Durksen Farm

It has been a while since our last update and much has happened.  Our garden is now empty of all but a few squashes and carrots and the leaves on the trees are turning and falling with the inexorable marching of time to the winter.  We have lots of spaghetti squash and pumpkins available, as well as some onions.

Its been interesting times on our farm.  I recently started working with a very experienced and high quality butcher who is planning on retiring.    Our plan is to buy his business and set up shop as a butcher!  It is a great opportunity to learn from a master to make the highest quality products myself.  He is the one who has done most of the butchering and sausage making(except the farmer sausage) for our products.  Some products are running low already!  We will get more in soon, but if you want some now order soon to make sure we have some available!  See our Products page for info on pricing. We will provide updates on this venture as things unfold.  You will be able to buy our products at our retail store in Dugald, MB, only a few kilometers from the perimeter highway east of Winnipeg.  This will mean that we will also be changing our focus on the farm and moving away from the vegetables to concentrate on the meat products and eggs. This is a very exciting time for us, yet also very very busy and stressful which is why we will be moving to a monthly rather than weekly newsletter format as I have not had time recently to devote to this.  As many of you know, we are also expecting our second child in the new year, which will make for a very interesting time in the Durksen household!

www.durksenfarm.com

For those interested in what we are doing, we have started a newsletter which you can sign up for at www.durksenfarm.com.  It contains much of the info we have here plus some pictures and more.

This Saturday is our first chicken processing day for this year. They look very happy and healthy and should be just in the weight range we like. We still have a few frozen ones from fall on clearance, but will have a freezer full of fresh ones this weekend! The other big event this week is we will be sending out 4 pigs for processing next Tuesday. We will finally be able to fill our freezers with wonderful farmer sausage, bacon, and other pork products! See our Products page for info on pricing. This week we have finally started to get some harvest from other plants like peas, beans and herbs. Unfortunately, some of our lettuce was decimated by deer.

Kale Tips(Continued): – Last week I gave a recipe supposedly for kale chips, but ended up being a great recipe for burnt kale! It was truly terrible. I will post a new recipe for some “Sour Cream and Onion” kale chips soon, I had some at a family gathering recently and they were fantastic! Keep and eye on our Tips and Recipes page for it and more recipes.  The kale soup recipe that is there is tried and tested as being very good! Here are the newest additions to our farm: nine healthy baby pigs!  Just born today.  We also got some new chicks this week.  See our newsletter for more pictures!

This Week’s Harvest:
Kale(Curly) – $2.25/bunch
Kale(Premier) – $2.00/bunch
Lettuce – $2.25/bunch
Zucchini(Baby) – $3.00/lb(On request)
Zucchini – $1.00 each
Parsley and Dill – $2.50/bunch(On Request)
Yellow Wax Beans and Green Beans – $2.50/lb
Snap Peas – $2.75/lb
More will be available shortly.

This summer has been almost ideal for our garden as we have had regular rains with sunny periods in between.  Already most of the plants are larger than they were in fall last year!  Its wonderful to see.

We have uploaded an updated price list for our products on our Products page.

Kale Tips: – Kale is a highly nutritious green that has many uses.  We often cut it into strips and add it to soups.  We have added a wonderful kale, chickpea and sausage soup recipe to our website. Another idea is to shake kale leaves in a bag with olive oil and spread them out on a baking sheet at 350F for 10-15 minutes until edges are brown but not burnt.  We try to pick out kale young and tender so it is very good in salads, omelets or scrambled eggs.  We have two types of kale available: the traditional curly kale that you see in the grocery store, and Premier kale, pictured here, which has a more mellow, cabbage-like flavour.

This Week’s Harvest:
Kale(Curly) – $2.25/bunch
Kale(Premier) – $2.00/bunch
Lettuce – $2.25/bunch
Zucchini(Baby) – $3.00/lb(On request)
Parsley and Dill – $2.50/bunch(On Request)
More will be available shortly.