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From backyard hobby to award-winning operation: Hereward Farms founder shares her journey

March 5, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

A small experiment to see if a fragrant purple perennial could flourish on a 250-acre East Garafraxa farm blossomed into an award-winning agricultural operation.

Hereward Farms owner and founder, Julie Thurgood-Burnett, was sitting at home in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns when she wondered if lavender could grow on her land. She created a plot of 40 plants and, after a successful first harvest, found it to be a fun hobby.

With a background in cosmetology, Thurgood-Burnett pulled out her old textbooks and began researching to see what she could create from the lavender.

After converting the plants into cosmetics and quickly selling out, Thurgood-Burnett’s husband, Stephen Burnett,encouraged her to expand the plot to 3,000 plants. While her marketing agency, Green Monkey Creative, was keeping her busy, she kept rolling with the lavender plants and has since found incredible success.

“I thought, what’s the harm? If I do this, I’m going to have beautiful lavender plants in my yard. Then it just took off, and we really have followed our own path,” Thurgood-Burnett explained.

Hereward Farms is now home to 8,000 lavender plants, which are used to make a lineup of award-winning, all-natural, locally made skincare and home products.

The farm also features 400,000 sunflowers, which are harvested and converted into birdseed, sold locally and distributed across Canada.

Three varieties of lavender grow on Hereward Farms; two are for culinary use, and the other is processed into cosmetics or sold as dried bunches.

“We sell out pretty quickly to some food suppliers that use our lavender in their products… There are a couple of cookie suppliers who use it,” Thurgood-Burnett said. “Wholesale and online probably take about 85 to 90 per cent of my profit… then 10 per cent is from our store and field visits.”

Hereward Farms has received several awards since its launch.

It received an honourary mention from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) at the 2025 Excellence in Agriculture Awards last November, recognizing its leadership in sustainable farm practices and farm-to-business innovation.

More recently, Thurgood-Burnett was nominated for the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards and has been recognized in other ways over the years.

“We were never really out to win awards… so I’m always shocked and humbled that people pay attention to what we’re doing,” she said. “I have no idea who [nominated us] for the Women in Agriculture [Award]. They have not come forward.”

“It makes me emotional that people are recognizing us for our hard work, without us even knowing,” Thurgood-Burnett added.

The family of her husband, Stephen Burnett, has lived on the Hereward Farms property for five generations. Previously, it was leased to his brother to farm other crops, who has continued the family farming tradition, cultivating 8,000 acres across Dufferin and Wellington counties each year.

Thurgood-Burnett’s background has always been in marketing, working for several large companies before running Green Monkey Creative with a business partner. She sold her stake in the marketing agency in 2021, but has used her knowledge to promote Hereward Farms.

While Hereward Farms embraces agritourism, its focus is on providing an intimate experience to its supporters when they visit.

“We limit it to 30 people a day to keep that serene, beautiful experience going,” said Thurgood-Burnett. “Then we give 100 per cent of the field tickets back to the community.”

Funds are divided among Hereward Farms’ charities of choice: Family Transition Place, Orangeville Food Bank, Headwaters Health Care Centre, and the Wellington Pregnancy Centre.

“You give out to the world what it’s going to give back to you – and it bugs me to no end that there are women and families at Family Transition Place. On major holidays, we make sure they get spoiled, because it’s not the ideal place for anyone to really want to be,” Thurgood-Burnett noted.

Reflecting on her entrepreneurial path, she said she never enjoyed working for an employer or had any interest in climbing the corporate ladder.

“I always had a side hustle. Many moons ago, I had a photography business or I consulted on the side. To take that leap in 2017, I quit my job to go into full on consulting, it was huge for me,” Thurgood-Burnett said.

“It’s not easy. You’re working probably more than you would if you were working for someone else, but I get to do what I want.”

Entering the lavender-growing industry presented some challenges, but Thurgood-Burnett was eager to learn. She completed a course at the University of Michigan, where she researched and studied everything there is to know about growing lavender.

With Thurgood-Burnett’s in-laws farming the Hereward Farms property for generations, she already had much of the equipment needed to grow and harvest lavender. She now leases some of it out to other lavender farms and provides consulting.

Thurgood-Burnett is always happy to provide guidance to individuals just getting started.

“It’s a lonely world, in any type of entrepreneurship, you don’t have that network of people to call on… you’re usually by yourself,” she explained. “So, I always like to leave my door open.”

When she’s not focusing on growing and processing her lavender into cosmetics or clean home products, Thurgood-Burnett can be found speaking at small-business events, sharing her entrepreneurial journey.

The connections made between Hereward Farms and its supporters have been one of the greatest joys of operating the business, according to Thurgood-Burnett.

“I think when you have a small business, those closest to you support you, but then it’s that next layer of people that have discovered you, that fall in love with you,” she said. “The relationships that I’ve created and meeting the most amazing people has probably been the biggest highlight of my journey on this lavender path.”

Thurgood-Burnett’s key message for other women looking to enter the entrepreneurial space is to “walk their own path.”

“Don’t worry about what everybody else is doing, there’s room enough for everyone to do what they want to do. Take every failure as a lesson because I’ve had many, and could have said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’ Hold onto that dream and that hope – you have to make a lot of mistakes for it to come full circle. But carving out your own path is my biggest advice to anyone,” she said. “Just do it.”

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