 20 of which I still own. I have a tree farm there in Alabama in addition to my herb farm here in North Carolina.