Staff Highlight: Carol Bean, Agricultural Specialist
Where were you before your time with ESLC?
I’m a California girl who grew up at the beach before I swapped coasts, moving to New York for college where I studied an eclectic mix of dance, public policy and women’s studies. From there I continued to move around, serving on the national advance staff for the Clinton/Gore campaign where I travelled extensively around the United States. Having caught the travel bug, I next moved overseas to Southeast Asia where I lived and worked for 5 years. My time spent in Cambodia realigned my personal priorities and I relocated to the Eastern Shore seeking to live a more simple and sustainable life.
How did you come to work for ESLC?
I really embraced the rural lifestyle of the Eastern Shore when I moved here and started growing and selling food for a living, culminating in starting my own farm with my husband. For the next twelve years, I made my living off the land, selling specialty vegetables through local restaurants, a CSA and farmers markets. After suffering massive crop failures from excessive rainfall two consecutive years, I started casting about for a part-time job to supplement my on-farm income when I stumbled across a job announcement for an Agriculture Specialist at ESLC. Though I wasn’t looking for a career change, I was so compelled by the opportunity I decided to make the transition.
What is your favorite thing about ESLC?
I love the opportunity to represent the needs and challenges of our local farmers and watermen to the environmental community and public at-large. Working on the redevelopment of the former Phillips canning factory in Cambridge and watching this historic building brought back to life as The Packing House has been an exciting opportunity and I’m looking forward to seeing the space used by the next generation of farmers, watermen and food entrepreneurs and as an asset for the region.
What is your favorite thing about the Eastern Shore?
Growing up in southern California, I was always mystified by people who waxed rhapsodically about the change of seasons but now I get it! Between farming for a living and being married to a local waterman, my life here has been governed by the seasons which has connected to me to this beautiful landscape in a way that I see – and appreciate – every day on my dinner plate.
If you were given a million dollars, what would you do with it?
While I love feeling so rooted here there are still so many places that I’d love to see and explore so I would definitely spend my time (and my new-found wealth!) traveling and eating my way around the world.