About First Ave Farm Stand

First Ave Farm Stand started the way a lot of good things do: somewhat accidentally, with too many eggs, more fruit than one family could possibly eat, and a growing suspicion that maybe the abundance around us was meant to be shared.

We’re a tiny, homegrown farm stand in Cowichan Station, Vancouver Island, tucked beside More Than Muffins and just down the road from The Hub Community Centre.

What began as a simple place to put out a few extra eggs and garden vegetables has slowly grown into something much more us.

Depending on the season, you might find fresh eggs, figs, plums, apples, elderberries, herbs, flowers, garden produce, homemade seasonal goods, locally collected stones, polished gems, handmade pieces and the occasional wonderfully odd thing that seemed too interesting not to put on the stand.

In other words, we are not particularly good at staying in one lane.

And we like it that way.

Grown here. Made here. Found here.

A lot of what appears at First Ave starts right here on our little property.

The hens lay the eggs. The trees produce ridiculous quantities of fruit when they feel like it. The elderberries ripen all at once. The garden inevitably grows too much of something and not nearly enough of whatever we planned dinner around.

Rather than letting good food go to waste, we harvest it, preserve it, experiment with it and share it.

That philosophy has shaped everything we do.

Our seasonal products are small-batch by nature because the farm decides the inventory. Some weeks there are baskets of figs. Other weeks, apples. In August, the elderberries steal the show. Occasionally the birds beat everyone to it.

There are no warehouses here. No produce travelling thousands of kilometres. No boardroom deciding what is “in season.”

Just the actual season.

Part farm stand, part creative experiment

First Ave Farm Stand also reflects the people behind it.

We are gardeners, makers, rockhounds, animal people, chronic tinkerers and enthusiastic learners who tend to look at something and wonder, What could we make with that?

That might mean turning freshly harvested elderberries into a concentrated elixir, polishing a beautiful Vancouver Island stone, making a sign, experimenting with a new garden crop or finding a better way to use something that would otherwise be wasted.

We care about old knowledge, practical skills and learning how people grew, preserved, made and shared things before convenience became the default.

We also believe women have been quietly doing this kind of work forever—growing food, preserving harvests, caring for animals, feeding communities, passing down knowledge and somehow making five useful things out of what everyone else thought was scraps.

We’re happy to keep that tradition going.

Preferably with better branding.

Why a roadside stand?

Because we like the simplicity of it.

You stop. You see what is fresh. You take what you need. You leave a few dollars behind. Tomorrow there may be something completely different.

It feels neighbourly in a way that modern shopping sometimes doesn’t.

We try to keep our prices reasonable, make good use of what our property produces and offer things we would genuinely be excited to stumble across ourselves.

There is also something deeply satisfying about watching food travel approximately 40 feet from where it grew to the person taking it home.

Our carbon-footprint department is very pleased.

A little stand with a bigger purpose

First Ave is still small, and we intend to keep much of that smallness.

Small lets us experiment.

Small lets us notice when the figs are suddenly perfect.

Small lets us put something on the stand simply because it delighted us.

Small lets us know the people who stop by.

And small means the stand can evolve alongside our garden, our animals, our creativity and our community.

We’re interested in growing food thoughtfully, wasting less, learning old skills, supporting local makers and creating a place that feels useful, welcoming and just a little unexpected.

So stop by and see what the farm decided to make this week.

We genuinely may not know until that morning.