Join Our Community
From our farm to your home!
Join Our Community
From our farm to your home!
From our farm to your home!
From our farm to your home!
Alex (she/her) is the primary farmer at Bird & Bean Farm. She has settler heritage, her family origin is mainly from Scotland and Ireland, and grew up on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabeg traditional territory, in Ottawa. Alex identifies as queer and is lucky enough to share the property she farms on with other awesome members of the queer community. Alex’s love of the outdoors began at a young age. She was a camp kid who then became a canoe tripping guide in the summers. After high school, she spent a few years travelling around the world by volunteering as a WWOOFer (willing worker on organic farms) and her love of the natural world began to include growing. At the same time, however, Alex grew more and more concerned about our changing climate and wanted to affect change more directly through law and policy. She decided to go back to school to pursue first an undergrad degree in Sustainability and Sociology, and then a law degree focusing on environmental and Indigenous law. After law school, however, she quickly discovered that colonial law felt far too reactive in a time when proactivity is so needed, and she found herself being more and more drawn to Indigenous law revitalization. She began searching for jobs outside of colonial law and feels incredibly grateful to have been able to work for the Indigenous Law Research Unit, affiliated with UVic, for over 2 years. However, the longer she worked fulltime in an office, the more she dreamed to be able to be outside and grow again. In the summer of 2021, with the support of ILRU, Alex sought out opportunities to split her time and stumbled across Belle Isle Farm, run by Christine Sayegh. She was able to work there two days a week and continue with ILRU the other three. In the fall of 2021, Alex took a leap of faith and decided to purchase the farm business from Christine because Christine decided it was time to transition back East closer to her family. Alex officially took over the farm and renamed in Bird & Bean Farm in the spring of 2022. After saying goodbye to IRLU in June 2022, Alex dived into farming fulltime. Even though Alex deeply loves food and farming, she misses engaging her brain in big-picture discussions so if you catch her by the farm stand or at the market, she won't be able to stop herself from chatting to you about much more than just what's growing in the field this month! :)
If you are not a CSA member you can still purchase our vegetables at three local markets! On Monday and Thursday evenings from early June to the end of September you can find us at the Esquimalt Markets, at Gorge Park and Memorial Park respectively. On Saturdays from June to September we will be at the James Bay Market. We are also endeavouring to link with the South Island Farm Hub so that you can order our veggies online!
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