Pickle Patch Farm

Pickle Patch farm has been providing free-range, organically raised pork and turkeys to The Red Apron for more than 10 years now. Originally introduced to one another through Savour Ottawa at a meet and greet, their relationship was cemented when The Red Apron and Pickle Patch won the popular vote at Feast of Fields.

Aartje den Boer, the farmer and owner, supplies pork approximately every two months, when she’s accumulated enough of a particular cut to fulfill a Red Apron menu. “That’s usually around 100 kilograms at a time,” she says, “which I deliver to their door.”

den Boer, formerly a violist and Suzuki-method violin teacher with no background in farming, moved to her 10-acre farm near Dalkeith, Ont., from Toronto in 1990. “I started as a hobby farmer,” she says, “I followed my passion and eventually made it my living.”

Pickle Patch raises approximately 50 pigs a year, all Tamworth. “I chose Tamworth pigs because I was looking for a heritage breed,” she says. Tamworths are traditionally a golden to dark red in colour and they are hardy, with good mothering capabilities. They thrive outdoors, especially when grazing on pasture. They are particularly known for great-tasting, lean meat with good texture. den Boer raises the pigs alongside 50 turkeys, 100 chickens and 12 lambs, all of which are sold directly to the consumer at the farm by previous arrangement, at the farm gate or at Beau’s brewery in Vankleek Hill.

den Boer has a two-fold relationship with Beau’s. Not only do her pigs enjoy the spent grain from the brewery to supplement their organic feed and rootling around the farm property, but she distributes the grain to other farmers and has five or six clients to whom she delivers, all within a 100-kilometre radius. This certified organic feed is delivered wet, sometimes up to twice weekly. “It’s a high protein, low-cost alternative to regular feed,” den Boer explains. “But it’s only part of their diet. They also need carbohydrates, otherwise I’d have all pig and no bacon. They would be incredibly lean.”

At the outset, the pigs were passionate about the sprouted malt. Easy to digest and without yeast and sugars, it’s now a routine part of their diet, and a particularly healthy part.

den Boer also produces dill pickles and bread and butter pickles using her own secret recipe. She used to produce on a large scale, “but now do it for friends and family and for a few customers at the farmers' market,” she says. “I sell what gets done!”

Pickle Patch Farm
22190 Breadalbane Rd., Dalkeith, Ont.
picklepatchfarm.com | 613.874.2969