Meet Stacey Givens

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stacey Givens. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stacey below.

Stacey, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

When i think about where I get my work ethic from, I instantly think about both my parents. I am the youngest of seven in my family. My mom is an immigrant from a small village in Greece and came to America with her family for more opportunity after losing their village to a tragic earthquake. From a young age, I found myself watching my mom do everything, from planting our garden, harvesting, cooking large family style meals for all of us, preserving food, cleaning, climbing trees to trim back branches, making things look beautiful and so much more. I was in awe of her completely. My favorite food memories from when i was a kid was going out ‘foraging’ with my mom and her Greek church friends. Whether it was olive trees in an open grove, fruit hanging over someone’s fence or horta (wild greens) in the nearby hills, she turned it all into magic when she brought it to the kitchen. She always had a knife and a pillowcase in the car, she foraged weekly. Might I add that we lived in a beach town just south of Los Angeles, so very urban and residential foraging! When I look back at my childhood, I realized that Side Yard Farm & Kitchen is my mom. I created a place that is home to me and I have shared it with my community in Portland for the last 16 years. Growing food for the community, cooking large family style meals on the farm and hosting events of all kinds. I even do some urban foraging myself, preserving all that I can.

Then there’s my Dad, my best friend. Sadly, he passed away in 2011, but he left a big mark on me. My Dad was from the south, he cooked up some mean BBQ, taught me how to work on cars, build things, fix things and more. He was very proud of the fact that he never called in sick to work a day in his life. Wild, right?! He was the hardest working person I knew and he taught me 3 simple things in life:: work hard, show respect where it’s deserved and don’t let anyone take advantage of you. This has been very helpful since I have spent more than half my life working in professional kitchens. He was my cheerleader and made sure to tell me on the daily how proud he was of me. Its because of him that I never took shit from men in kitchens, that i pushed my way to lead positions by keeping my head down and working hard. Where I was disrespected or taken advantage of, I never wasted my time and would move on to where I was wanted.

Fear also played a big role in shaping who I am today and where I get my work ethic from. Or maybe I should say i got it from my younger self. When I was 12 I knew I was queer and that scared the shit out of me. Homophobia was pretty rampant in the 90’s, it wasn’t a safe time and I also didn’t know anyone else like me. I come from a large Greek church going family and their were expectations of me as well. I felt alone and went into survival mode thinking that everyone I love will turn on me once they knew who I really was, especially my parents. One of my brothers owns a restaurant and I begged him to hire me, I was about 14 years old or so. Everyday after school for all 4 years of high school, I went to work so I could save as much money as I could in case my parents kicked me out once they found out. I learned every station and worked with people that didn’t care that I was queer, they became family. By the time I graduated high school, I saved up a good amount of money, moved out and took care of myself. Being in survival mode taught me hard work because I thought I only had myself to depend on. That hard work paid off and prepared me for all the restaurant kitchens I worked my way in and out of over the years and most of all it led me to being a gutsy entrepreneur by the age of 26. It also taught me to have no fear and to be unapologetically myself for the rest of my days. Oh, and if you’re wondering how my parents took the news, they ended up loving me even harder than before.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am the chef/farmer/owner of the Side Yard Farm & Kitchen in Portland, Or. Side Yard is a 1 acre urban farm, venue, catering company and community hub, established in 2009. We host events of all kinds for the community: brunches, dinners, drag shows, bike in movie nights, grief group, queer comedy shows, yoga, plant sales, farmers markets and more. I love collaborating with folx on events and projects. Our farm provides local restaurants with produce, families with CSA shares and we also have a food donation program that provides non-profits with veggies and plant starts. We are committed to continuing our work in building and fostering community resilience by providing a safe, inclusive space for all identities.

Our 17th farm season kicks off in March 2025 and we will have a full line up of spring events and we will also have our plant nursery open to the public. Our CSA shares for 2025 go live in January. We are currently booking private events as well for next season.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I feel that the three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey is having self-awareness, courage and resilience. My advice for folks on how best to develop or improve these qualities would be to start with working on self-awareness and the rest will follow. Having self-awareness will help you build deeper relationships and for me, that was so important. I am who I am today because of my community and the strong relationships I have built with my friends, fellow chefs and farmers, employees and folks in my community.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

My biggest area of growth over the last 12 months has been learning to let go and say no a bit more when it comes to my business. I had a baby 18 months ago and caring for her is another full time job. Juggling parenthood and the business is very difficult and it has taught me to have more boundaries and that its ok to say no to people. My daughter is teaching me to be present and to enjoy every minute of life instead of working it away.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thesideyardpdx.com
• Instagram: sideyardfarmpdx
• Facebook: the side yard farm- https://www.facebook.com/sideyardpdx/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thesideyardfarmkitchen4328

Image Credits

jamie thrower
shawn linehan