OSWEGO, N.Y. — Six Acres Farm Brewery of Mexico, North 40 Clover of Lacona, and Moth & Flame Base Camp were awarded funding in the 2021 “Next Great Idea” (NGI) Oswego County Business Competition. The winning businesses were awarded cash and business services totaling $90,000 in value to expand in Oswego County. Operation Oswego County […]
OSWEGO, N.Y. — Six Acres Farm Brewery of Mexico, North 40 Clover of Lacona, and Moth & Flame Base Camp were awarded funding in the 2021 “Next Great Idea” (NGI) Oswego County Business Competition.
The winning businesses were awarded cash and business services totaling $90,000 in value to expand in Oswego County.
Operation Oswego County announced the prizes during a reception held Nov. 16 at The Lake Ontario Event & Conference Center in Oswego.
“It was a great honor to present our fifth NGI awards on National Entrepreneur’s Day,” Austin Wheelock, NGI chair and deputy director of Operation Oswego County, said in a release. “Entrepreneurs and small business are the backbone of our economy and the building blocks for growth in our county. We believe that these three businesses are excellent examples of this and will be great ambassadors of the ‘Next Great Idea’ for Oswego County.”
Local companies, private banks, business organizations, and public and private institutions helped raise the $90,000 in cash and business services, according to Wheelock.
About the companies
Six Acres Farm Brewery secured the first-place prize of $50,000. The company — founded by Jenna Behling and head brewer Denyel Busch in Mexico — is the first niche craft-brewing company of its kind to develop fruit-infused beers with locally grown fruit and “proprietary methods to create naturally full-flavored fruit ale beverages,” per the news release.
With the brewery already producing 13 unique recipes onsite at Behling Orchards, the owners see an opportunity to capitalize on growing the fledgling craft-beverage industry in Oswego County and building on the region’s existing agri-tourism assets.
“We are extremely grateful for the opportunities that NGI has given our business and are excited to get started on expanding Six Acres Farm Brewery,” Behling said. “Winning the NGI will open up the possibility for us to increase our brewing production and expand our brewery. This will be highly beneficial as we plan to open a tasting room in the area.”
North 40 Clover On Site Hydraulic Hose Repair & Fabrication ended the competition with the second-place prize of $25,000 in cash and business services.
The business is a startup that James Macklen of Lacona created. Macklen will use the NGI prize money to expand his mobile hydraulic repair and fabrication business that services several industries. They include manufacturing, mining, road plowing, agriculture, and trucking and logging operations around Oswego County and the North Country.
The mobile business is “especially needed in rural areas where extended downtime due to distance from repair services can be catastrophic to business,” per the release. Macklen believes the prize money will help him pursue “multiple future opportunities to expand” in the industry.
Moth & Flame Base Camp was the third-place winner of $15,000 in cash and business services. It’s a “glamping” business developed by co-founders Amanda McLaughlin and Paula Barreto. Glamping is outdoor camping with amenities and comforts (such as beds, electricity, and access to indoor plumbing) not usually used when camping, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Moth & Flame Base Camp says it allows visitors to “stay, play and support local business in the outdoors of Oswego County while having a unique and secure stay and experience in a vintage recreational vehicle, airstream and eclectic structure ‘glampground.’ “
The business will utilize social media and technology platforms to market to the quickly growing target segment of “glampers.”
The co-founders will use the prize towards developing “distinctive fully furnished basecamps in a scenic location that will complement the growing” outdoor recreation and event-tourism industry in Oswego County.
The judges
Operation Oswego County selected judges for this year’s event based on their local business knowledge and expertise in the fields of operations, management, financing, and entrepreneurship.
Those judges were Ed Alberts, local entrepreneur and former NGI winner; Mike Backus of Oswego Health; Rich Burritt of Burritt Motors; Allen Chase of Chase Enterprises; Nate Emmons, Oswego County legislator; Karen Goetz of the Richard S. Shineman Foundation; Keiko Kimura of Cayuga Community College’s Fulton campus; Kevin LaMontagne of Operation Oswego County; Liz Lonergan of the Watertown Small Business Development Center; and Tim McKernan of EJ USA of Phoenix.