Herr Fresh Flowers
Locally grown fresh flowers and custom made arrangements and bunches.
Vendor Story
Shengying Yang & Jefferson Herr
Herr Fresh Flowers wins the award for “farthest traveled” to the Davidson Farmers Market’s 100-mile local production radius.
Jefferson Herr, and his wife Shengying Yang, begin the tale:
“We were both born in Laos. We were toddlers during the end of the Vietnam War and as teenagers, fled to Thailand where we met and married while living inside the refugee camps in Thailand. We immigrated to the U.S. in 1990 and first settled in Fresno. By the mid ’90s, we moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the job industry was booming.
“In 1999, we decided we wanted to chase our ‘American dream’; we wanted to own a house, raise our children in a great area, and own our own business. We spent one summer scouting the greater Catawba and Iredell County area.”
Soon after their move, the Davidson Farmers Market was born, a natural outlet for their booming, blooming business. In 2020, one of their daughters, Va, and her husband Tou Yang, took over day-to-day operations.
Va jokes that, if her parents moved from Wisconsin because of the cold, some days she still is not the biggest fan of the heat and humidity of North Carolina summers.
But the flowers do well. She makes sure of it.
“I talk to them and compliment them just like I do my kids at home. I do love watching my flowers grow and seeing all the different stages.”
Snapdragons and ranunculus and sweet William grow in greenhouses early in the year. Tulips, irises, daffodils, bachelor buttons, poppies, larkspur, peonies and more grow in the open air as the season warms. A large cooler keeps flowers at their best after they are picked, often at night, on a schedule that targets market freshness.
The Davidson Farmers Market, now Herr Fresh Flowers’ only Saturday market, is a highlight of the week.
“I just want people to come and ask questions about our flowers whenever they want to,” says Va. “We want them to feel like it’s special. Everyone there is so friendly, not just the rest of the vendors but all the people who come to the market. It feels homey.”
