YA BUSINESS MENTORSHIP NETWORK – VIVE LE VEG FARM

“ We applied to the business mentorship program to help figure out more of what we didn’t know, some of which we didn’t even know we didn’t know! There are so many different aspects to running your own business, not even thinking about the growing side of things but just the paperwork alone. ”

– TJ and Olivia, Vive Le Veg Farm –  Ladner, BC

Young Agrarians is celebrating the eleventh year of the Business Mentorship Network (BMN) program in BC and the third year of the BMN in the Prairies! The BMN offers a year-long farm business mentorship to a diverse array of new and young farmers. Through one-on-one mentorship, peer networks, and online workshops, new farmers develop the skills necessary to operate ecologically sustainable and financially viable farm businesses.

Applications for Mentees across Western Canada open in October 2025. Mentor applications are accepted year-round. Want to be notified when applications open for the 2026 cohort? Click below!

Meet a mentee from the current cohort and learn about their farm and why they joined the Business Mentorship Network. Want more? Head over to our BMN Blog for more mentorship stories.

Meet a Mentee: Vive Le Veg Farm

Hi there! We are TJ & Olivia McWilliam from Vive Le Veg Farm, our amazing mentors in the Young Agrarians Business Mentorship program are Kerry & Budgie from Laughing Crow Farm in Pemberton, BC. We farm just outside of Ladner, BC – about 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver.

What inspired you to get into farming?

We were inspired to get into farming through a number of corresponding passions and opportunities. Our joint love for food, community, local food systems and resiliency, sustainable farm practices, nature, and so much more. For the past decade plus we have been mulling over the idea of getting into farming in some capacity – while we were working in restaurants, renewable energies, doing permaculture courses, watching YouTube videos and WWOOFing we always had the idea of a farm floating around somewhere in the background.

How did you learn how to farm?

TJ took a permaculture course through Verge Permaculture in 2014 where he was introduced to lots of new ideas and techniques related to farming, after which he partnered with some friends in Calgary to start up a little microgreen farm. This was a great learning experience which lended many lessons to our business today. More recently both Olivia and TJ have WWOOF’d on a couple of farms in BC, but things got more serious for both of us in 2021 when TJ enrolled in the UBC Farm Practicum program, an 8 month program mixing hands-on experience with classroom knowledge.

What type of business structure is your farm?

Our business is a general partnership between Olivia and TJ, Vive Le Veg, which means ‘Long Live the Veg’.

How much land is under production on your farm and what do you produce?

We operate on about 1.5 acres of land, with a large variety of market garden style vegetable crops. Last season we grew 100+ different varieties, with some of our top crops being tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, radicchio, and edible flowers.

What kind of land agreement do you have?

We operate on a leased / partner piece of land on a larger farm that we found through the Young Agrarians land matching program back in 2021. It isn’t a strict lease setup as the landowners help us out lots so we think of it more of a partnership structure, but we run our own business separate from their farming operations.

Did you access any financing to buy land or start your farm business?

To start our farm we bought the bare necessities to get going, seeds, some irrigation, a couple of hoes, and some compost. Fortunately the farm where we operate has some tractors which were able to help us break ground, shape beds, and do some of the heavy lifting. The first season we started really small, maybe ¼ acre of growing space with no greenhouses. That year was the same year TJ was in the UBC Practicum as well as working part time at Zaklan Heritage Farm in Surrey. So it was a big learning year to see if we would make it work and try to glean as much as possible.

What types of ecological farm practices and/or responses to climate change realities do you engage in?

Our farm follows organic practices although we are not certified as we are on a larger farm which is not a strictly organic farm. We work on permanent raised beds which helps to build soil structure and reduces our need to till / disc fields as often. We do a lot of intercropping and grow a huge amount of different crops which brings in a variety of beneficial insects as well as our new hedgerow of native shrubs which was planted a couple of years ago by the Delta Farm and Wildlife Trust. This season with a bit more space we are going to incorporate more cover cropping throughout the year.

What informational resources do you use regularly, or have used in the past, to operate your farm business?

Learning for us has been a lot of hands-on experimentation, trial and error. But of course there are tons of amazing resources out there on Instagram, YouTube, and following rabbit holes late at night on the internet haha. Shameless plug here, but of course Young Agrarians have so much good stuff on their site. The Market Gardener book was a great starting place, anything from Eliot Coleman, seed catalogs have tons of great information in them – especially Johnny’s they have pretty detailed information for each individual crop. We have just ordered The Farmer’s Office from Julia Shanks and are super excited about that one! Talking to farmers in the local community is super helpful as well because their knowledge is so specific to our climate and they are always so willing to help young farmers. Ken & Andrea from Crescent Island Farms, Mark from Glorious Organics, Gemma from Zaklan Farm, Lydia from Cropthorne, Emily from Schoolhouse, Kerry & Budgie from Laughing Crow (the best new mentors), and lots of others!

Why did you apply for business mentorship? What are your primary business goals for the season?

We applied to the business mentorship program to help figure out more of what we didn’t know, some of which we didn’t even know we didn’t know! There are so many different aspects to running your own business, not even thinking about the growing side of things but just the paperwork alone. Some goals for this season include increasing production, keeping better records, not overworking ourselves, and having some on farm events!

What is the greatest challenge you face as a new farmer?

The greatest challenge that we’ve faced as new farmers is finding a good work life balance. We live and work on the farm and there is always something that could be done. Every season we are getting better at taking more time off, but some things just need to get done and the summer is that time.

What business tools could you not live without?

We use a few tools on the business end that work great for us. One is called Tend, it’s an online farm planning and sales platform – we use it primarily for the offer sheet function which we can schedule to send each week to all our customers. It also creates our pick and pack list for the week, as well as all of our invoices. We also use Instagram a ton as a means of communication with chefs and restaurants, it’s just a simple straightforward way to communicate and everyone is on it these days.

How can we find out more about you, your farm, and its products?

If you want to follow along with our farm more we just setup a simple website, and of course Instagram! Thanks YA!

Insta – @vivelevegfarm

Website – viveleveg.com