Mr & Mrs. Brand - 09. 23. 2025
The moment you crested the last step of the oldest stairs in my neighbourhood, my dreams got exponentially bigger, again.
My best friend, fiercest conspirator, and unrelentingly passionate partner, in the truest sense.
So we unabashedly live this love as big as we can, as loud as we can, with the days we have left.
It was always going to be you, it will always be, you.
Forever, ever.
Us.
You can only complain so long that the food system is toxic, until you HAVE TO grow your own.
Proudly introducing @upwardfarm and our first 3 acre plot in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, where this audacious food dream began, just a few miles away.
30 beds on this plot will become greenhouses, greenhouses will become more acreages, and we will control more and more of the food we provide to folks who need us.
Not our first farm of course, @persephonebrewing will always be, but the first one (of many) built in the community we serve to grow large amounts of everything we need to feed schools, community, and as many people in need as possible, every day.
A massive thank you to my brother @tomfls456 who saw the vision and made it real with his resources, his literal sweat making 3 acres perfectly graded for us, and he and his teams @atlanticroadconstruction ‘s constant generosity and energy in this era of greed and disconnection. We see you.
Farmer Brock isn’t taking visitors yet, but we are so lucky to have him and his passion for this after 25 years behind the best passes on the East.
As I was driving up yesterday we passed a house my mom lived in when she was a young girl, with a family friend. There’s few things I wouldn’t give for her to have seen all this, as this thing of ours grows literally and figuratively, where we both grew up.
We can’t wait to feed you all REAL food, from this dirt, through all our spaces in the Maritimes and eventually, beyond.
My brother @matthewlillard is the realest. He’s been in my life for almost ten years now and from the very first event we did together in support of food sovereignty for folks in the Jungle of LA, I knew just how different he was from his peers.
BETTER is made for tools, and some smiles, but real takeaways from lived experience and Matt gives us a whole stack to think on, some of which are still ringing out for me.
You’re probably already a Lillard fan, but if by some chance you’ve missed his big heart and brain from screen, a listen here and you’ll join our “non washed up director who shall go nameless”, side.
Yakushima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, way down South on a little “pray for me” prop plane.
One of Japans first UNESCO designated sites, the inspiration for Princess Mononoke (the battle between man & nature) and home to Jōmon Sugi the giant Japanese Cedar (actually Cypress but go with it) 7200 years old surrounded by little brothers and sisters around 1000 and up.
The whole island is 30km around, and much like the Galapagos, humans are a relatively recent and relatively non threatening presence, which makes the wildlife largely unbothered as they laze from forest to road, stunningly.
The airport, a tarmac that dates back to the 60’s, and the island must “invite you in” with mountains that climb to 3000 metres, quickly changing weather patterns, typhoons, and being one of the wettest places on earth, twin props are the only size that can land, when they can land, so we felt incredibly lucky that we made it and got days of sun to explore heavy.
And did we, hiking the granite walls and caves, scaling the mind melting waterfalls and kayaking Anbō-gawa through prehistoric chattels, we felt like the lone outsiders most days in this incredibly special place.
We got the chance to visit the super special Yellowtail hatchery, connect with the pole and line fishermen, and taste them the next day with sushi that like all the smaller and beautiful parts of this country, is never frozen and hyper local.
A massive storm hit and we got to experience the sheeting of rain, like standing under a waterfall, against our windows and discuss at length with our guides the practices of Shintoism, animism, hear stories of loss and adaptation, resilience and a pace that left a lot with us both.
Picking 20 slides here was impossible, and this 72 hours is stuck deep in mind and body 🇯🇵❤️
Over the winter we’ve been running Sharpen Up out of our kitchen and so far we’ve worked with 77 kids who love food and are starting to see what it can do for them. Not just as something to eat but as a skill, a career, a path forward.
We teach them knife work, nutrition, and how a kitchen actually runs. The lime squeeze shot was actually taken by one of the students. That detail alone tells you everything you need to know about where these kids are headed.
Fukuoka is Tokyo, before the tsunami of tourism took over.
Hakata is home to Japans most important Asian port for the last thousand plus years. We felt and tasted those influences everywhere.
Curry houses with post India trading route British influence (Japanese curry comes from the English Navy), the creation of Tonkotsu Ramen, the birthplace of ceramics an hour away, and the beauty of being fully, ten toes down, immersed in Japanese culture.
Japanese norms bend away in hellbent Shibuya or Shinjuku, Ginza, etc, there are tens of millions of tourists that need not to get killed in traffic or lost in the station for days, Tokyo while still very much a different planet, comes with interpreters.
Saga, Hakata, Fukuoka, do not, and it was exactly the Japan we missed a lot of in our first trip.
Multiple birthday meals with the incredible team at Chissou Nakamura (arigatou gozaimasu @akira714714 ) and a sublime (proper use of the word) 3 hour session at Zaisho served as reminders that what we do in this business, is magic.
Hakata is also the perfect jump off for the south, is the West, and delivers all the things folks look for in the big 3 (it’s just big me) without the obscene crowds and overstimulation.
The point was to get fully lost in translation and to let the place guide the trip. Hakata delivered with incredible vintage, surprise 45 pop ups (I came up with 30 plus grails in a day and am ruined), insane food with rare (very worth it) waits.
We loved it, you’ll love it, I can’t wait to get back.
Arita, Saga Prefecture, Kyushu Island, 8 stops out of Fukuoka.
