The Derksen Family Farm was officially born in 2004 when our family moved out of the town of Rosthern and built an acreage nearby which slowly expanded into a farm. It now includes a certified organic cherry orchard, a certified organic apple orchard, large gardens including commercial carrot growing and a summer broiler chicken operation. The dream of Ron and Lavonne Derksen, the parents of the family, was to provide bona fide work in a family setting for their children as they grew up. Although some of the older children have moved onto post-secondary education and off farm work, they all continue to help with the farm.
Not long after we moved to the farm things started moving ahead with gardens seeded every year and then orchards being planted. The first few years were hard work with lots of weeding and watering of the fruit trees and gardens, besides the days of education in how to graft and prune and take care of the trees. But the work has not slowed down since! As time went on and the older sons, Levi, Joshua and Jesse grew up they looked for something more that they could do on the farm…that is when the carrot patch started growing. It grew from a large family sized patch to growing 14000 lbs in 2013 and expanded from there into a commercial operation growing many tons of carrots in the past two seasons. The farm has become a place where many of the children spend lots of their time in summer working and enjoying the beauty of God’s Creation.
We hope the farm will grow to provide full time employment for one or more of the sons along with added help in the summers. Our goals are clear, to continue to provide healthy, naturally grown delectable produce!
If you would like to see more about our family feel free to look at our family’s ministry website and blog at www.thederksenfamily.com
