Duran's Farm Fresh Products

We had another litter of baby pigs born yesterday the 12th.  Momma and little ones are doing well.

If you missed out of the last 2 litters we sold and adopted out for your freezers, you now have another chance for ALL NATURAL, QUALITY MEAT FOR YOUR FREEZER.

The pigs will be ready to sell or adopt when they are 6 weeks old which is just about Christmas Day. You may contact us anytime to reserve an animal for you, year when they are weaned but we  will not accept any $$ until after the first of the year . Check our our "Feeder Pigs/Pork" page on our website (www.duransfarmfreshproducsts.com) for more information or contact us direct.  If you are interested in adopting an animal (beef OR pork), basically you purchase the animal from us, we set you up with an account and you pay us a small fee each month to help us with the feed and care costs.  Of course, if you want to pay in full, Blaine would probably give you a very special price. Call him direct (814 450 4811).

We accept cash, local checks, and can process your debit or credit cards using our paypal account.

We have 4 steers (of the 12) we are offering the same as the pigs/pork. Beef takes a WHOLE lot longer to raise than pigs.  Pigs take about 6 months to get to market weight, Beef on the other hand takes 18 months to 2 YEARS. We offer the same program on our cows as the pigs.

OVERALL YOU WILL PAY BETWEEN $2.00 AND $2.50 PER POUND, when you're all said and done.  You would pay us directly for raising the animal, and you pay the butcher directly for his processing costs, which is usually between 30 and 40 cwents p His His costs i H usually charges between 30 and 40 cents per pound to process the animal.

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!

Well folks, just a short note here on 11/4/09 to let you know if you've been wanting to try the milks from POT O GOLD DAIRY, this week is the week!

To keep up with the overwhelming demand for the milk, we have purchased a HUGE commercial cooler now to hold all your milk orders.

We had a few problems last week with people buying milk that was not ordered by them or tagged with their name, so to cover the shortages, we happen to have some large orders that are overlapping.

PLEASE CALL BEFORE YOU COME OUT AND I CAN LET YOU KNOW HOW MANY OF WHAT VARIETY IS STILL AVAILABLE.

Just in case, these are the prices: Raw, Chocolate and Black Raspberry (this week's flavor) are $5.25 for the glass 1/2 gallon bottle--unless you have an empty bottle from the dairy to return then they are only $3.25. It is a bottle for bottle exchange system. Whole, Skim and 2% milks are $4.75, again unless you have an empty bottle from the dairy to return, then they are $2.75 each.

ALSO: IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED TO OUR MAILING LIST (EMAIL ONLY) PLEASE EMAIL US WITH ADD TO MAILING LIST IN SUBJECT LINE. email us:  kmduran@earthlink.net

CALL TODAY TO HAVE US HOLD AN ORDER FOR YOU !

814 490 2179 will put you in touch with Karen who will gladly help you!!

We are pleased to see all the interest you have in our little farm by the number of visitors to this site and our blog. 

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 Thursday 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 2 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 last month will be ready to tag this weekend.  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.

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.

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

Blaine & Karen

Hello All!

Just an 'almost' end of season update. The sweet corn is done as of Friday, and mostly what is left in the garden is : carrots, green and hot peppers, cauliflower, onions, and some eggplant.  I have a several small pots of fresh herbs available: cilantro, parsley, thyme, sage. 

Since I don't  need to work as many hours in the garden, I am able to catch up on some "requested" baking.  Seems the breads and baked goods I offered you last year were a hit and you'd like more! I baked on Monday, so there are HUGE brownies, Fresh breads, and our famous WAGAON WHEELS (cin rolls) in the stand for your pleasure.

We will have butternut squash available when it's ready, hoping to find the blue hubbard squash that someone requested we grow, and maybe a few pumpkins.  (we don't usually sell alot of pumpkins, and we have a friend/neighbor who has plenty, so we don't plant or grow very many).

We usually keep the roadside stand open until about Halloween time, then it's time to close it up for the year.

PLEASE NOTE : WE WILL STILL HAVE FRESH BROWN EGGS AND MILK FROM POT O GOLD DAIRY AVAILABLE ALL YEAR!!! We will have them available here at the house in a small refrigerator on the porch for your convenience.

Pigs/Pork update: We had a total of 12 pigs born in the 2 litters on 8/23 and 8/25.  About 1/2 are spoken for already. We are NOT accepting any money for them until Oct 1st when they are 6 weeks old.  If you are interested in having us raise one for your freezer, contact us asap as they will not last long. Most people will come out Sept 27th or Oct 4th to tag their animal. They will be first come, first serve.  We know you will not be disappointed with the quality and the taste!

Thanks for finding us and as always, we appreciate your support, your comments and suggestions!

