David Bosselman believes in the farm-to-table movement.
His sixth-generation Suffolk family farm, Bosselman Farms, recently used that concept of connecting consumers directly with local producers by making cotton T-shirts.
In November, the farm launched Old Myrtle Cotton Co., a “seed-to-shirt” business that plants, tends and harvests its cotton fields and uses the crop to produce its own cotton T-shirts.
Bosselman said he started thinking about how to add extra value to what they grow in 2023. Farmers only made about 5.8 cents for every dollar spent on food in 2024, according to the American Farm Bureau. He said the loss of farmland due to overdevelopment and rising costs of production has also pushed farmers to think outside the box.
“We decided to use the concept of farm-to-table to add value,” Bosselman said. “Our cotton is raised here in Suffolk, and we make quality T-shirts that are 100% made in the United States.”
Bosselman started the process by contacting the Virginia Farm Bureau. He knew the organization had various programs that supported agribusiness startups. It connected him with a spinning mill in North Carolina, and then he met a woman that was in the fabric business for 15 years.
While that was in the works, he reached back out to the Farm Bureau staff, and they helped him apply for a grant to establish the company. Whitney Perkins, director of the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture, Innovation and Rural Sustainability, said she’s been working with Bosselman for years, bringing his dream to life. The agriculture-focused nonprofit helps producers explore value-added business opportunities and develop those ideas into market strategies.
“It’s wonderful to see how his idea became a reality,” Perkins said. “You can literally feel the difference in his shirts. He has a great story of taking a raw product and making into a T-shirt.”
Perkins said it was the first time she worked with a cotton project and learned about all the efforts required to get a particular feel for the product, such as the cotton seed itself.
Bosselman said he never imagined he’d be selling shirts made with his own cotton and didn’t know what to expect or how people would receive the shirts.
“It’s been humbling and very busy,” he said. “So far, this has been a very positive adventure.”
His long-term aspiration is that the T-shirt business will add extra value for the cotton crop and make the farm more sustainable for the next generation. Also, he said it’s always been one of his goals to enlighten people about agriculture and what farmers do.
“With so much manufacturing happening overseas, it’s special to have a product produced in the United States with Virginia cotton,” Perkins said. “Not all farmers will have the opportunity to see the product of their toil be made into a product they can touch or point to and say, ‘I grew this.’”
The shirts are available online at oldmyrtlecottoncompany.com. They will also be sold at the downtown farmers market in Suffolk in July and part of August, at the Taste of Suffolk Downtown Street Festival on Sept. 12 and at the Peanut Festival on Oct. 8-11.
Lee Belote, jlbelote@verizon.net