May 25, 2016 "I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better." — Maya Angelou Mistakes are inevitable, but we need to be hum

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May 25, 2016

"I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."
— Maya Angelou

Mathijs

Mathijs – the future for whom we do better.

Mistakes are inevitable, but we need to be humble, learn from our mistakes, and do better. In learning and improving, we leave a valuable legacy to our children with the hope that they will grow and share the knowledge.

Bag It!

Sean ran out of plastic grocery bags the other day and realized it wasn't such a tragedy for our customers, many of whom had grocery bags in their vehicles, but hadn't remembered to bring them into the store.

We've tried to encourage people to bring their own bags or buy our attractive all-organic cotton shopping bags. Now, shoppers with us will have little choice as we're going to continue with "no plastic grocery bags" as much as possible.

One of our customers was discussing our new policy and recommended we watch, Bag It. Here's the trailer. We haven't had a chance to view the film yet, but it definitely looks interesting.

Plastic is everywhere and we need to do what we can to mitigate its ubiquity.

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Fresh Harvest Haven Chicken

We have fresh chicken only twice a year – June and September.

Whole chickens will be ready for pick-up Thursday, June 9 to Sunday, June 12.

The chicken parts will be available Friday afternoon, June 10 and Sunday, June 12.

Please place your order today – we're right down to the wire now.

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Win Groceries

Free Groceries

With your order of three or more fresh whole chickens, your name will be entered into a draw to receive an organic cotton Harvest Haven grocery bag (value $15.00) and $35.00 groceries of your choice.

Call or email us with your fresh whole chicken order today: 403-329-9157 or solutions@harvesthaven.com.

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"Making Organics Affordable" Sale

Wieners Sale $8.99/lb Reg. $10.99/lb (See Recipe Box)

Chicken Drumsticks Sale $4.79/lb for 3 or more packages Reg. $6.99/lb

Chicken Wings Sale $3.99/lb for 3 or more packages Reg. $5.49/lb

Yellow Potatoes Sale $0.99/lb for 5 pounds or more Reg. $1.60/lb (See Recipe Box)

Cooking Onions Sale 3 lbs for $6.79 Reg. $2.50/lb

Maison Orphee Old Fashioned Mustard, 250 mL Sale $3.19 each Reg. $3.95

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The Recipe Box

Pretzel Dogs

Pretzel Dogs

Super easy soft pretzel-wrapped hot dogs!

1˝ cups warm water
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp yeast
3˝ cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp baking soda
4 Tbsp butter, melted
8 Harvest Haven wieners, cut in half
Coarse sea salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together warm water, sugar, and yeast.
Fit your mixer with a dough hook attachment. Add flour and salt to the bowl. Mix on medium-low speed until smooth. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 16 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a long log (about 8 inches long). Wrap a rolled piece of dough around one hot dog half and pinch the ends together to keep it from unraveling. Repeat with remaining dough and hot dogs. Allow to rest while you prepare the next steps.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a large baking sheet. Bring a large pot of water to boil (about 6-8 cups). Add baking soda to water (careful it will bubble up!).

Use a slotted spoon to place dough-wrapped hot dogs into the boiling water (do 4 at a time). Allow to boil for 30 seconds. Remove with slotted spoon and place on a paper towel.

Once all hot dogs have boiled, place them all on the prepared baking sheet. Brush melted butter over the hot dogs. Sprinkle with sea salt to taste. Bake about 15 minutes or until dough is golden brown. Serve warm with your favourite Maison Orphee Mustard.

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Oven-Fried Potatoes

Harvest Haven potatoes, large baking ones if you want strips or small ones for wedges
Organic olive oil
Sea Salt
Garlic powder (optional)
Paprika (optional)
Black pepper (optional)

Oven-Fried Potatoes

Peel potatoes if the skin is thick. Cut potatoes into strips or wedges.
Soak for 30 minutes in a bowl of ice water. Drain and pat dry.

Oil a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.

Toss potato sticks/wedges with olive oil and dry ingredients. Spread in a single layer on baking sheet.

Bake in preheated 450°F oven for 25 – 35 minutes or until done to perfection.

Watch closely and remove any that are done early, keeping them warm in a bowl.

***

Down on the Farm

Lambs on their own

Don't be deceived by appearances. These cuties are not as innocent as they look.

Just as I hit Send on the previous Harvest Haven Happenings with my cute chicken story, Martin called in his distraught, woe-is-me voice.

"Marilyn, I just made the worst management decision ever here at the farm."

"Oh no, Martin. Tell me. I'm sitting down."

Here's his story.

I have a confession. I've made my worst management decision to date. It was supposed to be an innocent shortcut. Over in moments, painless... I thought it was quite clever. What could go wrong?

Worst mistake ever! It wasn't short. It wasn't painless. It wasn't clever. And everything, yes everything, went wrong.

As most exasperating, painful, frustrating, exhausting, infuriating and tearful situations begin on this farm, it started with a peaceful flock of sheep. They had run out of grass and several of the ewes formed a committee and agreed amongst themselves to yell incessantly until I couldn't hear myself think anymore. (I mention this because it helps me to justify myself throughout the story.)

You see, I needed to move my girls and their lambs back to their winter corral so I could dismantle their temporary electric fence and set it up around the next pasture.

Now this is where things started going south. Without drawing a map of my corral setup, I'll just tell you that the straightest line between where the sheep were and home base was through the pen with one-year old cattle and then through the pen with the cows and calves.

Now being mathematically minded, I gravitated toward the straight line theory. James, on the other hand, thinking outside the box, mentioned something about going around the corrals but I probably didn't hear him because the sheep were yelling.

So I laid out the plan. We'll feed the cattle and they'll all mind their own business with their heads in their feeders and we'll just scoot all the sheep right past them and down the alley way to home base. Simple enough!

So we fed the cattle and opened the first set of gates. All the sheep ran through past the yearlings! VICTORY! Except one lamb! And the chaos began.

All the other lambs look over their shoulders wondering why the one lamb wasn't following. Perhaps he found something good to eat. So they all turned around to find out. Their moms knew where home base was, so they went on without the lambs.

At this point, the lambs regretted their decision and started yelling for their mothers. The yearlings (teenage cattle) heard the commotion and pulled their heads out of the feeders. They had obviously never been taught to pick on animals their own size and decided to chase the lambs. Now the cattle and the sheep were yelling.

I would have been yelling too, but I was out of breath from running back and forth trying to split them up. We managed to get the lambs out of the frying pan and chased them into the fire.

The cows were waiting for their chance at the fun. I'll make it short. There were lambs running between cows, under cows, and attempting to leap over cows. I LITERALLY witnessed airborne lambs collide with cattle midflight and land on their backs. It was anarchy.

Miraculously, after many cycles around the corral we reunited all the terrified lambs with their relatively indifferent mothers. The cows had a good laugh and went back to eating. The sheep forgot the whole thing happened once they had something to eat and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Thankfully, there were no casualties besides my pride, which was fatally wounded. James muttered something about how "maybe next time we should go around." I asked him why he didn't mention something sooner. He gave me one of those looks and walked away.

So there it is. My worst management decision to date. I know what it means to feel sheepish.

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