Viv’s Veggies is an organic farm and market in Weston, offering fresh, locally grown produce. The owner, Vivian Simons, always loved gardening. She could spend seven hours a day working in the garden.
“I fell in love with this piece of land,” Simons said. “It was on the market 12 years ago and I ended up buying it and turned it into this organic farm.”
However, earlier this year she was reluctant to open Viv’s Veggies again.
“To be honest, I wasn’t planning on opening, ” Simons said. “I lose a lot of money from farming. It’s not profitable, […] and it’s so much work.”
That’s when Viv received a message from one of her returning customers, Paige Lorenze. Lorenze resides in Southport and is an influencer who posts lifestyle and fashion content for her million followers on Instagram and YouTube. This prompted her to create an up-and-coming lifestyle brand, Dairy Boy, in 2021 that sells clothing, denim, homeware and accessories.
“Paige texted me, ‘Viv, I want to help you,” Simons said. “She came here, helped me clean up the farm, built custom shelves and a shed with AC to keep the vegetables fresh.”
Through this collaboration, Lorenze receives no compensation. Her only request was to have her brand, Dairy Boy, be printed across the Viv’s Veggies sign for additional exposure.
Now, teen girls’ Instagram stories blow up across Fairfield County with photos of the Viv’s Veggies stand, baskets of cherry tomatoes, Dairy Boy merch and of Lorenze and the Dairy Boy ice cream truck that travels throughout Connecticut and New York for pop-ups.
The Farmstand is a stand at Viv’s Veggies that sells produce and other micro businesses goods with picnic tables and flowers spread out. People can shop, sit and talk or walk around the farm. Lorenze occasionally visits, sometimes with the ice cream truck, and sells Dairy Boy merch as a pop-up.
“I went [to the Farmstand] because my sister was in a short clip with [Lorenze] and she has been obsessed with her for the longest time,” Daisy Hackett ’27 said. “It was her dream come true to even meet her.”
The Farmstand by Dairy Boy proved to be a success, not just by the crowds it drew in support for the life-style brand, but because it gave Simons the support she needed
to keep farming.
“It’s a good deed that she did,” Simons said. “She saved the farm.”
The revival of Viv’s Veggies also created space for other local makers, including baker Inna Fiafman, who launched her sourdough microbusiness in the fall of last year. She makes sourdough out of her home with a full cottage license and makes each loaf by hand.
Fiafman met Simons last October and started selling her bread at her barn. That following spring, they were unsure of the future of Fiafman’s sourdough business.
“But a lot has changed,” Fiafman said. “Dairy Boy has helped the farm and we
opened the stand. ”
Since the rescue, she’s been selling at The Farmstand, working together with Dairy Boy staff and other micro and small businesses, they have been able to sell handcreams, honey, sourdough, produce, olive oil and other micro-business products all in one stand.
Lorenza Arnal, a seller at the Farmstand, founded Capitana, a chili crunch brand, in 2021 and sells along the East Coast, California and Texas.
“I started my business at the Westport Farmers Market,” Arnal said, “I now ship nationally, I grow in Mexico and bring it through Texas where it’s distributed there, the east coast, and California.”
Many small businesses between sourdough, Capitana, and Bea Olive Oil are given a chance to personally give their product to customers due to the collaboration with Dairy Boy.
“We have the best customers and the best team,” Fiafman said. “I think because
it’s gaining popularity, it’s attracting everyone. It’s really a happy place.”
