Garden plots help newcomers feel at home
Families bond, stresses lighten as they grow veggies from homeland
The first sight and sound to greet visitors at the Land of Dreams urban farm is children playing near the entrance to the 30 acres of land in the city’s southeast.
As kids of various ages ran and pedalled around on toy cars during a recent weekend event at the site, clusters of adults stood in the nearby fields, harvesting the last of their produce.
Syrian and Yazidi families who have had access to the urban farm since July gathered as part of a wrap-up event for the project, launched this year through the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society on land leased from the province. As they picked vegetables including spinach, lettuce and radishes, some newcomers were already looking ahead to when they can resume gardening next spring.
Rod Olson, the project manager for the urban farm, explained the plan for the site is three-pronged, including a focus on regenerative agriculture, on reconciliation — with a plot allocated to an Indigenous family — and on helping refugees and newcomers get established in Calgary.
“We saw it this summer,” said Olson, recalling the moment one of the Yazidi women took a bite of purslane, a vegetable she was familiar with from northern Iraq, and her eyes “just lit up.”
“It was like she was transported back home,” Olson said. “But it was also something that can happen here. So she can feel that she has a place of belonging.”
As the families gathered around a table of potluck dishes, Yazidi women took photos on their phones, laughing as they posed with each other and various guests.
Settlement counsellor Kheriya Khidir, who has worked with a group of Yazidi women at the farm over the past months, said spending time at the site has been a positive experience for the group.
“I’m so happy,” said Khidir, adding that while she doesn’t have gardening experience, she has enjoyed every visit to the farm with the women, who she notes are coping with traumatic pasts.
“The time we spend here in the garden is the best time for everyone,” Khidir said. “We have a lot of fun, we eat together.”
Kamo Zandinan said she is happy with the success of the garden, where the group grew produce including onions and various kinds of lettuce. The urban farm reminds her of her home country.
“I’m happy because our garden is growing fast,” she said, through interpreter Khidir. “So happy to spend time in the garden.”
There’s something about growing food that can provide connection to a place, Olson said.
“In our world where most of us are transient and moving all over the place, we don’t really even have that,” he said. “And so for newcomers to plant something, especially if it’s something that they grew in their home country ... I think their sense of being home is actually kind of leapfrogged forward, whereas most of them are kind of trying to find their ground.”
Fariborz Birjandian, CEO of the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS), said the aim of the project is to provide a space for newcomers to “get rid of all the stresses that come with the migration and with being a refugee.”
Future plans include involving more families and providing commercial farming space for some newcomers with agricultural backgrounds. And the kids will still have plenty of room to play, with a stretch of land cleared for soccer games and other activities.