While there is undoubtedly strength in numbers, sometimes just the power of two is enough to work magical things. From front/back of house pairings and designer duos to sibling set-ups and mom & pop alliances, this series of interviews looks to gain insight into what makes some of British Columbia’s more interesting partnerships tick.

Some partnerships grow like wild things: unexpectedly, but entirely at home in the right conditions. For TJ and Olivia McWilliam the idea to farm started as a half-formed vision between two city kids who somehow knew a farm was in their future – even though they had no land, farming lineage, and real roadmap. So whenTJ enrolled in the UBC Farm program in 2021, it wasn’t the beginning, exactly (more on that below), but it was the point where Vive le Veg started to take shape.

What’s followed hasn’t been about chasing scale or perfection, but about learning to move with change, on land that shifts texture and tone with the seasons, and in a relationship that deepens through the same kind of daily attentiveness. Their work is less about control than collaboration: with each other, the chefs they supply, and the stubborn, beautiful rhythm of the farm itself. Meet TJ and Olivia:

Take us back to the beginning: where/how did you two meet?

TJ: Olivia and I met in 2014 while studying at MRU in Calgary. We were both in the business program and ended up being in a few classes together. We started dating and made it through university together! After graduating, we packed up and moved to Vancouver together at the end of 2018. Olivia grew up in Tsawwassen and I always loved the coast as a kid from Calgary. And just last August we got married at our neighbour’s farm!

How did Vive Le Veg begin?

Olivia + TJ: We always had this idea of a farm in some capacity… but there was never a very clear path for two city kids with no background in farming or access to farmland. In 2020, TJ was working at Como Taperia when things started shutting down because of the pandemic. We both love restaurants and the industry but we thought it was as good of a time as any to try something else out. In the summer of 2021, TJ enrolled in the UBC Farm practicum, which was an amazing experience and opened our eyes to a lot of opportunities and ways to start a small farm.

That same summer we found a listing out in Ladner on the Young Agrarians website, which is a really cool land matching program. It seems insane looking back on it, and it felt kind of wild at the time, but we sent them a message asking to see the property and meet. We drove out to look at this little ¼ acre plot across the street from Barnside Brewery, who were looking for someone to run a market garden on their farm to work alongside the brewery’s kitchen. We met the land owners (the Malenstyns) and it just felt right. It was a low risk first year just getting to know each other, and seeing what we could do.

On the drive home from that initial meeting, we both just kind of looked at each other like “are we really doing this right now? Is this crazy?” The answer was “yes”, and “yes”. At the time we were living in Vancouver, Olivia working full-time and TJ in the practicum three days a week. We spent a lot of time that summer driving back and forth, setting up irrigation, planting leftover seeds and plants from the UBC Farm and seeing what happened.

After the first season working alongside the Malenstyns, we all thought it was a great fit and that this could be something more long term for the two of us. So we decided to build a tiny house and move onto the farm property. Our little 400 sqft home overlooks the fields that we farm, which has been really amazing – living on the land and seeing things change throughout the seasons.

Now, going into our fifth season growing on this property we know we were really, really underqualified and unprepared in the beginning, but we worked our butts off and learned a lot of lessons the hard way those first couple of years.

In terms of the partnership, what are your official roles?

TJ: I’m more of the farm manager, in the fields day-to-day, working with our team and trying to execute our growing and harvesting plans for the season. Most of our collaborative / visioning work is done in the winter months to plan out the farm, talk through last year’s successes and failures, and take a good look at areas we’d like to grow upon.

Olivia: I’m a bit of a behind-the-scenes gal. By day, I work full-time as a Project Manager at Kambo Energy, helping improve energy access for underrepresented communities. I also take care of some of the backend responsibilities like payroll, insurance, grant writing – all that super fun work. I love being out in the fields away from the computer, so whenever I get the chance to swap out my laptop for some work gloves, I’m out the door and into the fields.

How about your “unofficial” roles?

Olivia: I am the beekeeper on the farm, tending to our little apiary, which is definitely my favourite job on the farm – last season we had 14 hives between our property and my moms place out in Aldergrove. I love my bees!

