About Us
Spencer and Emma are the people behind The Local Co. We do all the making, growing, and everything else involved in running this little business! Woodworking and gardening started off as a hobby and creative outlet and then slowly turned into a small business.
Spencer started his journey in woodworking (and gardening!) while he was completing a diploma in Organic Land Care. During this process, he transitioned his families backyard and front yard from grass into a huge vegetable garden with raised garden beds and a hoop house. Emma did some woodworking in high school and was mainly making cutting boards and kitchen utensils. Emma was working in outdoor education in forests, farms, and gardens while going to university and didn’t get to do much woodworking. The first projects, they built together were a hanging plant shelf and bird houses. They then started building garden beds together to finish off the front yard garden at his parents (which turned into a multi year process). Spencer went down the YouTube rabbit hole of epoxy river dining tables and together in 2022, we made our first serving board and have been making them ever since! Later in 2023, we did our first market where we starting selling our serving boards, cards, ornaments, and stickers.
While slowing working on the business, we have been working in the mental health field doing peer support and running programs for youth and young adults. Spencer has been working in this field for over 7 years and Emma for the last 3 years. Through the lens of peer support and shared lived experience, we have been supporting folks as they navigate their journeys while we have been navigating our own. Spencer and Emma met in 2019 while on a youth mental health advisory committee and over the last year they have been facilitating groups together.
When not working, you can find us exploring the mountains or in the garden! Getting outside, whether deep in the mountains, on a local trail, or in our own front yard, has been a huge part of our mental health and recovery journeys. During the winter, we are out ski touring and winter camping most weekends and during the rest of the year, we are often out hiking, camping, trail running, or biking. We are slowing getting into the realms of mountaineering and rock climbing as well! Summer is a busy time with tons growing in the garden, both vegetables and now lots of flowers. We have been growing enough tomatoes for tomato sauce for the whole year and have been working on growing salad greens in all the seasons to be able to have a home grown salad every night.
We are now entering the next chapter of The Local Co. This summer we will be transitioning to focusing on the business full time! Come check back soon to hear more about how we will be combining our passions and working towards running our own mental health programs using some of the profits from our small business!
The Workshop
Our workshop is a one car garage in North Vancouver. It is a small space but we make it work and are very grateful for this space. A lot of our tools are on wheels and we wheel them around the workshop when they are needed. It’s surprising the number of tools we have been able to fit in there! It is here that all our serving boards, vases, coasters, cutting boards, and other wood product are made.
We use all reclaimed wood in our products! Our serving boards are all made using salvaged trees that were removed from around Metro Vancouver. All these trees were coming down for another reason and cut up into slabs and dried. It has been pretty cool to get to see all the different hardwood trees that can grown here! We also use off cuts from other woodworkers in the community and repurpose hardwood from furniture that is at the end of its life.
The Garden
We grow and then dry all the flowers and plants used in our serving boards, vases, and ornaments! They are all grown in our garden in North Vancouver by the two of us. We started with one small garden bed growing a few varieties of drying flowers in 2021 and we made our first ornaments in 2022 after upping our flower growing production. In Spring 2025, we built this garden using entirely reclaimed cedar from old fences and decks from residents in our neighbourhood. This garden has over 500 plants growing in it this year!
The flower season usually starts in early January with planning and seed ordering. In February and March, we start the seeds indoors and then over the next weeks, we pot up the seedlings and transition them outside into our hoop house. We care for them until it is warm enough for them to be planted, and then they grown until roughly September. We harvest flowers throughout the summer and hang the bundles in the cool and dark basement until they are dry. This usually takes a few weeks but depends on the variety.