Blaine & Karen

I cannot believe it will be September 1st tomorrow.  Our oldest grandson started school for the first time today. Sure makes a body feel old.

This is the last week we will be offering Bodacious sweet corn here, it is just about all picked in the garden and I don't like to sell it  if it starts to become 'old' or tough.  The garden still has some green peppers, carrots, onions, eggplant, and Numex variety of hot peppers. I hope to pull a few more cauliflower, cabbage, and brocoli if they mature quick enough.

This week I will be ordering 50 more pullets (female baby chicks) so that they will begin laying eggs in Mar/Apr and we can keep up with your demand for our brown eggs. PLEASE DON'T FORGET THAT WE HAVE EGGS AND MILK YEAR ROUND. In the winter months, we sometimes get a overload of eggs, so if you're on our email mailing list, you'll be getting info on our 1/2 off price on eggs if that happens.

About half of our feeder pigs that were born are spoke for from customers who want all natural, quality pork for their freezers. If you are interested, please contact us anytime. You can visit our website, email us or call. We should have 1 more litter to be born, then it will be a few months before we have anymore available.

If you found us here at local harvest and ever have any questions about us, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Just to update everyone--

We had the first of 3 litters of baby pigs born today--Sunday 8/23/09.

We have some customers who have already requested some for us to raise for their freezers so not all that were born today are available for you.

We sell them at 6 weeks old when they are weaned and you are more than welcome to purchase one and take home and raise yourselves, but if you cannot, you may check out our web page and click on 'pigs and freezer pork' page and it will give you more information.  We will raise a pig for you (it usually takes about 6 months) and when it is at market weight, we deliver it to the butcher of your choice FREE OF CHARGE. You may make monthly payments to us when you purchase an animal which helps us with the feed and care costs.  We accept cash, check or you can use your debit or credit card and make payment to our paypal account.

These animals will go quickly, and will be about market weight in March/April 2010 and ready to go to the butcher. 

Contact us anytime if you have questions or would like to come out and choose a pig or have us tag one for you! 

Just a quick note, the garden is producing rather well. Things we have ready in our stand: lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow summer squash, cabbage, green and yellow snap beans, green peppers, brocoli and the sweet corn looks like it may be ready very soon.

Don't forget, we offer milk from Pot O Gold dairy and this week we have extra available for old and NEW customers. Lots of Chocolate, Skim, some Whole and some Raw.  We also purchased some 12 ounce 'pot bellie' containers of heavy cream for you and a few of them will be in the coolers in the stand for your purchases, with the strawberry and chocolate pot bellies.

There is also some fresh baked Banana Walnut bread I've placed there for you.

If you are interested in our "adopt a pig" program, get your requests in early. We expect to be delivering in September and have already received notes from previous customers who want another animal for their freezers. The animals (if born in Sep) should be ready for market/butcher about March/April. We are possibly getting some steers for you if you are interested in the same program but with BEEF. They will take alot longer to raise to market weight, so your cost will be more, but you can pay by the month, same as with the pigs. Pigs only take about 6 months to raise to the correct weight, Steers (beef) on the other hand take about 18 months to 2 years to reach their goal weights.

Contact us anytime with questions or comments.

We are researching the idea of expanding (slightly) from our little self serve roadside stand, to more of a Country Store where we could provide a little more variety of products to the community.

We are looking into funding at this point, which is the biggest hurdle, but as long as doors continue to open, we will follow where we are led.  Please check out our website for more information concerning this venture and be sure to email, or leave comments as to your thoughts on this project.

Our desire would be to keep things as small and simple as possible but be able to staff the store full time and move away from the self serve operation.

We are eager to hear from you!!!

Just a real quick note here, as the garden is keeping me pretty  busy with weeding.

For whatever reasons, Father's Day, vacations, or just everyone got busy, we have a TON of extra milk still available here for your purchase.

With Saturday approaching quickly and our next order to pick up, we have got to make room for it in the cooler.

We have many, many bottles of Raw and of Chocolate still left. They are both $5.25 for each 1/2 gallon glass bottle of milk direct from Pot O Gold Dairy.  If you have purchased milk before from them or us, remember to subtract the $2 deposit when you return the empty bottle and buy your next bottle(s).

Hope to see you soon!

Figured we'd better do some updating here for everyone.

My double knee surgery recovery is coming along nicely. I hope to be back to work very soon.

The greenhouse is now empty and all the plants we have available are located out front on tables and in the roadside stand for your convenience. You can now fill a flat (anything but hanging baskets and larger pots) for only $10. There are flowers and a few vegetable plants left.

We sold all our feeder pigs this spring and wished we had more with all the phone calls we received wanting them. We will have more sows farrowing later this summer. Just contact us anytime if you are interested and need more information.

