GoldDustFarms.com%%

2021 Employee Picnic & BBQ

August 23, 2021 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

Gold Dust & Walker Farms group photo — **Here’s Gold Dust & Walker Farms’ Dream Team!**

When you have amazing office, floor and farm crews made up of some of the best employees found in the Klamath Basin, what do you do?

You have a BBQ!

Last month (July 22nd, to be exact), Gold Dust & Walker Farms invited our employees and their families to BBQ picnic lunch in Malin Park. The smoke gave way to let the sun shine through for a perfect day to have lunch outside. On the menu were hotdogs and hamburgers expertly grilled by Roni Walker’s husband, Dan Reagan. Our employees from the mechanics shop, field crews, hay crews, floor crews, office crews, and frankly anyone who works for Gold Dust & Walker Farms lined up for lunch. Tables were full of folks visiting with people they worked with as well as the families and some people who work for us who they may not have already known.

As part of the fun, we also had games for kids (and some adults!) to play – which eventually broke into a water balloon fight. Moms and kids alike were chasing each other, hands filled with water balloons, throwing and ducking to avoid getting wet. Smiles lit faces while laughter and screaming echoed through Malin Park’s trees. And the best thing to follow a water fight is ice cream!

To help show our appreciation for our workers, we gave them tickets based on the number of years they’ve been with our companies which they could exchange for Gold Dust & Walker Farms merch. Items they could “purchase” included hats, sweaters, Carhart jackets and even some In-N-Out Socks. Employees were also entered in a drawing where they had the opportunity to win In-N-Out gift cards, water bottles, lunch bag and a gift basket full of Gold Dust and Walker Farms swag.

We had a great time, but more importantly, we hope our employees did. It was nice for everyone to gather for a meal under the July sun to share a few laughs. For us to get a chance to show some gratitude and appreciation for the hours and dedication our workers put in to help our farms to be as successful as they are.

Thank you, Gold Dust & Walker Farms employees. We hope to see you all there next time!

If you’d like to join the Gold Dust & Walker Farms team, be sure to check out our job postings. We have employment opportunities from the offices out to the fields, including full time jobs as well as seasonal employment. Our crews are made up of incredible people, and we’re always on the lookout for talent.

Here You Go – Weston’s Organic Potato Chips!

December 11, 2020 By Gold Dust Farms 15 Comments

We’re pretty sure it’s unanimous that 2020 has been a train wreck of a year. COVID-19, the ensuing pandemic, economic disruption, an election year – there’s been very little to celebrate. Well, we might have found something

Weston’s Organic Potato Chips!

What are those you ask?

Obviously, they’re potato chips – organic potato chips. And one of the reasons we’re excited about these chips is we’re providing the organic chipping potatoes that are fried up into these tasty snacks. They’re grown right here in the Klamath Basin, which, in our opinion, makes these potato chips extra delicious.

Fried up by family-owned and operated Warnock Food Products of Madera, CA, this is the same company that produces the rose fingerling potato chips we wrote about back in February.

We’ve been able to find them at our local Grocery Outlet in Klamath Falls

Weston’s Organic Potato Chips seems to be a regional brand only found on the West Coast. Though they may be a mostly Californian product, we were able to find them at our local Grocery Outlet in Klamath Falls. On a personal note, it’s pretty exciting to go to a grocery store and see potato chips with your family’s farm on them.

Even more exciting is when you know the “Weston” behind them.

If you haven’t guessed yet, the Weston printed on the big white bags is in reference to our very own Weston Walker. Jaap Langenberg, the brain behind the rose fingerling chips and Weston’s Organic Potato Chips, visited our farm a while back. During his visit, he was amused that Weston was so dedicated to growing and providing chipping potatoes he even named his dog Spud. With the image of a farmer and his dog in Jaap’s mind, a brand was born.

Now the big question – how do they taste?

We might be a tad biased. Regardless, these potato chips fry up nice and nearly white – just as a proper chipping potato should. Being thick-cut, wavy-style chips, they have a nice, crisp crunch. There are two flavors to choose from – Sea Salt and Sea Salt ‘N’ Vinegar. While you get the familiar flavor of sea salt and the pungent punch of salt and vinegar, what’s nice about these potato chips is you can actually taste the spud. The flavors don’t overwhelm the natural potato taste, which in a world of overly-salted snacks is a nice change. And again, we might be slightly biased so you need to find a bag and try them yourself!

