By Jim Morris

Being an athlete has allowed Jonathan Dieleman to travel to many places, but he has never strayed far from his farm boy roots.

Dieleman drives a shiny pickup truck and sometimes sings country and western music. The work ethic he learned growing up on the family farm near Telkwa, B.C., helped him break Para-swimming records and reach a final at last summer’s Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Dieleman is now applying that same determination to a business venture he started last summer called Bulkley Meats. The company provides beef naturally raised on family farms in B.C.’s Bulkley Valley to homes in Vancouver and the surrounding area.

For Dieleman it’s a chance to return to his roots while keeping an eye on his future.

“For me, this is a way of staying with farming,” said the 31-year-old, who broke his back in a 2010 dirt biking accident. “I’m a farm boy. I love farming. My ultimate dream since I was 13 was having my own farm.

“Since I broke my back I don’t really have a great way of staying involved in farming. For me, if this is the way I have to stay in farming, that’s the way I’m going to do it.”

Dieleman sees Bulkley Meats as a company that benefits both cattle producers and consumers wanting a healthy product. The cattle are pasture-raised and fed natural grasses and grains. The processing is done at a local, federally-inspected abattoir.

The meat is cut by local butchers. One of Dieleman’s cousins is taking a meat-cutting course and plans to open his own butcher shop. People can select beef that is grass fed, grass finished, or grass fed, grain finished.

Dieleman also sells pork raised by local farmers.

People wanting to order meat can go to the company website http://www.bulkleymeats.com and make their selection. Orders can range from 20- and 40-pound boxes all the way up to an entire animal.

Dieleman picks up the wrapped and frozen meat in Telkwa and uses a refrigerated trailer to haul it to Vancouver.

People are attracted by the idea of having a hand in selecting what they eat.

“Knowing where their food comes from, knowing it’s produced in B.C.,” said Dieleman, who lives in Richmond, B.C., and trails with the Richmond Rapids Swim Club. “They are family farms that have been established, in my family’s case, for over 60 years.”

Liz Mark, who lives in Langley, B.C., was one of Bulkley Meats’ early customers. She met Dieleman when her daughters trained at the same pool in Richmond.

“Our family has an interest in healthy eating,” said Mark. “I have athletes in the house and a couple of daughters with a lot of dietary restrictions.”

Mark liked the idea that the meat she was buying was free of hormones and additives. She also was impressed when the butcher called to ask how thick she wanted the steaks cut and how large the roasts.

“It’s premium quality meat,” she said. “It’s a very personal order.”

Dieleman, who owns a 40-acre farm near Telkwa, said marketing directly to consumers also benefits the producers.

“For farmers, direct marketing is a much better option than selling our calves to the auction mart every year and being at the mercy of the auction,” he said.

“For us, it keeps all of the value in the animal with us.”

The idea for Bulkley Meats was planted in a conversation Dieleman had with his brother Michael.

“He kept saying every time we have friends over and they have meat from the farm, they keep asking ‘where can I get this,’” he said.

It’s been a busy year for Dieleman.

He attended the Olympic & Para-swimming trials in April and qualified in the S3 50-metre breaststroke. In Rio, Dieleman set a Canadian and Americas record of 50.08 seconds in the morning preliminaries but finished fifth in the evening finals in 50.21.

Since returning from Rio Dieleman became engaged to his fiancé Melissa and committed to competing at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. Training up to six times a week while trying to run a business leaves Dieleman little free time.

“Time management is definitely coming into play,” he said. “Eventually, when I’m done swimming, I can make it my full-time business that will support me.”

Growing up on the farm, Dieleman competed on the amateur rodeo circuit, riding bulls and bareback horses. He also trained for motocross races. A dirt bike accident on his parents’ farm left Dieleman a T4 paraplegic, paralyzed from the centre of his chest down.

He turned to swimming to stay in shape. He first became involved in Para-triathlon then later took up competitive swimming. His first major international competition was the 2015 Toronto Parapan Am games, where he won a silver medal in the 50-m breaststroke. Dieleman also holds the Canadian record in the S3 100-m breaststroke.

Dieleman faced a steep learning curve to qualify for the Paralympics. He’s applying that same experience to his business venture.

“The diligence of putting the hard work in to getting it going,” he said. “When I started looking into the Paralympics I had two years . . .  to get myself where I was going.

“With this business, it would be nice if it were fully supporting me at the moment, but I don’t necessary need it to until four years from now. I have the time to develop it. You still need to put in the time to expand the marketing and get the name out there more.”