Vendor Spotlight: Higgins House

Everything Higgins House does honours their heritage. As a lover of history, Dianne connects her love of baking with her reverence for her ancestry. Maintaining the over 100-year-old recipe for their beloved shortbread is one thing— but every creation from Higgins House is grounded in this appreciation of tradition.

Agnes Alison, grandmother to Dianne Higgins, was born in 1890 in Glasgow, Scotland. Known for its bustling ports and its significant role played in the sugar trade—a major contributor to the city’s commercial success in the 17th and 18th centuries. Agnes was educated at a school for what they called at the time “the domestic sciences”. In Scotland, it is here the origins of shortbread emerge, and it was a recipe coveted and taught in such schools, an essential cultural cornerstone. Agnes received her first assignment in 1919, one that would see her travel by boat, train, car, and foot to La Tuque, Quebec to work as a nanny and housekeeper for the owners of the Price Brothers Paper Mill. It was here she met her husband Harry Bailey, and they went on to have three children: Emma, Daisy, and Hazel—Dianne’s mother. 

The earliest form of shortbread goes back hundreds of years. The shortbread of today is a far cry from its 12th century origins. Originally, it was rather hard, and not very sweet. Gradually, the leavening was replaced with butter, and by the 16th century it had been refined with French influence to use flour, sugar, and butter as their main ingredients.  

Agnes lived a long life, passing at the age of 92 in 1982. The craft of pastry and shortbread was passed on to her daughters. Now, everyone in the family is adept at shortbread. Hazel took some creative liberties in her shortbread, adding colour and playing around a bit with Agnes' recipe, something that would inspire some of Dianne’s later shortbread creations. This original recipe is one that proves to be a great base for creativity, something Dianne says is the test of a true classic. Dianne had only arrived in Port Stanley 4 years ago. Small day trips and visits to town were taken earlier, but before that, Toronto was home.  

Early seeds were planted during her years spent working at Williams Sonoma, an American cookware store. It was more than just that though, they hosted cooking and baking classes, some of which Dianne taught on occasion. During the Christmas season, the store would order in peppermint bark, however— the shipment arrived a pile of melted mush, not very jolly. Dianne decided she wouldn’t let it all go to waste and incorporated it into the shortbread recipe. This would end up being the predecessor of her Christmas shortbread, the peppermint bark sandwich cookie. The last-minute incorporation was a great success, with people asking for it weeks later. That is when she realized, she might have something here. 

In retirement, Dianne sought quieter and more peaceful pastures, a place to put down roots in this chapter of her life. Arriving in Port Stanley, she needed to connect with her new community and found it at Church. Her church just so happened to have a commercial kitchen, which she was encouraged to use. She worked out of this space for a few years in getting the business off the ground. Higgins House made their debut during the opening of the newly opened Fire Hall Market in town, and after participating at one of Horton’s winter markets are one of our regular season mainstays among the rest of our Horton family.  ​

Everything Higgins House does honours their heritage. As a lover of history, Dianne connects her love of baking with her reverence for her ancestry. Maintaining the over 100-year-old recipe for their beloved shortbread is one thing— but every creation from Higgins House is grounded in this appreciation of tradition.  Everything has a story, from their shortbread, tarts, and clementine cake. She says the only major innovation she has allowed herself, is a welcome transition from wooden spoon to kitchen-aid mixer to do some of the heavy lifting. While she prepares some fun variations of the classic treat, every now and then she will take a moment to savour the classic, same as Agnes used to make and the recipe that started it all over 100 years ago. Some things just speak for themselves.  

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Jacob Wilcox, EDC Summer Marketing Student

Jacob is a St. Thomas-born, Wallacetown-raised artist and writer who recently completed a BA in Visual Art at York University. An avid Elgin County enthusiast, he has a deep appreciation for local businesses, rural life, community connections, and grassroots initiatives. From a young age, Jacob has been involved in local theatre--most notably Dutton’s community theatre, WEDS. As a practicing artist, he blends photography, writing, and illustration in both his personal work and marketing initiatives, with a focus on visual storytelling and brand identity. He is drawn to the beauty in the mundane, finds art in everyday life, and hopes to carry that perspective into a future career in community stewardship and education. ​