Spring breathes new life into the world around us.

For those of you who come to the store, you won't be enjoying chicks in the greenery anymore. Martin set up the Harvest Haven Hatchery in a cozy building dedicated to hatching eggs and raising chicks for laying hens. It was fun to see the little guys running through the jungle, but it wasn't practical.

With the pleasant spring weather, the men have been removing unnecessary structures on the farm. Fencing around the poultry yards isn't used anymore now that we have the chickens and turkeys out on pasture in the summer. A large backstop for small square hay bails is useless because we have large round bales, so that has been torn down.

The areas where these structures were are leveled, covered with topsoil, and seeded to grasses for the sheep to graze in the summer, making them neater and more useful.

Like Shrek says, "Change is good, Donkey."

Everyone Is Privileged

What is privilege? Who is privileged? Why are they privileged?

"This whole conversation about privilege and rights is more of a distraction from personal responsibility and incitement to self-righteous violence than it is a conversation about what can be good or productive, or what direction we should take, or what you're personally responsible for."

For more enlightening viewing, subscribe to The Angry Farmer on YouTube and Like The Angry Farmer on Facebook.

When we started eating organically over 25 years ago, we had to make our own condiments from whatever organic ingredients we could find. Now, all that has changed, with lots of options to choose from.

Quality great-tasting organic condiments usually have a simple list of organic ingredients making the products a pleasure to eat and a healthy alternative.

There are the staples like tomato ketchup, mustards in different varieties, BBQ sauces, salsas, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce.

In the dairy department, you can get sour cream, Greek yogurt, various salad dressings and dips.

Like dill pickles, pickled beets, or olives?

For a change of pace, cilantro pesto, hummus, and kimchi are nice.

Check out the long list of organic condiments on our website: https://www.harvesthaven.com/collections/organic-condiments

Harvest Haven Pastured Ground Beef - A farm favorite with so many ways to prepare it. Our ground beef has just the right amount of fat to make it tender and flavorful. And grass-fed beef fat supplies your Omega 3's!

Harvest Haven Pastured Beef Bone Broth – So good so many ways! Enjoy as a hot beverage, use to make delicious beef gravy, or add to your beef and vegetable soup.

Harvest Haven Parsnips - A sweet cream-colored root vegetable that makes a delicious side dish. Roast with olive oil and spices until caramelized a bit and still slightly crispy, sauté in olive oil with a dash of rosemary or thyme, boil and mash with butter, milk, and grated Parmesan cheese.

Frozen Harvest Haven Raspberries – No need to wait until summer to enjoy Harvest Haven Raspberries. They make a beautiful and tasty addition to numerous dishes and work well in both sweet and savory meals. Add to hot breakfast cereal, whip into smoothies, make into a crumble or cobbler, or warm with fresh grated ginger and cinnamon for a tasty sauce.

Prana Organic Maple Nuts – These are so good! Fresh, unique, and nutritious maple-coated mixed nuts make a delicious snack, sweet and crunchy.

Please note, all ingredients in our recipes are organic.

Kids, Cats, and Caring for Critters

Living on a farm brings new adventures everyday, especially if you're a kid. As adults, we get to be part of those adventures or at least, be regaled by them from the participants.

Gazing out the store window, I saw Marseilles running across the parking lot in a semi-crouched fashion with her arms outstretched as if trying to catch something on the ground. It's not unusual to see her dashing around the yard with her long blond hair flying in the wind, but this was different.

"What is she doing?" I pondered.

Then I saw it. Ten feet in front of her. Waddling as fast as its two tiny legs could carry it. A pigeon! A tubby little blue-gray pigeon.

"There's a story here."

Finally catching it, Marseilles gently carried it back to the workshop from which they had been running. She put it down, only for it to try to escape again.

However, this time there were two more players in the scene, Mathijs and Rosette, the cat. Now, Rosette is THE best hunter on the farm, both of mice AND pigeons. In the barn she'll wait patiently in the rafters for pigeons to fly in and roost, spring on them, and have a nice dinner.

Pigeon tried to hide under the truck parked in front of the shop, while Marseilles and Mathijs anxiously tried to catch it to keep Rosette from having pigeon pie. They were all dodging around and under the truck with Pigeon the center of attention.

Finally, it was safely caught by Marseilles and placed in a box with food and water in the workshop.

"Marseilles, where did the pigeon come from?" I asked.

"Well, I saw Harriett nosing after something in the hay shelter. It was the pigeon. So, I chased it around the bales and finally cornered it.

"When I showed it to Daddy, he said it had a broken wing. I took it to the house to show Mommy. She looked at me, looked at it, and told me to get it out of the house.

"I showed it to Smoky, the gray cat. He just sniffed it but wasn't really interested. Rosette probably thought it was 'flightless food' when she saw it."

"Do you have a name for it?"

"No. It'll probably die. I haven't seen it eat any food," Marseille matter-of-factly replied.

After this adventure, Mathijs had to show me what he'd found in the workshop. His interests are totally for anything mechanical and technological. If Martin has a question about his new iPhone, he'll ask Mathijs, who knows the answers or will quickly find them.

Mathijs' discovery was a labeling device with a variety of cartridges.
"Did you read the manual to figure out how it works?"

"Oh no. I just watched a YouTube that explained it. Look at this," as he proceeded to show me how everything worked and why it does what it does. His enthusiasm was catching.

Another day and another adventure. This time it was Konstantijn.

"When I was feeding the sheep this morning, I saw one ewe off by herself.

Looking more closely, I could see a lamb halfway out.

"So, I ran over to her and helped pull the lamb the rest of the way."

Running to the house, Konstantijn burst in on the rest of the family at the breakfast table. She was so excited they had a hard time understanding what she was saying while wildly waving her arms.

"Flower had a lamb!" she excitedly exclaimed.

The table was abruptly vacated while everyone dashed off to the sheep corral to see the new arrival. It was the first lamb of the season, so that explained the excitement. By the thirty something lamb and a month of lack of sleep, the excitement will be replaced with Martin saying, "I'm coming," and everyone else yawning and finishing their breakfast. (Martin doesn't have that privilege.)
Speaking of Martin. He had a funny incident in the barn.

Cherry, our milk cow finally had her calf. But, while the calf is small, Cherry must be milked out because she produces copious amounts of delicious white milk, which gets shared with the cats, chickens, and us.

Martin poured some milk into the cats' dish while the real free-range hens who reside in the barn looked on from where they were settling onto their roost for the night. One of the girls saw the cats all around the dish and was curious to see what was going on. Chickens are smarter than we give them credit for.

Venturing off her roost and cautiously making her way across the barn, the hen poked her beak into the milk and found it to her liking.

Another hen sees what's happening and joins her companion. They enjoyed their evening repast of fresh warm milk shared with the felines.

Here's a little video that Martin was able to catch.

Fun on the farm!