Blog
Hello Fort McMurray,
The sun is shining and spring seems like it MAY have finally arrived! Barbecue time!
We are excitetd to tell you that we are bringing our free-range meats and eggs to you on Tuesday April 30, 2013, from 2:00-6:30 p.m., at the Casman Centre. We will be bringing:
Free-Range Eggs, Pork Chops (Loin and Rib), Shoulder, Butt and Leg Roasts, Hocks, Nugget Hams, Sausages (Rosemary and Garlic, Maple Breakfast, Garlic, English Bangers and Bratwurst), Smokies, Cheese Smokies, Kubi-burgers, Chicken Drumsticks, Chicken Wings and Turkey Breasts.
We also have one half-hog, cut and brown-paper wrapped, available. It is 72 lb total weight and includes chops, roasts, bacon, ribs, and ground pork, all for $360. First come first serve!
We are working with some other producers to try to bring several other products to you - we'll send another email on Monday, confirming our lineup. Local honey, for sure, but possibly goat cheese and organic grains as well.
Our next trip won't be until early June, and at that time we will have a full selection of pork (bacon and ribs, in addition to the above), and our spring batch of whole chickens will be ready. You can preorder bulk whole chickens if you like, at http://www.serbenfreerange.com/store/poultry
Please help us spread the word by forwarding to interested friends and family.
Thanks and see you soon!!
-Jered and Julia
Hi everyone,
There is so much going on here that I don't have time to write a nice long letter to tell you what's happening at the farm, like I'd like to! We are building and fencing and digging in water lines and generally making things work more efficiently so we can continue expanding next season. Just wanted to send out this quick note to let you know that this Saturday is the last chance to pickup a beautiful pastured, free-range turkey for Thanksgiving, from the City Market on 104th Street.
You can order your bird online (www.serbenfreerange.com), or reply to this email and we will bring one for you on Saturday.
And if you've already gotten yours, we hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving feast!
Stay warm,
-Jered and Julia
Well, much of it was sold before we even got it back from our butcher, but there is now some BACON available - it's our hottest item and it's first-come, first-serve! We also have pork chops, tenderloin, roasts, and most importantly, Easter Hams available! We also have our long-awaited lamb back from the butcher and hope to have it up on the website late tonight. For those of you who pre-ordered lamb, you'll be getting it this Monday, we'll be in touch with you individually. Any new orders for this Monday's deliveries must be received by Friday at 3 p.m.
Our first chicks of the season are arriving in just a few weeks (really hard for us to believe with all this snow still hanging on!), and the market season is approaching fast. For now, we are at the downtown market in City Hall every Saturday till May 12 - come down and see us, there are lots of fruit and vegetable vendors too.
Hoping for melty weather,
-Julia and Jered
Our long-awaited free-range lamb is finally ready! They will be available in approximately 2 weeks, so we have put a pre-order on the website. First come, first serve! They will be sold as whole lambs, cut and wrapped. Approximately 43 lb box, $10.50/lb.
Go to the online store at www.serbenfreerange.com, add "lamb pre-order" to your cart, and checkout!
We're excited to provide you with this new product!
Your free-range farmers,
-Jered and Julia
Hard to imagine that just a few months ago there were turkeys wandering around the farmyard and chickens in the pasture pens and pigs wallowing in their mudpool..everything is buried under piles of snow!
We enjoyed our time at the indoor St. Albert Farmers' Market and in the heated tents at the Downtown Market over the Christmas season. The Farmers' Markets are done for now, but we are still coming in every Monday evening (weather permitting!) to do our home-deliveries. We currently have whole chickens (pastured, no hormones, no antibiotics) and pork (free-range, no hormones, no antibiotics), and beef (naturally-raised, no hormones/antibiotics) available on our website to order. Place your orders by Sunday at noon to receive Monday deliveries!
We are busily gearing up for 2011; it seems far away now, but once the snow melts, the work doesn't slow down until after the harvest season! We've got our chicks and turkey poults ordered, and are looking forward to growing great food for you. We are considering the possibility of setting up a CSA (community-supported agriculture) system for the upcoming winter season. Since it becomes more difficult to access locally-grown food once the markets are over, we think it would be a great idea to have a CSA through those months for our customers. The idea would be that you'd commit to receiving a monthly delivery of meat (probably around $125-150/month). The delivery would be a mix of our chicken and pork, and grass-fed beef produced by our neighbour. We'd also provide your Christmas turkey. It wouldn't be feasible to home-deliver each order, since we'd need about 100 people to make this a viable plan, but we'd do centralized depot-deliveries, for example, deliveries to a central location in St. Albert, North Edmonton, South Edmonton and Sherwood Park, or something along those lines. At this point, we are just interested in hearing from you whether this is of interest. We know it seems far away, but we'd need to tailor our production accordingly during the summer. So let us know!
