From Blueberries to a Booming Business: The Keel Farms Story

What happens when your employees are laid off, your doors are closed, and your business looks finished — and then one phone call changes everything? Clay Kiehl of Keel Farms in Plant City, Florida knows exactly what that moment feels like. In this episode of Tommy's Toolbox, Clay shares the wild ride of transforming a 45-year-old blueberry farm into one of Florida's most unique agritourism destinations — complete with festivals, family-friendly events, craft wine, hard cider, and even a Cinnamon Toast Crunch collaboration that raises money for Feeding Tampa Bay. We also dig into how technology and AI are changing agriculture, what sustainability really looks like on a working farm, and why some Florida kids are seeing a live chicken for the very first time. 🍇 What's in this episode: • How Clay went from military service to owning a farm and brewery • The COVID story — layoffs, pivots, and a 30-pallet Publix order • Agritourism: the industry that's just starting to explode • The Cinnamon Toast Crunch cider and drinking for charity • Solar power, private wells, and going nearly off-grid on a working farm • AI and technology in modern agriculture 🌐 Learn more about Keel Farms: https://keelfarms.com 📲 Subscribe for more business success stories every week. 🔨 Welcome to Tommy’s Toolbox! 🎙️ Tommy's Toolbox is your front-row seat to the stories, strategies, and ideas shaping Tampa Bay.Every episode, we sit down with the fascinating people who make this region tick — entrepreneurs, innovators, community builders, and the voices you don't always hear from but absolutely should. These are real conversations about real life: the wins, the failures, the pivots, and the lessons that actually matter. Hosted by Tommy Whitehead, CEO of TomCo Solutions, Tommy's Toolbox delves into a wide variety of issues facing businesses and business leaders in today's world. 🎙️ Tommy's Toolbox (the Original) From the chefs and artists to the activists and risk-takers — if they're doing something interesting in Tampa Bay, we want to know their story. ⭐ Leadership Edition — New Playlist Tampa Bay is home to some of the most driven, unconventional leaders you've never heard of. The Leadership Edition goes deep with the executives, founders, and public figures who've built something significant — and asks the question most people never ask: what actually makes you different? These aren't surface-level interviews. This is where leadership gets real. Subscribe and never miss a conversation worth having. Tampa Bay's stories. Told right.