TJ: I mean I think this is a part of my ‘official’ role, but I love working alongside the chefs and doing the delivery driving into the city. The delivery day is always hectic but fun, and it’s super rewarding seeing how excited people are to receive our products. It also gives me time to see what’s going on in the city, grab a coffee or a pastry, and see some friends.

“The bees have been some of my best teachers when it comes to resilience, echoing so many of the lessons I’ve learned from farming. Watching the bees work in harmony with the rhythm of the seasons, even the rhythm of each day, has been a constant reminder to move with, not against, the natural flow of things, both on the farm or in our relationship…whether it’s noticing subtle changes in the hives or the soil, or asking thoughtful questions in our relationship, our goal is and continues to be to learn and grow together, and I deeply value that.” — Olivia

Favourite vegetable?

TJ: That’s like asking a parent to pick a favourite child… and mine is tomatoes.

Olivia: Same here, cherry tomatoes. The flavours, the colours, the smell of the vines – magic! Honorable mention to delicata squash, keeping us fed for the winter months.

Favourite month on the farm, and why?

TJ: I think October. You’ve made it through the chaos, you’re exhausted, probably burnt out a little bit, but there is still so much amazing stuff coming out of the fields.

Olivia: June! The farm really comes to life in June; it feels full and bountiful coming out of spring rains and there’s just this (relative) calm before the storm that is July & August on a farm.

Favourite sign of spring?

TJ: The arrival of the upcoming season’s seed orders.

Olivia: Bees! Our hives start to wake up from the winter, and you get to see the girls buzzing around foraging for pollen to bring back to the hive.

What’s your idea of the perfect post-farming day meal? Are you cooking together, grabbing takeout, or collapsing in silence?

Olivia: TJ does most of the cooking in our house (by choice, he loves it), and I provide lovely meal prep conversation from the sidelines, and am an expert dishwasher. It’s when we get to chat and catch up on each others’ day.

TJ: We like to mix it up, but our favourite in the summer is to throw a bunch of veg on the bbq, slice up super ripe tomatoes, a little steak and maybe some vino if it’s the end of the week. But if we are dead tired, we go quick-and-dirty with some Dominoes and make a little salad to balance it out, hah.

Olivia: After dinners, we stroll down the road to our neighbours at Schoolhouse Farm for a popsicle or cookie. Then pass out.

Your work blends systems thinking, regenerative agriculture, and chef collaboration. How do you keep aligned on your shared values while navigating both day-to-day decisions and longer-term goals for the farm?

Olivia + TJ: It really comes down to planning. In the winter and spring are when the majority of decisions for the season are made, lots of spreadsheets, conversations with wine, forecasting – all that really glamorous work. Once we are in the season we do our best to follow those plans, keep up on record keeping, and just hold on for the ride. If you need to make decisions in July it’s a lot harder to see that big picture.

What has farming together taught you about resilience — both in the land you tend and in your relationship?

TJ: Oh man, that’s a great question.

Olivia: The bees have been some of my best teachers when it comes to resilience, echoing so many of the lessons I’ve learned from farming. Watching the bees work in harmony with the rhythm of the seasons, even the rhythm of each day, has been a constant reminder to move with, not against, the natural flow of things, both on the farm or in our relationship. They’ve given us a window into the importance of plant diversity for building resilience, which has been a core value of the farm. Showing us that we thrive when we depend on a variety of blooms, not just one crop. And I think both have taught me the importance of staying curious, whether it’s noticing subtle changes in the hives or the soil, or asking thoughtful questions in our relationship, our goal is and continues to be to learn and grow together, and I deeply value that.

TJ: The land that we tend is alive, it’s tenacious, and it’s never not changing. Seeing how it moves throughout the seasons is always so beautiful; from soaking wet mud, to rock hard clay, and everything in-between. Plants are incredibly tough, they just keep growing. Seed farmers and breeders really make our jobs much easier, having such great products to begin with.

