Duran’s Farm Fresh Products

Just a reminder to anyone that is interested in our Adopt A Pig or Adopt a Cow programs. Blaine is offering a special discount on the last few pigs we have available right now. You would save $110.00 total off the normal price. We usually get $350.00 total for raising the quality pork for your freezer, but Blaine is discounting for the month of January only. Instead of $50 for the animal and $50 a month for 6 months, you pay $40 for the animal and only $40 a month. This will be first come first serve, so if you’re interested, contact us asap. They will go quickly

The Adopt a Cow program works the same as the pigs only it takes much longer to feed out a steer rather than a pig. A pig takes 6 months where a steer takes 2 years. We do not give the animals any type of growth hormones, we leave the growing part in God’s hands.
Blaine gets $1.00 per pound live weight for the steers. If you adopt the animal, you have the opportunity to pay monthly rather than coming up with the large expense all at once.

ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT TO ENTER TO WIN OUR $25 GIFT CERTIFICATE THAT WILL BE GIVEN AWAY FEBRUARY 1ST.
Simply request to be on our EMAIL mailing list and you are entered. If you would like to be entered additonal times, just refer someone to be added to our list and have them mention your name. For each referral, you get an additonal entry.

ALSO: WE ARE ACCEPTING BIDS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF OUR STORE AS SOON AS THE WEATHER BREAKS. If you would like to be considered for the job, contact us soon. We hope to make a decision and be ready to build as soon as weather permits.

thanks!
Blaine & Karen

There are so many things here on the farm that will be growing and changing this year, it’s hard to hold back the eagerness for spring, the anticipation of the new store, and all that it holds. Right now we are full of questions and you, our loyal and supportive customers have the answers we seek.

If you would like to help us better serve you and the community, we are looking for MUCH INPUT from you. Questions you might comment on:

What plants and varieties of plants will you be shopping for?
What kind of bulk food items would you like us to carry?
We will be carrying cheese making supplies–what items would you like to see us offer?
We will reserve space in our store for workshops and classes. One of the first ones will be cheese making. We’d like to recruit someone for a canning/freezing/preserving food class….know anyone?
Ideas on other workshops you’d be interested in??

We are accepting bids for the construction of our store. If you know of a construction crew willing to put in a bid for the job, have them contact us asap. We’d like to break ground as soon as the weather permits. We would like to open the doors for business in April or May.

Other notes to be aware of:

We still have a few pigs and steers waiting to be adopted for your freezers. This will be first come, first serve. We have 9 more sows that will be delivering this month and next, for 4 H youth projects. We’ve already been contacted by several families wanting us to ‘hold’ animals for them. We look forward to traveling to the local fairs and seeing our animals all grown up, so to speak, and how well the youth have done in raising them.

We appreciate any and all comments, suggestions and questions as we take this huge step into unknown territory concerning the store opening. We will be adding and changing our inventory as time passes and we learn what products you desire and need.

JANUARY’S $25.00 CONTEST !!
Please do not forget that in about 2 weeks we will be giving away a $25 gift certificate to one lucky winner from our mailing list. If you are on our list, you are already entered. If you’d like to be entered a 2nd, 3rd or more times, refer another person to be added. Be sure they mention your name or email addy and they will be entered and you will receive an additonal entry for each one you refer. February, we will be giving away $25.00 CASH for that month’s give away. Just a small way for us to say THANKS to you all.

Keep warm out there and God Bless !
Blaine & Karen

We wish all of our customers, both old and new, the most Blessed Christmas and Joyful New Year.

Each new year brings hope and promise for new beginnings. It also makes us reflect on loved ones we’ve lost the past year and hardships we might have struggled through. Remember the One who became one of us, to pay the perfect price so that we would have more than the hope of 1 new year, we have the hope of salvation in eternity.

May 2010 bring you all the joy and opportunities you dream of.

Blaine & Karen

Wishing all our customers and friends a very Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!

“Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.”
Psalm 95:2

We delivered another litter of baby pigs yesterday the 12th. She had 14 total. That is a reasonable and good size litter. They look great!

