Accessibility – Farmers on 57th

Love, Respect, Kindness, Generosity, Connection and Possibility

karen September 30, 2022 September 30, 2022Accessibility, Community, CSA, Garden Club, Grow Your Own Food Course, Growing Eden, Pearson Dogwood Community Gardeners, Summer Student, Urban Farming Volunteer Learning Program, Volunteer, Youth Employment

We are a settler-led and predominantly white organization farming in the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ Nations. We want to create a safe space for all to join our community, inclusive of people who have experienced trauma and who seek land-based healing and improved food access. We want to guide our day-to-day work, organizational decisions and future by shared values. To discover our shared values as a community we proposed organizational values of Love, Respect, Kindness and Generosity. Core staff and volunteers explored these values in a March 2022 workshop by Kathi Camilleri who is trained and has…

Solstice Garden Club and Indigenous history

sarah June 22, 2022 June 25, 2022Accessibility, Community, Garden Club

Happy Solstice all! The longest day of the year was marked by grey skies and occasional sprinkling of rain. Today is also National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada with several George Pearson Centre (GPC) residents attending celebrations at the Musqueam reserve, returning aglow. Many nations are represented by the people who live at GPC. We work to reflect on our shared history and towards reconciliation. The land we are on today has long been home to the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. Just down the hill is the site of the former Musqueam winter village c̓əsnaʔəm which existed long before Vancouver was…

Seeking Garden Club Volunteers

sarah May 25, 2022 May 26, 2022Accessibility, Community, Garden Club, Get Involved, Opportunities, Volunteer

We started our well loved Garden Club program with the residents of George Pearson Centre (GPC) at the end of March by starting seeds indoors. This is our 14th year!! It has been a bit chilly so far, for many of the gardeners here, who all get around with the use of a wheelchair. GPC is a longterm residential care facility that is home to 114 adults of all ages. We are now looking for volunteers who are friendly, empathetic, enjoy creating a sense of community, and are interested in working one-on-one with gardeners with disabilities. This program is a…

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on an Urban Farm

karen February 16, 2022 February 16, 2022Accessibility, Community, CSA, Garden Club

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Farmers on 57th in 2020 were multiple: loss of reliable access to washrooms, indoor storage and programming space and increases in the cost of agricultural inputs, while at the same time, a growth in CSA membership.

Changes on the Horizon: The Pearson Dogwood Redevelopment and Farmers on 57th, Part 3 of 3

karen February 16, 2022 February 16, 2022Accessibility, Community

As one farm volunteer so aptly pointed out, where do you put the pile of compost in a multimillion-dollar development? Farming is a messy practice and only time will tell whether this aligns with Onni’s vision for Cambie Gardens.

Changes on the Horizon: The Pearson Dogwood Redevelopment and Farmers on 57th, Part 2 of 3

karen February 16, 2022 February 16, 2022Accessibility, Community

The Pearson Dogwood redevelopment will dramatically change the landscape as the site becomes dominated by luxury condos and high-end retail. When considering this transition, I was particularly interested in how the integration of the proposed 1-acre urban farm contributes to this pattern of change and its potential to alter relationships to place through processes of “green gentrification.”

Changes on the Horizon: The Pearson Dogwood Redevelopment and Farmers on 57th, Part 1 of 3

karen February 16, 2022 February 16, 2022Accessibility, Community

In this 3-part blog series, I want to spark dialogue about how the Pearson Dogwood redevelopment contributes to “green gentrification”, explore Fo57’s part in this complex process and encourage Fo57, Onni, Vancouver Coastal Health, City of Vancouver and Parks Board to reflect on the potential negative impacts of their work as they determine the future of the farm.

Pandemic pivoting

sarah July 13, 2020 August 13, 2021Accessibility, Community, Flowers, Garden Club

It has been awhile since we’ve reported from the Garden Club at the George Pearson Centre the long term care facility site, home to 114 residents with disabilities (and abilities, such as green thumbs!) As we all know, 2020 was a very different year, after about mid March. It was tough. We at Farmers on 57th were poised to run another glorious season of therapeutic gardening in partnership with Pearson….when everything stopped. Pearson was locked down to outsiders that weren’t considered essential. At first, family and friends could only visit their loved one through the window. In the end, despite…

Accessible Pathway Renewal Complete!

sarah February 5, 2020 May 14, 2021Accessibility, Community, Garden Club

Hello! Sarah here, reporting from the Therapeutic Gardens at GPC. I’m pleased to share that the pathways around the gardens here have been renovated so they are once again smooth. Farmers on 57th built these gardens in 2009, and the pathways were last renewed in 2015. In 2019 we noticed they were getting reallllly bumpy, and some residents felt uncomfortable and unsafe when going around the gardens in their wheelchairs. It wasn’t exactly an easy job, with our accessible surface being heavy rubber mats that don’t shift when wheelchairs grip them. They were all lifted up, the ground re-leveled, and…