For 15 years, the Deruycks have grown organic grains such wheat and flax. But they don't just grow crops, they also process them at their on-farm flour mill.

The Deruycks' Top of the Hill Farm in Treherne was one of three farms featured on last week's tour with Small Farms Manitoba. Participants would've seen how the mill works, using little blades — unlike most larger-scale flour mills — to cut the grain into flour or flakes, depending on what the customer wants.

While the Deruycks' farm is only 700 cultivated acres, Dan Deruyck says they run seven days a week between farming, processing, marketing, and delivering products.

"We pretty much cover all avenues of the operation," he says. "There is a lot of work involved, between getting all your permits and all the different government departments on board. Then also learning to process different grain, and then your marketing, you spend a lot of time on the phone talking to different people and setting up orders."

Deruyck says the mill operation has been a learning curve since his parents switched to organic farming in about 2000, but he says the demand is there for organic flour. In fact, he says it was businesses in the area who requested if the Deruycks could mill grain themselves.

"It kinda grew from there," Deruyck says. "There are more and more companies calling us now to do custom work for them, too, so I think there's a big demand now for processing of organic grains."

The operation requires working and learning, and Deruyck says they enjoy it, especially because of how it connects them to their customers.

"We enjoy meeting the people. We have a lot great customers that have been with us for — well, we've been in this for 15 years now -- and it's been really interesting as far as meeting new and interesting people."

The Deruycks' products, such as wheat flour and oat flakes, are available through order on the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative website.