The birthplace of Japanese porcelain, Arita shaped the way we all “see” Japanese cuisines. Balancing mastery of craft with mastery of craft, the plate became more than a vessel, it became an intrinsic part of the story of food.
We Shinkansen’ed (I’m making it a verb) from Fukuoka (way more coming on a favorite new Japanese city) and the quiet and calm set in after two tuna rolls, a side of chili cucumbers, and vending machine green teas.
Look, I know it’s been beaten to death, but “convenience” stores in the West are poison hawking disgraces. Aside from Bodega cats and the odd chopped cheese, they all need a reset.
Soap box podium kicked aside, we were the ONLY tourists from the West in Arita, and we’ve been almost the only non Asian tourists in all of Fukuoka.
It’s wonderful.
Being out of any context, language, comfort, allows for depth of learning instead of lackadaisical fumbling, praying for wifi.
Honouring ways, customs, asking for help because without it you’re genuinely lost, is how I started travelling and since the advent of this device I’m currently tapping on, has all but been lost.
Arita has no ride share, and little to no English, so you must ask folks to call you taxis. Of course, they kindly oblige and yet it was so foreign, almost touching, for something that used to be automatic.
Japans history is stark and cruel at points, like all modern history.
Seeing places like this, after that, always gives me hope.
Change is inevitable, the right change possible, but we’ve got to be active beyond our thumbs, daily.
Alison is one of those people you meet in life that you just know she’s all about making sure everyone is taken care of, so much so that she chooses to volunteer her time and effort with us making sure the community is fed. When she’s not with us she’s just down the road at our friends at @thegraineryhfx , which honestly tracks.
She loves food… Making it, eating it, and sharing it and you can see that in her work.
We’re honoured to have her as part of this mission and Halifax is better for people like her.
IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY!
Let’s be straight, everyone who is fortunate enough to call you friend and family, loves the absolute hell out of you.
Who listens and holds space with her ginormous heart and “iron sharp iron” mind like her? Not many.
Your anger at the world and its treatment of folks who can’t advocate for themselves, was the first hook for me (well after getting absolutely whirl-pooled by those big blues) and a few weeks later we were hugged up in a listening lounge in Mexico City talking about our future together.
That was it, you’re it, it’s been a wrap, and following you around the streets of Japan watching you get to be the young woman you never got the chance to, an honour and a gigantic pleasure.
Digging vintage, digging records, shit, digging clams with YOU, is everything I didn’t think I would ever get to have.
You’ve shown me how safe it is not just to be business me, but also young me that gets to do it all for the first time, with you.
There is no substitute for being sure, and sure as the first thing I see every am and the last thing I see every pm, is you, I sure can’t wait to celebrate every year bigger than your last.
I’m so damn proud of you, your growth and the work you put in to be the best you, and equally proud to be your husband.
Happy Birthday baby, forever ever, every time. ❤️
Tokyo the first 48 - 2 stools to 2 stars.
The level of respect and intention in this country will never not disorient me the first days on the ground. Coupled with ease, spotless everything, and kindness at every turn, we’ve eaten our excess baggage weight, and settled back into one of the greatest shows on earth.
The hits are the hits for a reason, but after obligatory konbini egg salads and hot green teas from the vending machines, we dropped in to outer markets, tsukemen slurps all in preparation for the first birthday dinner of many for my girl @sushimtokyo that from front door to arigato, flawless victory.
Recovery aides, Shinkansen rides where Fuji said a rare and clear hello, we’re deep into celebrating, moments over things forever. 🇯🇵
*ambient sound intentionally layered for my nostalgic pals
A few amazing weeks on the West, and I might love it more now than ever.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since I left Melbourne and found my way to East Van. It’s always going to be Home, and as we grow and add homes across the country, it holds a lot of memories for us.
It will always be where entrepreneurship caught fire, and where I found a much greater purpose. It’s gonna be where the lens widened, and where I found the other piece of my world.
A Gastown legend, and mentor of mine passed during the pandemic. I think about him every time I walk the “5 point”. He owned the building The Diamond was in, now it’s part of the Monopoly board of the handful of men who “own” Gastown.
He used to say that neighbourhoods, like the market, rose and fell if you lived long enough to see them. The cycles of greed wringing the economy dry for more stuff the rich could hoard.
I’ll never live long enough to understand Greed, ever.
How people can witness suffering, not from a far, but in their own streets and choose more decimal points over compassionate action speaks to how deeply disconnected this current set of systems has made so many. But amidst the hoarding there are a lot of exceptional people I get the honour to walk and work with.
Together we’re building some new projects to feed many more people in BC, 13 years in, and no matter what cycle occurs, we’ll be right here. ❤️
Social impact entrepreneur and chef @mark.brand is reshaping how food is grown, prepared, and shared, creating opportunities for those who need them most.
More stories like this are unfolding across the country. Tag someone who’s growing Canada in their own way.
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Mark Brand est un chef accompli qui génère un réel impact social.
À travers son travail, il transforme la façon dont on produit, prépare et partage la nourriture, en créant des opportunités pour ceux qui en ont le plus besoin.
D’autres histoires comme celle-ci prennent vie partout au pays. Identifiez quelqu’un qui sort du rang à sa façon.
#PortraitsOfPride #CdnAg #ProudlyCanadian #LetsGrowCanada #onsortdurang