Thanks for all of your support through 2010, looking forward to the upcoming year!
-Julia and Jered
For the month of November, we are offering free home delivery. We deliver Mondays, 5-8 p.m. to Edmonton and surrounding areas. Place your order through the 'Online Store', or phone Jered @ 780-656-5244. (minimum order - $40)
We have Christmas bone-in-hams on pre-order now - these juicy, lean, 7 lb hams will be available in the next week or two. Pre-order to avoid disappointment!
Here's what our customers are saying about our Thanksgiving hams:
"The ham we had for thanksgiving was out of this world. I've never had ham taste so wonderful - juicy but not fatty!! Anyway, I've preordered my christmas one already and am excited for it given we need an alternative to the bird!" - Amanda Whiting
Have a happy Halloween!!
-Julia and Jered
Serben Free Range has moved to facebook"page" instead of a "group"! On our new page you will be able to see what we are doing, live!
When we are at markets, fairs, carnivals ect. we will update our status. When our chicks arrive or we are planting, harvesting or weeding, you will know!
We believe being interactive with our followers is a good way for you to feel part of the farm. You will know when to expect your chicken or turkey even your pork and lamb! You will feel that you have a true relationship with us, the farmers, who produce your food for you. You can't find anything like this at Safeway, Sobey's, Wal-Mart or Costco! We have nothing to hide, in fact we welcome you! We also welcome new ideas, suggestions (and compliments)!
We really do work hard to put proper foods in your belly!
Thanks for reading this, and hopefully you join our page by clicking here, and then clicking on "like".
Take care,
Our turkeys are now in the freezer and ready for home delivery or pickup at the Sherwood Park Farmers' Market (Wed, 5-8). They range from 17-25 lbs, and are priced at $3.10/lb.
To order, email your request to serbenfreerange@gmail.com, with pickup/delivery info. We are still doing the majority of our deliveries on Monday evenings, 5-8 p.m, but exceptions can be made if need be.
You can also order through the website (online store), but we're just going to leave it as a 'pre-order', since the weights are too variable to set a single price.
Over half of our birds are sold already, so if you would like a tasty, free-range, antibiotic- and hormone-free turkey for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, order ASAP!
(We also have large bone-in hams available for Thanksgiving/Christmas, 6.5-7 lbs).
-Jered and Julia
Time for another Serben Free Range update!The first batch of chicks are finally well-feathered enough to brave the Alberta weather (this picture is from two weekends ago). It's been a crazy spring, weather wise, and while it's nice for the garden to get some precipitation, it would be better if it were not in the form of snow on May 30th! The second batch of chicks (500), are past their cute fluffball stage, and are growing fast. We've had a lot of chickens pre-ordered, just a few more weeks until we'll be ready to get them to you (delivery/pickup available). If you haven't preordered, you can do so at http://www.serbenfreerange.com/store/284.
We also have some new pork products available, in time for the barbecue season - hotdogs, pepperoni and kubi-burgers. These are all very lean, and very tasty. You can order online for delivery or pickup, or find us at the Sherwood Park Farmers' Market, Wednesdays
from 5-8. We are no longer attending the Wednesday afternoon Callingwood Market. The garden is sprouting up (along with the requisite weeds).
Here's what's planted: Beets, beans, peas (freezer, regular, and sugar-snap), corn, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, radishes, onions, two kinds of potatoes, sage, parsley, dill, onions, oregano, basil, asparagus and carrots. And as soon as it seems like it's not going to snow anymore, we'll transplant the tomatoes. Produce will become available on the website shortly.
Here's hoping for some sunshine this week..it is June after all!
-Jered and Julia
It was great to be at the Farmers' Markets today! We were at Callingwood in the afternoon, and Sherwood Park in the evening. It was exiciting to be out and talking to people about what we're doing, and see such enthusiasm about quality food production! It was a beautiful - hard to believe it was snowing just a week ago!
We are grateful to our likeminded friend Nick (of the Parkland Conservation Farm - also near Edmonton) for helping us out - here he is making extra sure the tent doesn't blow away.