If you missed out on the last 2 litters that were adopted, you have another chance. If you would like feeder pigs to raise yourself, these ones will be 6 weeks old and weaned just about Christmas Day. Call Blaine at 450 4811 after then, to purchase or tag.

These pigs will be ready for your freezer about May. We will still deliver them to your butcher FREE OF CHARGE. You have TOTAL CONTROL OVER HOW YOU WANT YOUR ANIMAL PROCESSED AND PACKAGED.

THIS WILL BE ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE BASIS, AND THEY WILL PROBABLY GO QUICKLY.WE ACCEPT CASH, LOCAL CHECKS, AND YOU CAN USE YOUR DEBIT OR CREDIT CARD IF YOU USE OUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT.

You can email us (kmduran@earthlink.net), call the house (814 796 2849); or call us directly (Blaine 814 450 4811) (Karen 814 490 2179).

Due to several requests for gift certificates, we are now making them available to everyone. You may purchase them on your next visit to the farm, request by phone (814 490 2179), or request online. You may pay by cash, check, and debit or credit cards if you use our paypal account. We reserve the right to delay the receipt of the certificate until unknown checks clear our bank. If we suspect any duplicating or copying of these documents, we cannot honor them.

You may purchase a gift certificate in any amount. They can be used for ANY product here on the farm. Currently they will be credited on purchases of Milk and Eggs, but once the store opens in the Spring, you can use them for a variety of products: bulk food items, cheese, honey, maple syrup, candy, lunch meat, seasonal produce, garden plants, and cuts of our all natural cuts of beef and pork, raised right here on the farm.

They would make a GREAT stocking stuffer for this Christmas!

Due to some unforseen problems last week, we have some extra milk available for anyone who has been wanting to come out and buy some, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

This week is YOUR week! We have some larger orders we picked up today, and they are overlapping, so we are offering the extra to you for this week only.

Check out the Pot O Gold page for prices. Black Raspberry is the flavor this week. I have TONS of Raw, Chocolate, Whole, 2% and a few Skim and a couple of the Black Raspberry.

You can email me, or better yet, call me asap and I will hold your milk order and tag it with your name and you can pick it up at your convenience here.
Call Karen 814 490 2179

If you know someone who might be interested, please encourage them to call and come out and try this great milk, bottled right there at Pot O Gold Dairy and brought here to Waterford, just for you.

OH! AND IF YOU WOULD LIKE ON OUR EMAIL (ONLY) MAILING LIST, PLEASE send your name (first only is fine) and email addy to us: kmduran@earthlink.net with ADD TO MAILING LIST IN SUBJECT LINE.

CALL TODAY !

Well folks, it is time.

This past Sunday we moved the roadside stand back away from the road in preparation for the store to be built this spring.

WE WILL STILL HAVE MILK AND EGGS ALL WINTER LONG!!!

Our hours will remain the same, Mon — Sat 10am to 7pm and Sun 10am to 6pm.

Just pull in the driveway , back to the stand, which is next to the greenhouse. The door facing the driveway will be the one you will use. ALL MILK ORDERS WILL BE STORED THERE FROM NOW ON. The eggs will be in one of the smaller coolers. We have installed some lights and connected the electric so we are up and running. We may even place a Kerosene heater out there during the colder days just to be sure that nothing freezes.

Please note a slight change of inventory control for us. When you pick up your milk / eggs orders, please fill out the sheet on the clipboard provided with your NAME, WHAT YOU BOUGHT, BOTTLES RETURNED, AND AMOUNT PAID so that I can keep my books straight and the inventory current. The money for your purchases will still be placed in the cash box and the security camera will be rolling, just because we are still having people stop and not pay or not pay the correct amount. If anyone needs change or assistance, we leave a dry erase board up letting you know we’re home and not working. Just come to the house or barn (depending on where we are) and we are happy to help you.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
IF YOU ARE PICKING UP YOUR MILK ORDERS, PLEASE PICK UP ONLY WHAT YOU ORDER, SO THAT EVERYONE GETS THE CORRECT AMOUNT. If you do need extra or a change in your order, call us first to be sure we can accomodate this. Call Karen 490 2179.

