Down on the farm – Maplewood Farm that is – four-year-old James Smallwood clutches a handful of kale and waits for his turn to get inside the “rabbitat,” where bunnies and guinea pigs are treated by visitors to a smorgasbord of healthy noms.
From the time the gate opens, there’s a stream of youngsters parading through the five-acre facility. In many cases they are getting their first-ever encounter with domestic farm animals.
It’s a tradition that, as of this summer, dates back 50 years. But Maplewood Farm, as it is today, is another one of those almost-never-happened success stories.
Maplewood Farm’s history
Before it was Maplewood Farm, it was just a farm. Or numerous farms and a dog kennel, specifically, starting in 1924 when it was purchased by Joseph Ellis and Walter Young. They developed the land into a dairy farm that delivered milk and cream to residents from Lonsdale to Deep Cove, a history compiled by District of North Vancouver notes.
They sold the farm to the Smyth Family who continued to keep 25 head of cattle, selling raw milk for 10 to 12 cents per quart until 1946 when provincial public health legislation banned the sale of unpasteurized milk. The Smyths sold their herd and converted the farm to a dog kennel where they bred, boarded and trained black labs, golden retrievers and spaniels to be hunting dogs. Many of the mature trees on the property now were planted by the Smyths.
In 1970, the District of North Vancouver acquired the property in a land swap, with the council of the day intent on using the property for sports fields.
But Dirk Oostindie, then-superintendent of district parks, believed children had a right to public infrastructure that went beyond tennis courts or soccer fields, said Oostindie’s son Irwin. At the time, there was just one remaining working farm on the North Shore, and Oostindie saw a need for the population of increasingly urbanized kids to understand rural life.
“Children are not going to see a cow until they get to the Fraser Valley, and he really felt that a place where children could learn about farm life and farm animals and where we get our food was a critical piece of public infrastructure,” Irwin said.
It was no easy task persuading council members who were hung up on the notion that a children’s farm might need ongoing subsidies from the municipality, Irwin recalls. Ultimately Oostindie prevailed, and council and the district put up $50,000 to turn the property back into a farm.
“As we know, it’s been wildly successful with millions of visitors,” Irwin said.
Maplewood Farm wasn’t Oostindie’s only visionary contribution to the district. He’s also credited as the driving force behind the Baden Powell Trail, the Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre, the Seylynn Park skate bowl and the sports fields that were built on top of the former landfill in Inter River Park.
Farm life
By the early 1990s, the original Maplewood barn was becoming structurally unsound. The community put up more than $80,000 to build a new one, and over the course of one weekend in 1993, more than 1,500 volunteers came out to raise a new barn, twice the size of the original. Many of the built structures on the site we see today were added at that time. Oostindie came out of retirement to volunteer for the work party.
Oostindie passed away in 2019. There’s now a plaque at Maplewood Farm commemorating him, something Irwin said is a great source of pride for the family.
“It’s always a nice thing for [my] grandkids to see that there’s been a legacy from their great grandfather,” he said.
In recent years, Maplewood Farm has seen 85,000 to 90,000 visitors per year, according to the district. Revenue over the last couple of years has been approximately $800,000 annually, which covers the majority of the farm’s operating costs. The municipality covers the remainder.
Mayor Mike Little – who used to visit the farm as a child and later took his own kids there – said it is well worth the small subsidy because of what it offers.
“You’ve kind of got to get exposed to it,” he said. “Going out and feeding a cow and feeding the ducks and feeding the chickens is very different than reading about it. We want people to have opportunities for experiential learning in the community, and having a farm like this makes it really easy.”
Goats at the gate
Around 2:45 p.m., without any prompting, the goats begin to crowd around the gate. A little bit closer to 3 p.m. comes the “running of the goats,” when a staffer opens the gate and they charge to their waiting dinner in the barn.
“They know time too well,” said farm manager Selina Cowman (yes, her name is Cowman, she’s heard all of the jokes).
The decision to keep the farm open for educational purposes showed vision that was quite ahead of its time, she said. In the past, Maplewood was very much a working farm, where animals were bred to eventually be taken for slaughter. Today, almost all of Maplewood’s 110 critters are adopted, purchased or rescued.
“They’ll stay here for their whole life, which is quite a shift in how the farm used to operate,” said Cowman, who thinks of Maplewood as more of a demonstration farm, as opposed to a working farm or petting zoo. “We don’t need to be a part of that, to be honest. I’d rather give people the gold standard of what animal care could be and what housing domestic animals should look like … even in the food industry.”
Cowman is on a first-name basis with all of the animals on the farm.
“Everybody has a personality,” she said. “Everybody has a buddy that they’d rather be with than someone else, so understanding those dynamics are really important to making sure that everybody’s happy and healthy…. I think it’s showing children and parents and adults that our food has a face and it’s important to take care of those lives as well and respect them.”
Donkey alarm
Just over a year ago, the first neighbours in a new townhouse with virtually no setback from the paddock began moving in. Cowman said there was some concern at first about what conflicts would erupt from people suddenly living in earshot, and noseshot, of a farm.
“Ringo likes to bray at 6 a.m.,” she said, referring to their boisterous donkey. “We were nervous, but it’s gone really well.”
Maplewood employs four farmers who work farmers’ famously long hours caring for the livestock. There’s another team of 50 animal-loving volunteers who come to help out, even in the jobs that aren’t so glamourous.
“We have an ongoing wait list. It’s so surprising how many people want to come scoop poo,” Cowman said. “I think they get the sense of contributing to the farm…. They can come here and take care of them and feel a sense of pride and ownership and kind of connection.”
The longest-tenured critter on the farm is Jolene, a cow who’s lived there for 14 years. The goats are usually fan favourites, but right now everyone is talking turkey.
“The baby turkeys that we have are so inquisitive and so friendly that I can’t help but love them,” said Cowman about her farm favourite. “It changes from week to week.”
For the kids
Cowman said she works at the farm because of her obvious love for animals, but that’s not the only reason. As Cowman watched the action around her on a recent day at the farm, a nearby mother held a little girl in a much-too-big pink hat, carrying her around one of the pens. As they inspected the space, the toddler became visibly fixated on one of the goats.
“For me, it’s inspiring that little girl to not be scared of animals, to respect animals, to understand the importance of having these animals here, and to love them someday, hopefully. And if not love them, at least really like them,” Cowman said. “I think animals are such a fundamental part of being a human being.”
That’s exactly what Melissa Ferris said she could see happening during a trip to the farm with her four-year-old son James.
“It’s great. We can feed the animals. There’s chickens running around everywhere. It teaches him to be patient,” she said. This was the boy’s first visit to the farm.
“He’s beaming. He’s happy. He’s with friends and he gets to connect to animals at a young age, which is really good, and talk about empathy and talk about the needs of the animals,” she said.
When Cowman first came to the job four years ago, there was some worry in the back of her mind because the farm is a revered place for many North Shore residents.
“The community holds this place really dear to their hearts. Everybody who comes here tells me about when they came here as a child, or how they’ve brought their kids or their grandparents here. It seems to be a really fundamental part of growing up on the North Shore,” she said, adding that the team is working hard to keep it that way.
“It’s a really important, special place,” she said. “We want to keep it for years to come.”
Maplewood Farm will hold a 50th anniversary celebration from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 19. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit maplewoodfarm.bc.ca.
