Flowers Saved This Family Farm

The first time I visited Wrenn’s Farm in eastern North Carolina, the greenhouses were falling, the former farm stand was in disarray and the farm looked like what it was: abandoned. 

The farm had grown many things in its lifetime. Tobacco covered the fields before Austin’s grandparents turned to vegetable production. Their only child and Austin’s father, Mitchell Wrenn, started growing strawberries in the 1980’s. He started with a pick-your-own field, then expanded to grow for grocery stores and added strawberry plugs for other farmers to buy. 

Growing up, Austin knew he wanted to come back to the farm. However, while he was in college, his father developed early onset dementia. Unable to keep farming, the farm shut down. After graduating from North Carolina State, he went to work for a nearby strawberry company.

His then-girlfriend, Christina Harvey, was studying agriculture business. She grew up on a beef cattle, corn silage, and hay farm in western North Carolina. She and Austin met her first week of freshman year at NC State. Growing up, she was not interested in plants despite her mom being a horticulture teacher, but after taking an introductory horticulture class her freshman year, she fell in love with them. 

When she graduated, the couple knew they wanted to restart the Wrenn family farm. Instead of proposing marriage, Austin proposed they begin another kind of partnership: farm owners. Both worked full-time jobs off the farm while getting the farm back up and growing.

Their first strawberry crop in 2018 failed. Their first and second tomato crops failed. The only thing that survived the first year was one row of zinnia flowers. Harvey’s mom had suggested she plant zinnias so she’d have something pretty on her table. Not a single stem made it to her table as she sold them all at the farmer’s market. That’s when she knew the farm’s future would include flowers. 

Austin said he thought Christina was crazy at first, as he’d been taught that you don’t grow things people won’t eat. After his initial skepticism, he became invested in growing flowers on the farm, and the next year they expanded to one acre of flowers in addition to an acre of strawberries. He proposed marriage in their strawberry field that spring. 

Christina sold flowers to three grocery stores, but that contract wasn’t renewed the following year. She shifted to direct-to-consumer sales at the farm store and a local farmer’s market. People were very supportive of small farms, coming to pick their own berries, which was very encouraging to the young farmers. The couple was married in 2020.

In 2021, Christina expanded again, offering farm tours and classes, increasing her business by 30%. I was one of her class participants, clipping the flowers of my choice from her fields and learning tips to make a fabulous bouquet.

The couple fixed up two old greenhouses for Christina to start her flower seeds. The next year she increased the number of flower fields, added more classes and started offering DIY flower buckets. The biggest change was she left her off-farm job to become a full-time farmer. 

In 2023, a grant allowed Christina to add a high tunnel for growing perennials. In 2024, she planted an acre of eucalyptus and more fall flowers. The Wrenns also hired two H2A workers, previously depending only on family and local labor. The flowers helped offset the cost of those workers and allowed them to continue working in the fields and greenhouses in the strawberry off-season. In 2025, Christina plans to add agritourism opportunities at the farm and have more flowers available.

Austin dreamed of returning to his family’s strawberry farm. Christina’s dream of flower farming helped bring the farm back to life. Seeing what they have done since my first visit to the farm, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for these young farmers.