We will still be purchasing extra bottles every week for the new customers that happen by, and for changes in orders at the last minute, but definitely not the amount we have been in the past. Due to the upcoming weather, we don’t anticipate as many ‘new’ customers dropping by. And since we pay the dairy up front, we don’t want to have milk leftover that we cannot sell.

We have sold/adopted out all the pigs we had available and the new litters will be born sometime after the first of the year–February or March perhaps. We have 3 calves, to be adopted for freezer beef and another 9 coming after they are born.

The cattle out in the pasture will be brought into the barn for winter in the near future so it will be nice to have a fuller barn again! The new chicks I purchased in September are growing FAST! Boy do they eat ALOT! They should begin laying eggs about March so that will help us keep up with your egg purchases. Right now, I am filling orders so the stand will NOT have eggs available for about a week for anyone that stops by. EGGS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE ABOUT NOVEMBER 1ST OR SOONER. Just call, email or leave us a note with your eggs order and phone number and we’ll call you as soon as we have them ready for you.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND PRAYERS AS WE MOVE FORWARD WITH THIS NEW VENTURE OF HAVING A STORE FOR YOU!!

Blaine & Karen

WELCOME!
Well, the garden is done producing for the year so I guess it’s time to post a little update here for you all.

We will have cabbage, pumpkins, winter squash, carrots, peppers available until they are all gone or sold. And corn stalks for those of you who have asked for them. A bundle is only $1 for about 12 or so stalks.

Our 60 new hens arrived on the 24th of September, as day old chicks, so that we can keep up with your demand for the brown eggs. They will be ready to lay in 6 months–March 2010. That should bring our total flock up to about 140 or so. Blaine has picked up 3 calves so far from Pot O Gold dairy of the 12 we are getting to feed out for you and your freezers. We will offer them the same as our pigs. You can pay by the month while we raise them for you, or pay in full at any time. Delivery to 1 of the local butchers is always FREE. Our 2 litters of pigs born the end of August are ready to tag/choose or to purchase and feed out yourselves.
We’ve already had 1 customer wanting to buy all of them, but since I know that several of you have asked for one, we had to turn him down. He wanted all or none. These pigs should be ready for your freezers about Feb/Mar 2010. You will need to contact us asap if you want one. We will be tagging and setting up accounts on a first come, first serve basis. When they are all tagged, we will not have anymore due to farrow until spring and those, most likely, will be sold to local 4H youth for next fall’s fairs. Pigs take about 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days to farrow once they are bred. So more will always be available.

REMEMBER, when we close up the stand for the winter months, we will STILL HAVE BROWN EGGS AND POT O GOLD MILK AVAILABLE ALL YEAR ROUND. It will be available here at the house, and we try out best to accomodate your’s and our busy work schedules. ( we both have full time outside jobs). Contact us anytime to purchase, order or if you just have questions. I usually order several extra bottles of milk from week to week for first time customers or if someone is just running a bit short and needs an extra bottle or two. A simple phone call and I can let you know if we have what you need. CALL ANYTIME–490-2179 and I’ll be happy to help you!

We have contacted a builder and are working with Gannon’s small business development center to open our full time store hopefully in the spring. We will have the same quality items you buy now: eggs, milk, seasonal produce and garden plants but we will be adding bulk food items, lunchmeats and cheeses, and freezer cuts of beef and pork rather than having to purchase an entire animal. It will be processed through Walter’s meats who is USDA inspected.

We expect to be busy enough to repay the loans needed to build the building and cover the increased insurance costs as well as try to do some adverstising. We have seen our customers grow in numbers by just word of mouth, so if we add the formal advertising, we should be able to keep busy enough to be successful. Please keep this venture for us in your prayers, so we can continue to supply your needs for Farm Fresh items.

We always like to hear from you, so feel free to contact us anytime!

Blaine & Karen