We hope you’re able to find a bag of Weston’s Organic Potato Chips in a store near you. Since these are an organic product, if the white bag doesn’t stand out on the shelf of the snack section, you might have to go look for them in the natural foods aisles. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Simple ingredients make them simply delicious!

We Stand With Shut Down & Fed Up

June 4, 2020 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

**We are proud to support the Shut Down & Fed Up movement**

May 29th was pretty incredible. And we’re proud to have been a part of an amazing event like the Convoy For Change.

Last Friday, some of our crew met at our shop in Merrill to help decorate cars, pickups, tractors and trucks to join in the convoy. This tractor rally was put on by the Shut Down & Fed Up movement, which is working to find a sustainable solution for farms and fish in the Klamath Basin. Gold Dust & Walker Farms was more than happy to add our vehicles and voices to the protest. We even offered up one of our grain fields just outside of Merrill to give everyone in the rally a place to get ready.

Signs – check. Help – check. Let’s get these farm rigs ready to roll!
Alright, let’s get Lexi’s rig ready for the tractor rally!
No truer words have ever been attached to a tractor
That’s a great and incredibly true sign, Madison and Penny!
Here’s one of 23 vehicles we put towards Shut Down & Fed Up’s tractor rally
We even made sure the hay was ready for the Convoy For Change
As you can see, the Convoy For Change tractor rally isn’t just about tractors.

We figured there’s be quite a few people. The leaders of Shut Down & Fed Up said there’s be several hundred participants.

**That’s quite a line of farm rigs getting ready to join the Convoy For Change**

What we saw from the shop’s parking lot told us there was a whole lot more than several hundred. As we worked to get posters and flags hanging from the equipment and vehicle windows painted with phrases in support of Klamath Basin ag, we could see the line for the tractor rally was massive. It went past our shop, and from what we could tell to the Tulelake-Malin junction.

Our vehicles didn’t enter the tractor rally all at once. Rather, we were spread out, slowly making our way to Merrill and then towards Klamath Falls. People lined the streets of Merrill, waving and cheering in support, giving our protest the feel of a parade more than a statement. However, it was a statement – a statement that was nearly 30 miles long!

While some of the tractor rally headed to downtown Klamath Falls (yes, there!), others headed to a field in Midland owned by the Scalas family. In years past this was a productive hay field, but this year, with their water being cut, it was instead a dusty meeting place for the Convoy For Change. At the site nearly 2,000 crosses were planted, each to represent the family farms and ranches that would be affected or die off if water to Klamath Basin ag was shut down, as it was for the Scalas family.

Tractors surrounding a field planted with crosses near Midland, OR for the Shut Down & Fed Up Convoy For Change — **Tractors and other farm vehicles surrounded the field of flags for the Shut Down & Fed Up rally**

The field was surrounded by an assortment of farm machinery – ranging from large tractors hooked up to potato bulkers to combines and fertilizer spreaders. The convoy slowly filled the field, with all the intersections leading up to it jammed with more rigs. At the field, several leaders from Klamath, Siskiyou and Modoc counties spoke along with Representatives Walden and LaMalfa and other California supervisors. Despite the heat, the traffic and the long procession to get to the field, many met at the field to show support for Klamath Basin ag and the communities affected by farming and ranching.

It was an incredible feeling of awe and camaraderie to be a part of this amazing event. Talking to some of the members of Shut Down & Fed Up, they had to goals for the tractor rally. The first was to bring our community together, which they succeeded in. The second was to get the attention of the Trump Administration to focus on finding a solution that helps not only Klamath ag, but also brings real solutions to preserving the sucker fish in Upper Klamath Lake and the salmon in the Klamath River. We wish them luck in their second goal.

Gold Dust & Walker Farms is proud to support the Shut Down & Fed Up movement. While we’re able to find the ground and water to fulfill our contacts, we know many of our neighbors are not as fortunate. We’d like to thank the organizers of the Convoy For Change tractor rally, including our very own Tricia Hill and Lexi Crawford. We also hope you too will learn more about their cause by visiting their Facebook page or going to ShutDownFedUp.org.

2021 Employee Picnic & BBQ

Here You Go – Weston’s Organic Potato Chips!

We Stand With Shut Down & Fed Up

From Our Farm Blog

We’re Hiring!

Stay In Touch!