Exciting news from Jay Reesor
After 40 years of growing and selling sweet corn, strawberries, pumpkins and baking on the Ninth Line, it's time for a change. It seems like only yesterday that I was the young guy on the block trying to figure out how to make a living on this historic farm. But it isn't yesterday and I have an opportunity to pass the torch on to the next generation!
Since Sept. 2023 I am thrilled that John and Emma Reesor are the new owners of Reesor’s Farm Market. They are very qualified to operate the market and pick your own fields, but more than that they are amazing people with a vision for connecting their urban neighbours to the farm, food and growing. This transition is bittersweet for me. Leaving the farm after all these years is difficult, but I’m excited for the next generation to care for the land and to pursue new adventures of my own!
What about Reesor’s Market & Bakery in Stouffville? As of January 2024 I am pleased to share with you that Laura Reesor, the current manager, and her husband Luke, are the new owners of Reesor’s Market & Bakery. I’m so pleased to pass the torch of our Town Market to Laura! As I step back to let a younger generation take over, I’m excited to see what Laura and our dedicated staff will achieve in the future. And for myself, I am looking forward to another kind of career. I am not exactly sure what it entails, but I know it does include more time with my family and grandkids.
I’ve been thinking back over the 19 plus years that I have been the owner of Reesor’s Market & Bakery. It’s interesting to note how change comes about. Laura began working at the store about nine years ago, shortly after we moved to Main Street from our original 2004 Ringwood Dr. location, and since then she has had many roles in the store from baker to bookkeeper, most recently being the manager. As time passed I learned that Laura was very interested in being the owner of the store. We have been talking about it for years and now the time has come to make it a reality. I am really happy to have Laura take ownership of the store for several reasons. The first reason is that she and I have similar values in terms of how we treat customers and staff. I have every confidence that Laura will treat everyone at the store with honesty, integrity, and kindness. Secondly, Laura has a strong work ethic and will do what it takes to get the job done. Thirdly, Laura has a passion for the store and what it is and what it could be.
Thank you for your patronage through the years and supporting Reesor’s Farm Market and Reesor’s Market & Bakery. I am so pleased that John and Laura and their families are the new owners of these two business and will continue to serve you in our community. —Jay Reesor
Introducing John and Emma Reesor
Greetings! We are John and Emma Reesor, the proud new owners and managers of Reesor’s Farm Market! John is the first cousin (once removed) of founding farmers and owners Jay and Miriam Reesor. In September 2023, we packed up our belongings in Alamosa, Colorado, and relocated our family to the farmhouse located on the Farm Market property on Ninth Line, Markham. First and foremost, our goal as owners will be to uphold the great reputation of the business that Jay and Miriam have built over the past 40 years. We are excited and humbled to be taking on this challenge. We would like to take a moment to introduce ourselves to the customers and community that surrounds Reesor’s Farm Market.
John was born in the stone farmhouse on the southeast corner of Elgin Mills and Ninth Line, Markham right across the road from Reesor’s Farm Market. At the age of 12, John was recruited by Jay to work his first job; stocking shelves and sweeping floors at the Farm Market. In the summer months outside of high school and university classes, John worked for 9 years harvesting sweet corn for his uncles Richard and Rob at Rouge River Farms. John ventured to the US west in 2013 and made Colorado his home, where he worked in leadership roles in non-profit and municipal government until Sept. 2023. John received an MBA in business leadership from Adams State University in 2019. While living in the Rockies, John has become passionate about the “great outdoors”. Most recently, John has been working for the City of Alamosa for the past 5 years, managing their open spaces and overseeing the development of a municipal trail network. During this time John has been a dedicated volunteer first responder, as part of the Alamosa County high alpine search and rescue team, eventually serving as vice president of the organization.
Emma grew up in the small farming community of Newton, Kansas. Her love of the outdoors and agriculture was fostered at a young age, helping her parents in their garden, tending backyard chickens, rabbits, and a pygmy goat, and playing with cousins and friends along the creeks and prairies surrounding Newton. After graduating from Bethel College, Kansas with a BA in Biology, Emma moved to Alamosa, Colorado to work for the Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration Project, a small non-profit with a mission to improve the health of the Rio Grande watershed in Colorado. After several years, Emma took over as the Restoration Project’s Executive Director, where she led a diverse range of restoration projects through collaboration with local farmers and ranchers, state and federal agencies, and community partners. While in Alamosa, Emma also served on the board of the San Luis Valley Local Foods Coalition, helping to create an equitable local food system that supports the people and environment. Emma is passionate about the relationship between ecosystems and communities and believes that sustainable agriculture is an important way of fostering this connection.
We met and fell in love in Colorado in 2013 and together we have two children; Julian, aged 2, and Wren who is just 6 weeks old. While we have a strong connection to the people and the place where we live now, we look forward to a new chapter and to raise our children in the Markham/Stouffville area surrounded by the support of our family (the Reesor clan is prolific!). Not to mention, Julian is extremely excited to be living in such close proximity to tractors and farm equipment!
We were inspired to own and manage Reesor’s Farm Market as it represents a confluence of our lived experiences and values. For John, it’s a homecoming and a reconnection to the land and people that he grew up with. It is an opportunity to feed his entrepreneurial spirit in an industry that he has been marked by. For both of us, living on a farm and being part of a business that supplies customers with quality food and locally grown produce, is right up our alley. Furthermore, to be living and working in the Rouge National Urban Park, is a dream come true! We have become passionate about public lands while living in the US Southwest and look forward to stewarding this parcel of Parks Canada land that we will cultivate and live on.
