Gerry DeRuyck

Gerry DeRuyck was born in October 1939 on his parents farm in the RM of Lorne. As the oldest of 4 children, Gerry helped work the farm land with his father.

Gerry met his future wife Marie-Paul Boulet in 1962 and with the help of his parents, purchased a farm of his own in 1963, 2 miles north of his childhood farm.

Gerry built a house for the new property and soon brought his wife Marie-Paul and son Daniel (Dan) there to live. 5 years later, the happy couple welcomed a daughter Jacqueline.

The young DeRuyck family had their work cut out for them. The farm property was dense with bush and had no farmyard. They had to clear trees to creating additional crop lands as well as build barns and fences for the live stock.

With starting from scratch, Dan and Jackie have many childhood memories of hard work. Picking stones, up rooting tree stumps, feeding the animals and spending hours in a tractor during harvest time.

Gerry and Marie-Paul have never moved and are still living in the original house that Gerry had build almost 60 years earlier. 

Dan DeRuyck

Dan was always eager for knowledge, and was often by his father’s side around the farm. He learnt important life lessons such as mechanics, farm operation, how to care for land and animals as well as how to be able to work hard to put food on the table.

At 18, Dan moved to Brandon to pursue a career in automotive mechanics. During this time he often came home on weekends and school breaks to help Gerry on the farm. After graduating from college, Dan continued live in Brandon. 

In 1984, Dan met his future wife Fran and her son Eric while living in Brandon. In 1986 the two got married and had their daughter Holly a year later. 

Generation Farming

In 1989, Gerry asked Dan if he was interested in farming. The new family agreed that the farm life would provide great opportunities and skills that would benefit the children.

As parents, Dan and Fran valued having space for their children to run around, having skills of being hard workers, and embracing what nature provides. Dan and Fran initially moved onto Gerry’s childhood farm where Gerry helped his son start up by providing Dan with 7 cows, lending farming equipment and mentoring when needed.

Living in an old house became difficult for the growing family. Especially after the birth of their second daughter Lisa in 1992 as well as baby number 4 on the way due the next summer. 

In the spring of 1993, Dan and Fran purchased a farm in the RM of Victoria, just 2 miles north of Gerry and Marie-Paul’s farm. The family moved into their new home just in time to welcome their youngest daughter, Katrina. Born June of 1993. 

With the new farm up and running, Dan and Fran tried a verity of ways to create income with their family farm. From 1993-2000, the DeRuyck farm provided, grain, beef, chickens and pigs. With prices of pigs crashing and beef dropping, something needed to change. Dan decided he was done with the pork market and focused more on beef and grain. Dan continued search for new and innovated ways to make the small family farm work. 

Becoming Organic

Remembering the old ways of farming while thinking of the health and future for the next generation of consumers. Gerry began his process to become organic. In 2000 Gerry became certified under OPAM and embraced the culture and knowledge of organic farming starting with his crops. 

While Gerry embraced the new knowledge and skills, Dan had also began looking into organic farming. He was interested with the idea of not having to put chemicals on his crops that made him sick during harvest.

Once the crops were all certified organic, Gerry and Dan both found that their small family farms could not keep up with the large corporation prices. So again, wanting to keep the family farm, they had to find their own ways to move their product. They tried grain, a vegetable garden and finally found a market with flours and flakes

Working with Customers

Gerry and Dan began talking with small local businesses to see if there was any interest for organic grain. After talking with multiple small businesses, Dan and Gerry found a market where they could cut out the “middle man” and deliver products straight from the farm to stores or bakeries. As more businesses began to contact the DeRuyck’s, customers began to ask for more requests.  Items requested to be grown or bagged were spelt, buckwheat and flax. 

As they worked with more bakeries, restaurants and stores, the customers base began to take off. Both DeRuyck farms turned Gerry’s two car garage on the farm, into a food grade flour mill and walk in cooler. Now they supply a verity of flours, flakes and ground flax. 

Custom Seed Cleaning

As word of mouth spread and orders began getting bigger, the DeRuyck’s realized that they needed a better system for getting the seed ready for the flour mill. Dan decided it would be more cost effective to just clean the grain himself. In 2010, Dan began to convert a wooden barn into a seed cleaning plant. 

He found used seed equipment and created a system that allows the grain to move efficiently through the plant. Dan improved and upgraded his production year after year with the help of his Son-in-Law Marcel.

Dan continues to expand his production to meet the needs of new potential grain producers. 

The DeRuyck family is very proud of all the lessons they have learnt thought the years. It’s been very important to solve any problems that arises while also maintaining ethics and interiority. 

Keeping family business alive is a huge challenge but the DeRuyck family is here to provide a service to those who need it.