Are you always on the same page? If not, how do you navigate decision-making when it comes to an issue where you both want a different outcome? Can you share an example of a time when you had to reconcile different viewpoints to make a joint decision?

Olivia: We are both pretty aligned on the vision of the farm, although there are always new projects and ideas. TJ does a great job at “sky’s-the-limit” thinking. He likes to push for more, try out different crop varieties, think of new projects, and take on more growing space. I think I help reign that in sometimes, providing some support and balance in helping backcast from the big vision to the now. We try not to make any snap decisions. We like to bring up an idea and let it percolate for a while, and we usually land aligned on the path forward.

TJ: Yeah, I think that something we’ve learned from each other is to take a step back and not rush into any decisions. When we go for walks or drives off the farm is when a lot of those decisions get made.

This spring I really wanted this fancy new transplanter, but it’s quite expensive, and we weren’t sure if it would even work well in our soils. I think it sat in my checkout cart for a month or so before Olivia talked some sense into me. I’ll try again next year, hah!

Reflecting on the past four years since you started farming together, how closely have your initial expectations of a business partnership aligned with reality? Which aspects of your partnership have strengthened or become clearer over time?

TJ: We kind of just went for it, so I don’t know if we had many expectations at the beginning. We both really care about the farm, we want it to succeed, and we love to see it grow and change along the way. At the end of the day we know we have eachothers backs.

Olivia: Reflecting on the last four years, I think it’s safe to say that farming has turned out to be everything we hoped for and nothing like we expected! I always knew that TJ would take an “unconventional” path, he’s so tactile and entrepreneurial, I could never picture him sitting at a desk for a nine-to-five. For myself, I would just dream of being out of the city working outside, so when farming kinda clicked for us it felt so special. Over time, we’ve grown clearer on our strengths: TJ thrives in the hands-on physical work of the farm and cultivating those restaurant relationships, while I focus on building our workplace culture & processes, and managing the behind the scenes. We’ve really strengthened our ability to navigate adversity together – farming is a constant practice of tackling daily, weekly and seasonal challenges. From broken water lines and pests, to crop failures, learning to adapt side by side has made our relationship stronger, both on and off the field.

As life partners and business partners who work side-by-side, are the two relationships delineated in any way? Or are you living a fully integrated/beautifully blurred existence of ‘life is work/work is life’?

Olivia + TJ: Oh it’s all a blur, but mostly a beautiful one! We’ve lived on the farm for the past three years so it’s deeply a part of our lives. Some days it feels more like work than others, and we communicate with each other when we need a break. Now we make it a priority to get off the farm in the summer and set some boundaries for ourselves, otherwise we could be out there weeding from sunrise to sunset.

How do you make each other laugh?

Olivia: Both of us never actually know the right song lyrics, but singing the song with the confidence that we do, it makes for some good entertainment.

TJ: Being silly, laughing at ourselves, singing the wrong lyrics to songs – all that good stuff.

The last mind-blowing restaurant meal you shared together somewhere?

Olivia + TJ: We just got in a quick trip to Mexico before the beginning of the planting season and we ate at Arca in Tulum. It was a really amazing experience.

How can young farmers overcome the challenge of accessing land in the Lower Mainland to pursue farming?

Olivia + TJ: Access to land feels like an insurmountable variable to getting into farming, but there are some amazing resources out there to help you get started. However, owning the land isn’t a requirement to be a farmer. Land leasing is an amazing way to get access to land at a price point that works for you.

Do you have advice for anyone looking to go into business together?

Olivia + TJ: Relationships take a long time to really develop, and you have to go through the ups and downs with someone before you really know if you’re a good fit. How you navigate the disagreements, challenges and losses is almost as important as how you celebrate the wins together. Ultimately, you want someone by your side who you love working with just as much when you’re in the trenches as you do when you’re at the peaks.

Respect.

Want to taste Vive Le Veg for yourself? You can often find produce from TJ and Olivia on menus of the coolest Vancouver establishments, including:

The Acorn
Published
Magari by Oca
Barbara
AnnaLena

Vive le Veg

Ladner, BC

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