 Janis and Mark Harris of Harris Flower Farm purchased their farm in 2011, but Janis actually started growing flowers in 2008 on her parents farm. Janis, along with her sisters, grew up on McSmith’s Organic Farm with their parents Cathy and Gary McSmith. Janis’s paternal grandparents were also farmers, running a successful dairy cow operation, dating their family farming back to the 1950s. Janis was working as an optician when she met country boy Mark, and she wanted to show him that even though she was no longer working on the farm, she still had her farming roots. “I wanted to prove that I was still a country girl, I wanted to grow something to sell,” Janis said. “My parents were main season vendors at the Horton Farmers’ Market, so my mom suggested I grow gladiolus and sell them at the table beside them.” Not long after that, Janis and Mark bought their farm, and Harris Flower Farm and Pastured Pork has been a staple of the St. Thomas and Elgin County community ever since. Janis’s love for flowers goes back further than meeting Mark, and even further than her parents' farm. Growing up, Janis would visit her grandparents' farm, and would wander through their garden with her sister, which was filled with all kinds of different flowers. “Growing and living on my family land is special,” Janis smiled. “Now that Grandma and Grandpa have passed, I really believe that they are around us all the time in their gardens, and in our fields.” Flowers connect Janis to the memories of her grandparents, to her familial land, to Mark, and now continue to connect her children, Cameron, Nathan, and Megan, to them as well. Some of Harris Flower Farm’s perennials, bushes, and trees even come from Janis’s grandparents collection. Janis’s passion ‘is growing beautiful flowers that will spark an emotion or memory’ for her customers, just as her flowers do for her. The pastured pork side of their farm is run by Mark, and alongside Janis’s beautiful blooms you can find Mark's locally raised pork products, including products like pork chops, sausages, roasts, ham and bacon (stock dependent). The pigs even help make great compost for the flowers. “I am the good smelling part of the farm, he is the bad smelling part,” Janis laughed. “I like cuddling baby piglets, but Mark does the rest of the work with them. Pigs were a type of livestock that we could raise while Mark still works off the farm, and our sows are treated like queens.” Over their years of farming, Janis said the most important things they have learned is to, “stick with it, work hard, be humble and be generous.” In addition to their market bouquets, Harris Flower Farm offers wedding flowers, flower subscription packages, and even design workshops on the farm. Janis said the wedding flowers were a natural progression, as Horton Farmers’ Market customers began to ask her if she did wedding flowers, and her friends started to get married, so she offered to do their flowers to gain experience. “It snowballed into more and more weddings,” said Janis. “Now we do about 60 weddings per year.” She usually does wedding deliveries on Saturday mornings, so Mark and Cameron run the booth at Horton. Subscriptions help cover the farm's winter income while Janis works to plan out their next year crops, meet with wedding couples, start seeds, divide dahlia tubers, and more. “Winters are still really busy, it’s not a holiday,” Janis explained. “When flowers aren’t blooming, [subscriptions] are a way for me to be able to sustain our family without getting a winter job.” As for the workshops, Janis said that people were curious about what the farm was like, so she decided to start offering design workshops. Attendees can walk in the fields with a bucket and clippers, and Janis can tell them information about growing flowers, before going back into the design workshop and helping everyone to make an arrangement to take home. Since Janis’s parents were staple main season vendors at the Horton Farmers’ Market, she has been attending the market since its revitalization in 2006. She remembers her parents putting up a sign that read ‘Closed for Janis and Mark’s wedding’, and ‘Baby Harris has arrived.’ “The [Horton Farmers’] Market has been a big part of our lives,” Janis said. “Our kids have grown up at the market. We are so glad to have such a thriving market in our community.” Harris Flower Farm has had the honour of being named Favourite Market Vendor, Favourite Florist in the St. Thomas Spirit Awards, and more. They also love the Winter Market, as it is a way to make locally grown flowers available to their community, even during the winter time.  The market love is reciprocal, from vendors and customers alike. Janis and Mark’s customers are like their family, and they have watched their children grow up from babies to working the farm booth. Janis emphasized how the market truly has a familial feel; one where vendors and customers support each other. “I remember a Saturday morning, Mark and I were busy helping customers and one of the kids was just starting to walk,” Janis reminisced. “We hadn’t noticed he had toddled off down the market aisle. I had a moment of panic until I saw him and ran after him. Alice from Howe’s smiled at me and said, “We were watching him, it’s all good momma.” We are so grateful for the support we receive from the community.” The Horton Farmers' Market is an incredible place that we are so fortunate to have here in St. Thomas. When you shop from farmers and vendors at Horton, your dollars directly support local families investing back into the local economy. You have the opportunity to make connections with those who work so hard to produce and provide fresh and local produce and products.
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