Farmer's Visiting - Danube Agrarian

«Where there is a lot of sun, it is always tastier» – I remember the words of Roman Dyazhuk, the owner of the farm "Danube Agrarian". The Natur Boutique team came to the farm, 700 km from Kyiv, to see how the Danube Agrarian farm is organized and to tell you.

The farm is located in the very South of Ukraine, in the Odessa region, Izmail district, Safyany village - in a unique geographical location on the 45th parallel.

We were met by the owner of the farm - Roman Ulyanovich Dyazhuk.

Open, calm and economical. He is aware of everything that happens on the farm.

We got into Roman's car and drove around the house for 2 hours.

Only 2000 hectares, everything is well-groomed and in some fields drip irrigation is installed.

For 7 years, organic grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables have been grown here without pesticides and mineral fertilizers, and sheep, chickens and ducks are kept according to organic standards.

The products of "Danube Agrarian" are certified by the control body "Organic Standard" and comply with the European standard for the production of organic products.

How is it grown?

Biological products, vermicompost, and droppings from their chickens are used as fertilizers.

Agrofilms are used from weeds and the soil is harrowed twice before sprouting. Then used, as Roman jokes: “very powerful and expensive preparation "sapodin" - manual labor with the use of boots”.

To increase yields, hives are installed in the season, bees increase yields by 5-15%.

They practice seeding according to the planting plan. For example, a sunflower is planted in the same place in the seventh year, and a watermelon in the fifth. This is done in order to restore the soil.

Biological products are used to protect against pests.

Necessarily in the plan of planting legumes are provided, in the roots of which nodule bacteria live, capable of converting nitrogen from the air into the form that is assimilated by plants. Thus, the mail is naturally enriched with nitrogen, and such “green fertilizers” are a natural alternative to mineral fertilizers - nitrates.

Organic vegetables

The seeds are used organic Dutch breeding.

We saw fields with pumpkins of various varieties, sweet potatoes, eggplant, zucchini, garlic, onions.

Roman showed us a special variety of zucchini that grows with the flower and is delicious to cook just like that.

Organic watermelons and melons

Danube Farmer is the first organic grower to grow watermelon with drip irrigation. Combined with an abundance of sun, watermelons are sweet and delicious.

“This year we planted 50 varieties of melons, last year there were 8” – shared Roman.

Melons, depending on the variety, are different - in shape (round, oblong), in size (from 500 g to 3 kg), in the color of the pulp (orange, white, yellowish), in the color of the skin (yellow, green, striped), to taste and texture (sweet, carrot-flavored, firm or soft).

In the fields with early ripe, almost ripe watermelon, we noticed ropes stretched diagonally at a height of 30 cm.

As it turned out, this is from the crows. Roman clarified: “As you can see, where the watermelon and melon are still green, there are no ropes, crows do not eat green fruits. And, when the watermelon is almost ripe, we put”.

Organic Chickens and Eggs

Organic chickens are kept according to the rules of organic production:

Organic production	Regular (conventional) production
Organic feed obtained in the process of organic farming (without pesticides, mineral fertilizers, GMO). Artificial additives are prohibited - dyes, preservatives, stimulants, etc.	Compound feed, raw materials are grown with the use of pesticides, mineral fertilizers, premixes are possible.
Walking area with a calculation of 4 square meters per 1 chicken, so that there is an opportunity to peck insects and fresh greens. The sites should have green spaces and shelter from the sun and rain. The walking area is regularly changed to prevent parasites.	Free-range is not practiced.
Resting places should be provided inside the coop, chickens move freely inside the coop with bedding, perches and nests with natural light. The regulated area is up to 6 chickens per 1 sq. M. It is forbidden to trim beaks.	Chickens live all their lives in cramped conditions without access to land, often on a mesh floor, sometimes with 24-hour lamps and no natural light. For each chicken, the area is the same size as an A4 sheet. Beak trimming is practiced.
Prevention of good health: a disease-resistant and walking-adapted breed (otherwise, if chickens accustomed to outdoor housing are released, they will get sick and die). Adequate food, access to clean water.	The conditions are aimed at maximum productivity and daily egg production.
The result: tasty and healthy eggs with a higher omega-3 content.	Result: Eggs from hens kept in unnatural conditions, quality unknown.

The bird is fed with its own organic food, the chickens move freely around the farm.

There was sunshine, and therefore the chickens were hiding in the shade of a tree.

A total of 1,500 chickens, a chicken coop and several outdoor areas.

Usually, in 2 weeks, the chickens eat all the greens on the site clean, then new grass is sown on the empty site. While the grass grows on an empty area, the chickens move to another area with greenery.

Unlike industrial poultry farms, the smell of which can be heard by people within a radius of 2-10 km, it did not stink here. The smell was felt only at a distance of 2 m from the chicken coop and this is normal.

Organic eggs "Danube Agrarian" are the pride of the farm.

This is not only the right product, but also delicious. Roman talked about a blind test with invited guests when they compared the taste of three organic egg producers. The eggs "Danube Agrarian" liked the taste the most.

The farm sells not only eggs, but also chickens and ducks.

Roman Ulyanovich shared: «If ducks and chickens usually gain marketable weight in 60 days, then free-range organic poultry, feeding on organic grain, reaches the desired size in 90 days.»

Orchard

The garden was laid from scratch, nectarine, peaches, plums grow here.

Roman Dyazhuk: “Fruits are difficult to grow and need to be cared for all year round and only harvested in season. Nectarine has died out this year, from the expected 30 tons a ton was collected. Hope for peach and plum in August.”

Do you know why it is important to buy organic stone fruits? These are the crops that are very fond of pests, and therefore in ordinary agriculture they are intensively treated with pesticides. Nectarines and peaches ranked in the Dirty Ten (https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php).This is the ranking of vegetables, fruits and herbs with the highest residual pesticide content.

Therefore, it is important to buy them in an organic variation.

Refrigerated chambers Danube agrarian

All products of the Danube Agrarian are not processed in any way for long-term storage.

After harvesting, the products are sent to refrigerators in compliance with the optimal temperature regime, and then transported to Kiev in refrigerated vehicles.

Roman shared a method of storing sweet potatoes. The sweet potato is first placed in a chamber with a temperature of 32 ° C and a humidity of 95% for 5 days. Due to this, the damage on the sweet potato heals. Then 12 ̊С and humidity 75%. Thus, the sweet potato can be stored for up to 5 months.

Danube Agrarian is an exemplary organic enterprise, where Ukrainian and foreign guests travel. The day before we were visiting the organic Agrofirm “Pole” and the producer of organic seeds, and immediately after us came the inspector “Organic Standard”.

The Danube agrarian exports cereals, legumes, watermelon, melon and sweet potato.

In Ukraine, you can buy Danube Agrarian products in Natur Boutique stores.

Available all year round: organic eggs, organic chickens, organic ducks.

In season: nectarines, peaches, plums, watermelons, melons, sweet potatoes, zucchini, zucchini, pumpkins, etc.

When choosing organic products, remember that it is not only about choosing your health and a clean environment, but also about supporting the right producers.

Buy products "Danube Agrarian"

All photos from the farm "Danube Agrarian"

Video from the Danube Agrarian farm