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CSA MEMBER PICK UP

WHEN AND WHERE DO I PICK UP MY SHARE?

Harvest pick-up is every TUESDAY 3-6pm. Your urban farmers will be there to greet you and facilitate your pick-up from market-style tables full of the week’s bounty.

We are in Marpole, just off W 57th Avenue, between Oak and Cambie. We farm the former lawns of Oak Care Centre (formerly George Pearson Centre), a Vancouver Coastal Health facility, with street address 780 West 57th Avenue. But don’t be misled by the street address! Our entrance is on Heather Street, just south of 57th Avenue, via the fire lane, across from the school field.

To pick up your produce you will be entering the grounds of a long-term care home to 110+ people. Most folks mobilize using wheelchairs. The staff and residents here have granted us permission for 17 years running now to farm these former lawns. Amazing! Please be neighbourly and courteous to all. Keep driveways & pathways clear to allow for continued accessibility of the grounds for the residents and utility vehicles.

You will be greeted by our staff at the harvest table, and walked through what we have to offer for the day. You will from time to time be invited to pick some raspberries, currants or crabapples. You might chat with farm community members about ways to cook a new veg. Spending even a few minutes in a vibrant plant-filled space with the sounds of birds singing is good for your health!

 

🚗 by car

There’s free street parking along Heather Street between West 57th and 59th Avenues. Please do not park in the fire lane. Walk through the gate, head down the driveway and immediately to your left you will see us tucked in between the buildings, under the shade of the Blue Spruce tree.

🚴 by bike

Bicycles can be propped up against the building or lamp post beside the pickup spot. There is also access off the 59th Avenue Masumi Mitsui bikeway just east of Heather Street and up the driveway.

🚌 by transit

We’re between Langara 49th and Marine Drive Skytrain stations, about a 15-20 minute walk from each.

Buses:

017 along Oak St

049 on West 49th Ave

015 along Cambie St

  • For people arriving after 6pm we have a lock box at the Northwest corner of the main site (red marker in the map above) under the Blue Spruce tree. Harvest shares will be placed in the double-doored cedar lock box that runs East-West (as opposed to the one that runs North-South). To open the after-hours lockbox use the combination: BEET. Store this code in your phone for future reference! Our lock is a bit sensitive to please be mindful not to misalign the code once you’ve unlocked it. It might just reset the code 😬 You may need to use your cell-phone torch if it’s after dark. Call or text Britt if you have any issues: 672-515-8536

    Please pick-up Tuesday evening or Wednesday noon at the latest. Please let Britt know if you can’t make it within that time frame, and when you’d be able to come by. We don’t use a cooler, so the sooner you pick up your veggies, the more fresh they’ll be when you take them home!

  • Please bring grocery bags, bicycle panniers, backpacks or a bin to carry all your harvest items home in. Also, if you're able, from week to week, please bring back your plastic produce bags, washed and dry. Most items will be minimally packaged with elastics or twist ties whenever possible. Clean, untangled elastics & twist ties can be returned too!

  • WHAT WILL I GET?

    Eating seasonally with your Farmers on 57th CSA share you'll find that the Spring boxes are mostly greens (lettuce mix, pac choi, spinach, mustard greens, kale) and herbs with some colour here and there (like radishes). But as the summer rolls on the boxes will become fuller and more varied with things like tomatoes, zucchinis, carrots and beets. We've planned it so that your shares will be worth $39/week on average. Priceless to us, they taste so good and are full of love and hard work.

    Each Monday morning you will receive a newsletter in your email inbox. Please be sure that hello@farmerson57th.ca is in your contact list. The newsletter will include a list of what's in your box, a recipe and predictions of the following week’s harvest. We try to be as accurate as possible. However, sometimes we have to make real-time decisions based on what’s happening in the field. At times, what you see in your box may differ from what you read in the newsletter.   

  • First things first: get that food stored properly, which especially with the Spring greens means into an air-tight bag and/or container and into the fridge. We will provide you with tips in the newsletters to help you prioritize what to use first and help you to keep your produce as fresh as possible.

    Just prior to storage, eating or cooking your veggies, be sure to wash them. We do some primary cleaning at the farm but you can expect to find some garden dirt (soil actually) with your veggies, and the occasional critter like slugs or aphids.

  • We are going to have one extra week of harvest at the end of the season. We call it our Week 21. If you are going to miss a week please notify us at least 24 hours in advance that you won’t be picking up, and we’ll defer that week of produce for you until the end of the season.

    If you are away for more than one week, send along family, friends or a colleague to pick up your share – the food doesn’t go to waste and the word about community supported agriculture gets around. If you can’t find anyone to pick up your share do let us know 24 hours in advance and we’ll share your share amongst the other CSA members.

  • Details on our reusable bag program down below 👇

  • Flowers usually follow our first veggie harvest by about 2-4 weeks. We’ll let you know via email.

  • Great! Be in touch anytime: hello@farmerson57th.ca. We cherish any occasion to chat.

REUSABLE PRODUCE BAG OPTION

When you registered for the CSA you indicated whether you’d participate or were interested in the Reusable Produce Bag program. Folks that are able to drop off their bags ahead of time, bonus! We are at the farm 10am-2pm everyday if you’re able to drop by. If you come outside of those hours and no farm folk are about you’ll find a bin inside the left hand doors of the cedar box described above (Lock Code: BEET) to drop your bags into. Please have the bags clearly labeled, and 5 of your bags tucked into the 6th so they are all together in one bundle. If you can’t drop them off ahead of time, no worries, we have some loaners on hand or you might get a couple of plastic bags the first week that you can wash and return to us.

If you’d like to join the reusable produce bag program you can anytime. Bring us a set of 6 machine washable produce bags (around 12”x9.5” to 15”x13” in size). All 6 bags need to be labeled clearly with your First & Last name(s) on the bag visible when closed, or with a label attached to the drawstring at the top of each bag. You eat what's in the bags right away, and/or transfer them into non-breathable packaging for utmost freshness in your fridge. Please wash the empty bags in your weekly laundry and bring the bags back to the farm the following Tuesday pick-up.