Every organism on a farm is happiest and most productive when it can express its distinctiveness. -Joel Salatin

The berm layer barn is very close to being finished. The skylights are in and the roof has been covered with dirt and seeded with grass. After the doors are built and installed, it's ready for occupancy.

Garlic and onions have been harvested. Potatoes, beets, and leeks will be brought in soon.

Carrots need a bit of frost to sweeten them.

Always lots happening in the fall on the farm.

Perhaps one of the most offensive agricultural odors wafting across the countryside is the foul stench of industrial chicken barns. Tens of thousands of birds per operation are callously robbed of hygiene, health, and happiness. These hideous farms represent the peak of modern food production's ignorance, arrogance, and stupidity.

Proponents of these gross stewardship failures justify stinking up the countryside with their moralistic "gotta feed the world" claims. Meanwhile, consumers of these abused, anemic, fecal-contaminated birds plug their noses and complain when the wind blows their way. They make no connection to the chemically saturated McNuggets they've made a weekly habit of consuming.

The hideous production system starts, continues, and ends with death. Dying farmers, dying birds, and dying people in a dying landscape. It's no wonder sales of organic poultry have sky-rocketed in the past decade.

So, is organic chicken at Costco any better than conventional? Yes, but not by much.

In order to accommodate mass operations, compromised organic poultry standards are not nearly high enough. These organic birds are subjected to an environment similar to that of conventional birds. Only their feed is certified organic. The farms still stink. Visitors still need to wear Tyvek suits and masks.

These certified organic birds never get to scratch a certifiably organic piece of dirt. It's all concrete floors and sterile wood shavings. No bugs, no worms, no grasshoppers, no grass, no sunshine, no breeze, no room. And no surprise that the meat has no colour, no moisture, and no flavour. Granted, these birds are pesticide and herbicide free, but so is most cardboard. That's not much of a standard.

Here is where I need to share the most important thing you need to know about poultry and the associated food poisoning risks. The reason industrial (organic or otherwise) poultry is considered such a high-risk protein with a dangerously short shelf life is because of the air quality in these filthy, stinky barns. The high ammonia levels in these factory barns burn raw lesions into the birds' lungs. These bloody pathogen portholes allow the E. coli and Salmonella contaminated manure dust of these sickly birds to gain easy access to their bloodstream.

Folks, if the smell is burning your nose, it's burning those tender lungs. The soft mucous membranes on those chicken lungs stand guard between you and your risk of food poisoning.

Since the CFIA has banned me from telling you that our meat won't give you food poisoning (which by the way, hasn't happened in 24 years), I'll have to leave it up to you to decide which meat is safer to eat.

Now, for the Harvest Haven Certified standard. Our chicks are started in a clean barn on a fresh layer of our best earthy smelling compost. Rather than wasting natural gas to heat the whole barn, we built "wooden hens." These boxes, with only two light bulbs per 200-300 chicks, replicate the warmth of a mother hen, and the chicks can come and go as they please. Not only is this system energy efficient, the opportunity for the chicks to escape the warmth to exercise and eat in cooler temperatures strengthens their immune system.

We raise the chicks in the barn for about 3 weeks until they've grown enough feathers to survive cooler nights. At this point they're ready for pasture. The birds are split up into 10-foot by 10-foot cages starting at one end of a pasture that's been recently grazed by sheep. The shorter, trampled grass provides more suitable bedding and renders the bugs easier to catch. And the tender pasture regrowth is much easier for the birds to digest than mature grasses.

Every morning when the dew comes off, we move each cage ahead by a full ten feet, providing the birds with a fresh salad and a side of bugs, which they take full advantage of before resorting to their grain feeders. (It should go without saying that we provide exclusively organic grain and cleanGrander Living Water.)

This system also moves the birds away from their manure which means they are never exposed to any pathogen load. Think about it like changing a diaper. It keeps everything and everybody healthy and clean. Our birds have full access to sunshine and fresh pasture breezes that are 100% free of ammonia. Our healthy pasture grasses make immediate use of the nitrogen in the manure to prevent any odors or runoff. The whole system is beautiful and clean, and produces meat that is beautiful and clean.