We have begun to 'test the waters' as far as offering some milk in the roadside stand on the self serve/honor basis. So far so good. Everyone seems to be working honestly with us,and we certainly do appreiciate it since we pay for the milk and the bottle deposit up front at the dairy before we offer it to you. From week to week there will be a few bottles left in the fridge there for any new customers or for regular customers if we are unavailable and I may be going back to work soon. We'll do our best to work with everyone's busy schedule, just contact us if you need us.

thanks for stopping by and finding us here at local harvest. Be sure to leave a comment or review as we'd like to know your thoughts and responses.

Blaine and Karen

Well, that Erie lake effect snow thing has happened again and hopefully it will be the last of the season.  Here on the farm we are preparing for spring, as are most rural people in the area, I'm sure.

I will be confined to the house here for a month or so after tomorrow's surgery. Not looking forward to it and hoping the recovery time will pass quickly and with as lilttle pain as possible.  I am having both knees partially replaced, or at least they have promised to fix the problems I have had since a car accident in 2004 when my vehicle was T-boned by a school bus.  Funny how long it takes to realize that something is wrong.

Here on the farm, we have delivered 4 litters of baby pigs, which the majority of are spoken for by local 4H youth. We have had a small number this year per litter and not quite sure the reasons.  We are checking into this and are thinking it might be the minerals that were added to the feed. Very nice gilts and barrows and they are growing very nicely.  We hope to see some of them in the upcoming fairs in a few months and hope to see them with those treasured banners above their pens!

I have been hobbling back and forth to the new greenhouse to check on the seedlings and start more seeds for  the garden and for customers that will want to buy for their home gardens.  They are progressing nicely. I have started quite a few flats of flowers and am anxious to see if my green thumb extends to flowers as well as the vegetable plants.  I tried my hand at 'forcing' daffadil and tulip bulbs this year and am learning for next year's crop. I hope to have an abundance next year in time for your Easter purchases. This year they have done well, but I see room for improvement. 

I know this snowfall will last today and tomorrow, perhaps, but am looking forward to worrying about keeping the greenhouse cool rather than warm.  I know hubby dearest is looking forward to having time to check the pasture fence and make any repairs so that Bully and the girls can get out to the pasture real soon and the 'shoveling' will be on hold for them, at least until November when it will be time to put them back in the barn. We should have 2 calves born and are hoping of course for heifers to build on the herd. Right now we have : Bully, Nina, Lily, Petey, and Calvin (he was Oreo but as he grew, he looks more like the Calvin of "Calvin & Hobbs", thus the name change). 

We are looking for breeding swine as well, to alter our blood lines. If anyone knows of gilts in the Erie or into Ohio area, please, please, please let us know.  We have purchased from Parrish farms before in the past, but for the price, we aren't that pleased with the outcomes.  Nice looking pigs, but not that great when they farrow, with litter size and 'momma' attitude.

Sure would like to see some comments, a review or two of our new website and hear from other local farmers, so check us out anytime at www.duransfarmfreshproducts.com

thanks for reading,

Blaine and Karen 

Well hello everyone!

We are new to this localharvest.com site, but are slowly getting acclimated to this method of keeping all our customers updated.

Our brand new website is up and being 'tweaked' at the moment. We are eagerly looking forward to your responses, comments and suggestions!

We delivered a brand new litter of baby pigs this past week and will be moving another sow to the farrowing room for her to deliver perhaps this week. We have had phone calls already, from 4Her's looking for pigs to raise for their fall projects, so we hope to have as many as is needed.  We still have a few larger weaned feeder pigs ready for sale or adoption (if you'd like us to finish raising them for your freezer). They are about 60+ pounds and should reach market weight early summer--June or July. First come, first serve so if you are interested, please call us to check their availability.

Our hens are still laying fools out there! If you need brown eggs, we've got them! Self Serve basis when we are unavailble.  Blaine is anxiously wanting to get the cows out to pasture soon, if the weather permits and we get the pasture fence all checked out, I'm sure they will all be out there very soon. I'd bet they get tired of being cooped up over the winter, just like some of us!  We should have 2 calves born this spring as well. We hope to build on our small head so that we can offer beef for your freezer like we do the pork. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before we can accomplish this goal.

My seeds and supplies are all ready to get started this week sometime. As soon as we get the electric wired up for the greenhouse, I'll be able to use all that space and have plenty of garden plants for everyone who desires them. I have also tried my hand at forcing some daffodil and tulip bulbs to be ready for Easter. We will see how this turns out, if all goes well, I know I will have extra for anyone who is interested in purchasing them.....and probably alot less expensive than the stores.

Since we are new to this blogging thing, we will stop here and look forward to the responses we hope to get from our new website and will continue to provide you with the quality products you desire.

Blaine & Karen