Meaford Green Care Farm - Satellite Location
Green Care Farms is delighted to celebrate our first-ever satellite location…
Meaford Green Care Farms! Please read about this amazing couple and their work below. Please spread the word to others living in Grey County!
Location: Meaford is a municipality in Grey County, Ontario
On the top of Scotch Mountain in Meaford, ON, our dream for a care farm began when we read an article about Rebekah Churchyard and her hard work in starting the first care farm in Canada for people with dementia. She named it Green Care Farms and has been operating successfully now for five years. She and her team have inspired us to use her model on our farm.
Find out all the details on their website, including supporting research and program Information https://www.carefarmscanada.com
John and Jessica Zufferli
We are John and Jessica Zufferli. We bought our farm in Meaford seven years ago.
We fell in love with our farm the minute we drove up the lane. What was also immediately apparent was that we needed to find a way to reach out to people who might benefit from sharing in the beauty of this property.
The combination of losing John’s mother to dementia, learning about Rebekah’s experience, and our own retirement, crystallized our desire to share this farm by developing a green care farm for people with dementia in our community.
Left: John and his mom, Joanne many years ago in her beloved backyard.
Right: John and Joanne in her later stages of dementia.
John’s sweet mother, Joanne, lived for over a decade with dementia. It was difficult for the family and his father was the primary, and often sole, care provider. Joanne was a very avid gardener, even having her gardens featured in magazines and local tours in Sudbury, ON.
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"We honor John's mother's memory by operating a care farm on a section of our property specifically designed for our members. We created two sections of sensory gardens that highlight local plants and flowers. This creates a beautiful array of textures, smells and colors for our members to enjoy. We also have a large garden full of a variety of vegetables and herbs. We have renovated a bunkie which is temperature controlled and provides a washroom, small kitchen to prepare lunches, and a sitting area."
Welcoming area and entrance to the sensory garden
Vegetable garden plot with either raised beds or in ground plantings
Site of the planned “lookout” to the back fields; seating and deck planned
Some of the 2025 harvest
We run our program on Mondays through the summer months.
To learn more about our Meaford location of Green Care Farms Inc., please visit our website at meafordgreencarefarm.com or reach out to us directly via email at meafordgcf@gmail.com.
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Our lunch area; the Bunkie for access to washroom and small kitchen.