Remember, you can never be healthier than the plants or animals you eat. If you're eating animals that need antibiotics to just stay upright, I assure you that you will be taking antibiotics soon enough. If you're eating birds from barns that require you to wear special suits and masks, you'll be in a room that requires people to wear suits and masks soon enough. They're called intensive care units. Just think, industrial birds are so close to death's door that they have to live their whole lives in the ICU.

It's not rocket science. If you want health and vigor for you and your family, start by making sure your food has that same health and vigor. The adage, "You are what you eat" is certainly true.

Fresh Harvest Haven whole chicken will be ready by Wednesday, September 18th and parts by Friday, September 20th.

If you would like fresh chicken, please send us your order by this Friday, September 13th. Email: solutions@harvesthaven.com or call: 403-329-9157.

Please bring your cooler for your chickens. We'll no longer be suppling boxes or grocery bags for your order. If chickens are not picked up on these days, there will be a charge for keeping them in the freezer.

Harvest Haven lamb is raised only on lush pasture with Grander Living Water producing a tender, flavorful meat you will be delighted to prepare and serve.

We're taking orders for whole or half lamb, cut and wrapped, or just the cuts you like.

Whole lamb, cut and wrapped, is about $500 depending on the size, or $250 for a half.

Please contact us as soon as possible with your order, as September 30th will be the last opportunity to get whole lamb. Call 403-329-9157 or email: solutions@harvesthaven.com.

Harvest is happening.

If you would like potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, or beets in bulk, let us know. It's nice to have locally grown, delicious produce close at hand.

Boneless Chicken Breasts - These are our "go to" meal helpers when we want something quick and tasty for a family dinner or serving guests. Moist, flavorful, and filling…they never disappoint.

Bioitalia Organic Fusilli Noodles – Bioitalia pasta is our favorite because it has wonderful flavour and doesn't overcook. Curly Fusilli is a nice change.

Anita's Organic All-Purpose Flour – This is the flour we use for EVERYTHING – Harvest Haven bread, cookies, muffins, cakes, whatever requires a white flour. We've tried other brands, but this was the best and most consistent.

Bakers Supply House Organic Baking Powder – Because we do a lot of baking for the "sweet tooths" in our families, quality baking powder is a must. This organic aluminum-free product works well.

Wholly Wholesome Organic Pie Crusts – A tender flakey pie crust is not so easy for some cooks to make, so these ready-made crusts are nice to have on hand. Quick, easy, tender, and tasty.

Camino Organic Baking Chocolate – This is premium quality chocolate from a Canadian company that imports Fairtrade Certified and organic cocoa and sugar directly from producer co-ops, supporting family farms. Camino has excellent chocolate products that you'll be pleased to use in all your baking.

BC Bartlett Pears – Enjoy a burst of super sweet juiciness and smooth texture when this pear is at its perfect ripeness. Known as the canning pear, it's nice when sliced fresh on a green salad or into wedges on a cheese plate; it's delectable when baked or poached in a dessert.

Please note, all ingredients in our recipes are organic.

Jurassic Park – Gallus gallus domesticus

Welcome to Jurassic Park. Join the adventure of gallus gallus domesticus going wild in the jungle. Let them capture your imagination as they run freely through the forest. Join the adventure.

Know this, you are perfectly safe in this park. They're chicken, so don't you be.

Wasn't that fun!

Now, the backstory.

These gallus gallus domesticus are Martin's next batch of laying hens running freely in the greenhouse you see through the windows at the store.

Martin was tired of having to deal with commercial layers bred for maximum egg production and less than a two-year life span.

Hatchery chicks are produced in industrial egg-laying facilities to be raised for industrial farms where they sit at a feeder all day and crank out eggs in an ammonia-saturated environment.

Eggs coming from an industrial facility are often contaminated with salmonella, as Martin explained in Harvest Haven Certified Chicken. The chicks that hatch from these eggs can have salmonella, and if they do, they are weak and often die at a young age.

Most of these industrial produced chickens have lost the natural instincts for scratching in the dirt, chasing bugs on pasture, and looking after themselves on the free range.

We have some older heritage breeds, which you see roaming around the yard with a big red rooster. Martin collected eggs from these girls and some of our other layers, and put them in an incubator. Twenty-one days later out popped these cuties.

When they are a bit bigger, they'll have a cozy pen in the new berm hen house where they'll start producing your breakfast.