Meet Our Producers
Rick and Arlene Huisman (Boulder Creek Ranch)
“This is our legacy and 50 years down the road Co-op members are going to look back and say wow, I was a part of that!”
Living a co-operative life means giving back as much to our community as we take, even when there’s hardly anything to take from. Rick and Arlene Huisman, owners of Boulder Creek Ranch, know exactly what it’s like to start from scratch yet even when times were tough, you didn’t leave their farm without a dozen free-range eggs.
For nine years they’ve worked two jobs to support their passion of farming. Before organic or farm-gate was even fashionable, they were direct marketing 300 hogs a year to customers within a 100-mile radius, because these are the values that support a co-operative lifestyle.
According to Rick, “Farming built this valley and if we do it right, it’ll always be there for us.”
Doing it right for the Huisman’s means a commitment to farming in a sustainable and responsible manner, producing a superior product, selling only fresh, free-range pork raised on vegetable-based feed. Quality through and through.
People in the Bulkley Valley pride themselves on being self-reliant, not just as individuals but as a community and they value their access to fresh, homegrown food, a privilege that has been handed down by pioneer farm families who settled here.
Reminiscent of the historic Watson and Goodacre Stores, valley residents are once again able to buy their local beef, pork and lamb but this time from a brand new, state of the art processing facility and store front. .
“I see the whole valley changing the way they do things because of the Co-op.” Rick says, “New markets are opened up to us. We can sell our government inspected pork directly to restaurants, at the Farmers’ Market and even to camps, which puts us so much further ahead than before. This is our legacy and 50 years down the road Co-op members are going to look back and say wow, I was a part of that!”
Join the 156 and growing Northwest Premium Meat Co-op members who believe in supporting our community and become part of the legacy…