We acknowledge this land as the traditional territory of the Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Anishinaabe peoples. We recognize the ongoing connection of Indigenous peoples to this land, and the historic and ongoing violence they have faced. We also recognize our responsibility to care for and protect the land for future generations.
As we assume ownership of the business, we intend to treat our employees, customers, and community with integrity. We will ensure the quality of the produce grown on the property remains top-tier through ongoing relationships with producers Jay Reesor and Grahame Reesor Taylor (another cousin). We will continue to provide a place for people in the GTA to experience its agricultural heritage and to connect to their food. We look forward to continuing to host KIND Yoga, owned by Ellen Reesor (yet another cousin!). We are also motivated to grow the business and find innovative ways to bring people “back to the land” in the years to come.
If you don’t already know us, we look forward to meeting you! If you already know us, we look forward to reconnecting. Come say hi!
Sincerely,
John & Emma Reesor
Introducing Laura Reesor
After working in many capacities at Reesor’s Market & Bakery for nearly 10 years, and now to be the owner, I cannot think of a better way to continue to be a part of the growth and success of such an amazing business. I will be the owner and manager you will see in the store and will continue to be present for our customers as much as possible. However, I could not do it without the background support of my husband, Luke Reesor (and of course our three young boys). Along with Luke, I couldn’t be more thrilled to be a continued part of this vibrant community and we are committed to continue to uphold the values and traditions that make Reesor’s Market & Bakery so dear to our hearts. Our commitment to preserving the store’s quality of customer care and products is unwavering.
We look forward to continuing to offer the same quality of standard that our faithful customers have grown to expect from so many of our wonderful baked goods, entrees, soups and salads. We also hope to be able to provide our community with new and exciting products as time goes on. Our dedicated and hardworking staff at the Reesor’s production kitchens make it all possible and we are so pleased to keep working with them. The same friendly faces on all our amazing storefront workers will continue to greet you at the door and offer the best customer service possible.
And how does Reesor’s Farm Market play into all of this you may wonder? We will continue to sell their delicious strawberries and sweet corn at the store amongst other produce as well. The Farm Market will carry on providing the baked goods and entrees that their customers have grown so fond of over the years. We look forward to the opportunity to work alongside the new owners of Reesor’s Farm Market, John Reesor and his wonderful wife Emma. In case you’re wondering: John is my husband Luke’s first cousin.
The change in ownership of Reesor’s Market & Bakery and Reesor’s Farm Market is now complete. It is a new beginning offering the opportunity for the next generation of Reesors to preserve all of the best qualities of these amazing businesses founded by Jay and his wife Miriam and also find new ways to grow as time goes on.
It is with immense honour and gratitude that we step into this new chapter. We thank Jay for building and growing this business and now providing us the reins to carry on.
Sincerely,
Laura Reesor
A Little Bit About the History of Reesor’s Markets & Jay Reesor
Reesors have lived and farmed in the Markham and Stouffville, Ontario area since their arrival from Pennsylvania in 1804. Since then, many generations of our family have been growing and providing food for the area. My father was a dairy farmer in Markham who also grew specialty crops like green peas, sweet corn and forage crop seeds. I remember my first farm marketing lessons as a child, picking sweet corn and then selling it at the side of our gravel road.
I began my own farm business career in 1984, five years after completing my crop science degree from the University of Guelph. In that year I had the opportunity to farm my Uncle Harold Heise’s farm at Leslie Street and Elgin Mills Road in Markham. Back in those days I grew wheat, grain corn, soybeans, and sweet corn. This once agriculturally productive farm currently offers a Costco, a Staples, a Home Depot, and a Starbucks.
In 1985 another small farm became available with a house, barn and 22 acres at Ninth Line and Elgin Mills Road in Markham. This is where our current farm market operates. Back in those years I grew strawberries, sweet corn, tomatoes and pumpkins just like today, but I also was raising pigs and laying hens. In the first year we sold all of our produce off a farm wagon at the end of the driveway along an increasingly busy Ninth Line. In 1986 we built a very modest, little shed as a market to keep us out of the wind and dry from the rain. Over the years we have gradually added more space to our market including produce cooler and bakery preparation facilities to better serve our growing number of loyal customers.
In 1992 my wife Miriam and our daughters Leah and Jessica and I decided to do a three year term of volunteer service in rural Haiti. I was an agronomist working with local farmers to help improve their yields while Miriam helped establish a local cooperative group. Those were great years for our family! While we were away, Reesor Farm Market was still operating with my sister Arlene Reesor and her husband Denis Taylor running the farm. Arlene had an interest in baking so she began offering freshly baked bread and pies at our farm market. When I returned to operate the farm in 1995, Arlene and Denis bowed out of the farm and bakery.
We kept the baking component going at the farm which eventually led to opening Reesor Farm Kitchen on Ringwood Dr. in Stouffville in 2004. In addition to great baking, we also began to offer delicious tasting entrees as well, not just during the Reesor Farm Market’s summer season, but year-round. The little Kitchen grew and in 2013 we moved our retail store from the back streets to 5758 Main Street, renaming it Reesor's Market & Bakery.
I am so pleased that in 2023 and 2024 the farm and market and our town market have transitioned to new owners and they will continue to grow and make good food for our area. I am proud they will build on the tradition of our Reesor farming family.
—Jay Reesor
