A Saskatchewan farm and meat processor is closing its doors Tuesday after 26 years in business.
Melanie and Kevin Boldt, co-owners of Pineview Farms, located north of Warman, Sask., said the land started out as Kevin’s great-grandparent’s homestead, dating back to 1901.
“We’re just carrying on the tradition of farming and growing food for our community,” Melanie said.
Pineview Farms is closing its doors after 26 years.
Global News/ Ethan Butterfield
Kevin said the farm was sold out of the family back in the 1950s, but was bought back in 1998.
They produced, processed and marketed all-natural meat, raising chickens and working with other producers in Saskatchewan who raised pigs, cattle, lamb and turkeys to process and market that meat as well.
Kevin explained with a smaller production they didn’t have the same constraints bigger producers had.
“We just made a very tasty product, a little unique in the market in the way we processed and aged our product,” Kevin said.
He added that recently they became a carbon-neutral processing plant, adding that it was the first carbon-neutral chicken farm in Canada.
Melanie said farming isn’t the easiest job and said that the meat market is highly-regulated as well, but noted that they saw success by listening to their customers.
Pineview Farms is closing its doors after 26 years.
Global News/ Ethan Butterfield
“One of the things we added in 2017 was meat subscriptions so that people could have a monthly recurring meat box delivered to their door,” Melanie said.
She said convenience is a big thing for customers, adding that home deliveries started to grow.
Melanie said a lot of things went into the decision to close shop, noting they had an opportunity and are going to explore other options now.
“We just look forward to a different lifestyle, but we don’t know what that is yet,” Melanie said.
They said they received an outpouring of support from the surrounding community, and were excited and anxious to see what was next.