Evergreen Brickworks farmers' market

December 7, 2024

Chantal, Luis and Adriana, Evergreen staff

From Jutta: Evergreen Brickworks has a parking problem. Many people want to come here, it's not near a TTC route, and there's often a shortage of places to stash the cars. For people with special parking permits, like me, it doesn't work well. On Saturday at 11 a.m. there are only two accessible parking spots, both full. And anyway, they are very far away from the winter farmers' market area. I turn the car around and start to head back out of the parking lot, thinking, I can't do this.

But then I decide to take heart and see if I can make it work. I pull over near the door closest to the market. (Every area adjacent to the building is marked "fire route," even the wider bits.) I put my special parking sign on the dash, and hobble inside with my cane. Once inside, I see that there are not many places for a person with bad knees to sit down. A request to talk to the market manager about the lack of parking and indoor benches brings three Evergreen staff, all eager to be helpful. They offer help in various ways -- pointing out an accessible parking space at the back parking area, and even posting a parking attendant to stand there and wait for me to move the car from its temporary flashers-on spot. But for a person with bad knees, it's the distance, walking back and forth to the car, that's the problem. And the size of the market building -- the spot that's on offer is still a distance too far. The staff offer to park the car for me. They even wonder if they might have a wheelchair to lend.

Oh please, no! Sore knees or back or feet -- common afflictions of older people -- don't mean a wheelchair, not just yet. It's good to keep moving all those parts. I use a bike in my neighbourhood -- works fine. I can walk with a cane. But I need to sit down often, just for a few minutes at a time.

Jens, of Marvellous Edibles

Jens, the farmer at the Marvellous Edibles farm stand where I want to get my vegetables, offers to move a basket of spinach off the low display shelf (really like a bench) that fronts his display. So I get to sit down in that spot. Aaah, better. I make a deal with the Evergreen staff, that I'll get my purchases done quickly and then move my car from its nearby non-parking spot and leave. They post a parking attendant there to make sure I don't get a ticket. Jens the farmer gets all the rest of my order together and sends one of his market helpers to carry it out to my car. The friendly young guy helps unload it into the car, we say goodbye, and I'm off.

But I forgot the Sauerkraut.

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