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HISTORY OF OUR FARM
A temperature-controlled greenhouse on the Colby Road has become the
hub of the Three Toads Farm operation. Charlie Hendricks and Bob Early
(left), along with a third partner, Val Schirmer, started the
flower-growing business with a few bulbs about ten years ago.
Lilies grow like weeds.
Three local residents had that in mind when they planted a small batch
of lilies here in 1998. But what the trio didn't realize was that as
they watched the flowers sprout, they'd also see a business blossom.
 After frequently visiting the Lexington
Farmers' Market, Val Schirmer, Combs Ferry Road, returned home one day
not with flowers, but instead with a vision. "She came back (from
the Farmers' Market) and told my wife the flowers I grew in my garden
were nicer than the ones they were selling over there," said
Charlie Hendricks, a retired Lexington Fire Department firefighter.
"She said, 'I'll sell them if you'll grow them.'" "And I
asked her, 'grow what,'" Hendricks said. Schirmer's reply:
"Lilies, because they grow like weeds."
Schirmer said she noticed in her visits to the Farmers' Market and in
garden tours she took with her sister every year that not many people
seemed to be growing lilies and thought growing them here would serve
as a different type of flower for people to buy.
 "I decided that I wanted to grow
something others either just couldn't grow or try something many people
just didn't know that much about," she said. That was all it took
for Hendricks to partner with Schirmer in what would become a small
lily growing business. Bob Early, Hendricks' long-time friend, would
later join the effort.
"We (me and Charlie) started out doing veggies together. Next thing
you know we're doing lilies," Early said, laughing. "But
we're still doing the veggies too."
Utilizing space at Schirmer's farm on Combs Ferry, a greenhouse was
built and the partners' business - Three Toads Farm - officially was
born.
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