Candle maker seeks to ‘spark joy’ Farmer’s Son Co. turns focus to expanding, enhancing local shopping experience as it nears decade in business Made in Manitoba
By: Aaron Epp Posted: 6:00 AM CST Monday, Dec. 15, 2025

Dan Mitchell is 400 kilometres and two decades removed from the family farm he grew up on, but there are things from that time and place he still carries with him.

For the artisanal candle maker, who sells his products under the name Farmer’s Son Co., leaving the farm was an escape. Still, Mitchell says, you don’t move away from a place where everybody chips in to make sure it’s successful without holding so much of what you were raised with close to you.

“You work and you work and you keep working because you have no plan B — your farm is your plan B,” Mitchell says. “That mindset and mentality has been taken to anything that I’ve done in my career.”

The 40-year-old entrepreneur is standing in his company’s headquarters, a 2,300-square-foot manufacturing space and storefront in Winnipeg’s West End neighbourhood.

Mitchell moved into the space in January 2021, almost five years after starting the business. At that point, the storefront took up 450 sq. ft. The rest was dedicated to making candles Mitchell sold to 150 retailers across Canada (and a few in Mexico).

Earlier this year, Mitchell decided to pour fewer candles and pull back on his wholesale operation. At the same time, he expanded the shop — which he spells “shoppe,” using the archaic spelling of the word deliberately, no doubt because of the old-fashioned charm it inspires.

He and his husband, Rory, expanded the store by nearly 800 sq. ft. and completely renovated the space.

Now when people walk into 115-1079 Wellington Ave., they encounter not just the candles, incense and room sprays Farmer’s Son Co. has become known for, but an evolving collection of goods for home and daily life.

There are shelves lined with Canadian and European gourmet grocery items, chocolate and essentials for entertaining guests. There’s also Farmer’s Son Co.-branded garden tools and kitchen linens. And, now that it’s the holiday season, the store is full of Christmas items, including an array of ornaments.

Every item, Mitchell says, has a story and a reason for being there.

“We realized that there was a whole community in the West End that was looking for unique and different gift and grocery and gourmet (items), and sort of flavours of the world,” he says. “We have just really leaned into that.”

During renovations, Mitchell aimed to create the kind of store he visited while growing up in the Municipality of Roblin, thereby giving customers a small town experience in the middle of the capital city.

The dark green walls lend themselves well to the atmosphere Farmer’s Son Co. leans into during the holiday season. No matter how customers are feeling in December, Mitchell hopes they find something they like in the shop.

“The holiday season and this time of year look different to each of us,” he says. “It’s helping folks find ways to … spark joy and find joy in the season, no matter how they choose to — or choose not to — celebrate.

“For some of us, it’s all about nostalgia and those holiday traditions,” he says. “For some of us, it’s about winter solstice. For some of us, there’s a lot of big feelings and complexities, where it’s like, let me just coast through this. And for some, it’s that craving and that desire for nostalgia and warmth. We try to tap into a little bit of all of that.”

Talking to Mitchell, one soon realizes stories and small details matter to him.

After studying business management and marketing at Assiniboine College in Brandon, Mitchell moved to Winnipeg to take a job as a buyer for a building supply company — work that took him to a variety of countries and exposed him to artisans from around the world.

Figuring he needed a hobby, Mitchell spent a few hundred dollars and started making candles on the stove in the Osborne Village apartment he lived in at the time.

In 2016, he began selling the candles at pop-up markets. He named the venture Farmer’s Son Co. as a tribute to his mother, Denise, who died in 2015. When Mitchell was a child, he once overheard her describing herself to someone as a wife, a mother and a farmer.

“My mom was my biggest supporter,” Mitchell says, adding later: “If she’s the farmer, that makes me the farmer’s son.”

In fall 2017, Mitchell left the corporate world to give the business his full-time attention. He describes himself as a self-taught fragrance designer and artist who tries to tell a story through the candles he pours.

Take, for example, the company’s signature candle, “Prairie,” which attempts to capture the smell of the keystone province.

With notes of prairie barley, common blue violets and currant, along with wild grasses and white musk, the candle is meant to bring people from the Prairies back to their roots, no matter where they now make their home.

“Candles seem to be the way in and a way to connect with people,” Mitchell says.

A combination of rising costs for materials, and the physical wear and tear of a decade spent pouring candles, led to Mitchell’s decision to dial back his wholesale operation. These days, he and his two staff members would rather pour fewer candles and make sure they’re available to customers in Winnipeg, rather than ship them elsewhere.

Mitchell’s also focused on offering customers a unique experience. In recent weeks, he’s invited local creatives into the shop each Saturday to sell their products. The no-cost arrangement gives the creatives’ customers an opportunity to get to know Farmer’s Son Co. and vice versa.

Local potter Meg Greenlay was set up in the shop earlier this month and praises Mitchell’s efforts.

“He’s one-in-a-million,” Greenlay says. “He gets how much work you have to put into being a professional creative, whether it’s part-time or full-time. He’s excited about details, colour, texture … He’s an artist, through and through.”

Caitlin Sikora, who makes and sells embroidery under the name Real Swanky, agrees.

“He knows how to turn a space from nothing into something — and that something is very, very special,” says Sikora, who lives in Transcona. “I couldn’t live farther from him (in the city), but I still make it a point to go to his shop as much as I can.”

Sikora will be selling Real Swanky items at Farmer’s Son Co. on Saturday.

“It’s always been very, very warm,” she says of the shop. “You can sink right in when you get there, whether you’re a maker, a shopper or just someone who’s browsing. It’s very welcoming.”

Mitchell says connecting with people is one of the things he most enjoys about running Farmer’s Son Co.

“Because this is the plan B and there’s no backup option, I’m glad people like what we’re doing,” he says. “(It means) we can keep going.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca