"It will not always be summer; build barns." -Hesiod | Construction and Clean Up Yes, summer has passed, and snow is on the ground. So, we build a "barn." Thankfully, most of the construction was finished before the snow came. As promised in the previous Harvest Haven Happenings newsletter, here are pictures of the new barn/building to keep our farm equipment protected from the elements. The guys continue the clean-up of the farmstead…selling equipment we no longer use and taking scrap away. It's looking good. In a few weeks, the strawberry field and freshly planted garlic will be covered with straw to protect them for the winter. Remember, there's a symbiotic relationship between straw and strawberries? The next big project is making sauerkraut – an indoor job. | Use it Up, Wear It Out, Make it Do, or Do Without! This great slogan was coined by the War Advertising Council during World War II to promote the dual need to conserve scarce resources and to help keep prices down by not generating excess demand. This applies today as we don't waste what we have by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Which brings us to glass canning jars. We sell a number of products in canning jars, which have become a scarce commodity in the stores. It would really help us if you could return the jars. We'll refund you $0.75 for these jars WITH the lids. The products you may have bought packaged in glass canning jars are: Sauerkraut, Honey, Cilantro Pesto, Dandelion Root Powder, Jam, and Tallow. If you have canning jars similar to these, ask us about them and we'll see if they are useful to us. Thank you! | Martin's ventures of raising our own laying hens continues. He started this project last winter because the laying hen stock we bought from the hatchery was weak and all of the hens from one of the breeds died prematurely. Wanting to be sure we had hardy birds, our intrepid farmer gathered eggs from our own healthy hens and hatched them. There have been chicks of all sizes and colors in various barns all over the farm for the last number of months. Now, we can tell pullets from roosters as they've grown. The pullets you keep; the roosters you eat. We have pasture-raised REAL soup chickens that are meaty and have oodles of flavor. | Harvest Haven Pastured Soup Chicken – Old-fashioned chicken soup, the ultimate comfort food, made with pasture-raised real soup chickens. These birds are meaty and full of flavor. Perfect for a hearty soup! Harvest Haven Carrots – This year's carrot crop turned out very nice…large (not huge) and sweet. They juice up wonderfully! Harvest Haven Cooking Onions – Pungent, savory bulbs that keep well all winter. Stock up now because you don't want to be without the best. Anita's Organic All-Purpose Flour – When we started baking bread, we tried various brands and found Anita's to be the best. It's smooth, versatile, with a light texture and high gluten strength. We use it for all types of baking including cookies, muffins, cakes, and of course, our Harvest Haven Hearth bread. Camino Organic Cocoa Powder, Dutch-processed – "Dutch-processed" means the cocoa powder is treated with an alkali (1 – 3 % potassium carbonate) to neutralize the acidity and bitterness, raising the pH levels to create a smooth flavor and deep, rich color. Makes it ideal for all your favorite recipes. Sunshine Farms Organic White Vinegar – A household staple. This Canadian, Organic GMO-Free product is great for salad dressings, sprinkling on French fries, or anywhere you need a splash of vinegar. | Please note, all ingredients in our recipes are organic. | Chicken Noodle Soup 1 Harvest Haven Soup Chicken
2 bay leaves
1 small Harvest Haven onion halved (or 1/2 medium onion)
2 Harvest Haven garlic cloves, pierced
1 tsp dried thyme or 2 sprigs fresh thyme
5 Quarts water For the Chicken Noodle Soup:
3 celery sticks, finely diced
2 large Harvest Haven carrots, quartered and thinly sliced
1 medium Harvest Haven onion, finely diced
1 Tbsp sea salt or to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper or to taste
4 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
4 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
12-16 oz egg noodles keep in mind they expand as they cook Separate chicken into pieces (wings, drums, etc) leaving the skin on. Next use a heavy knife to whack/cut/chop the chicken along the center of the bones to expose bone marrow and release the iron-rich good stuff into the broth. In a large soup pot (at least 8 Qt pot), combine chicken pieces with 2 bay leaves, 2 pierced garlic cloves and 1 tsp dried thyme. Add 5 quarts water and bring to a boil. Using a large spoon, remove and discard any foam that rises to the top. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook partially covered for 1 1/2 hours. It should be barely bubbling. The chicken meat will be tender and broth will be infused with chicken flavor. Remove chicken pieces and once they are cool enough to handle, separate the meat from the bones (you'll be putting the meat back into the soup later). Discard bones. Cover meat with foil or a lid to keep it from drying out. Strain the broth into a large heat-proof bowl over a sieve lined with a large paper towel. Rinse the now empty pot, and place back over medium heat. Add 2 Tbsp olive oil and sauté 3 finely chopped celery sticks, 2 thinly sliced carrots and 1 finely diced onion. Saute over medium heat for 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened. Add chicken broth back to pot and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a light boil and continue cooking another 15 minutes. Add shredded chicken and egg noodles and continue cooking until noodles are cooked through. Turn off heat and stir in fresh parsley and dill. Ladle into warm soup bowls. | Old Fashioned Biscuits 2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, cold
1 cup milk or buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing (optional) In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Grate your butter using a cheese grater and stir into the flour mixture OR cut butter into small pieces and use a pastry cutter to cut the fat into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal or sand. Gradually pour in the buttermilk or milk, stirring until the dough just comes together. Turn the dough out onto a clean countertop and form it into a ball. Press the dough flat until it is 1-inch thick. Use a circle biscuit cutter or a drinking glass to cut out your biscuits. Combine leftover scraps and continue re-pressing and cutting until all dough is used. Place cut biscuits on an un-greased baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees F for about 12-15 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned. Brush the tops with melted butter, if desired. PRO TIPS:
Keep your butter as cold as possible. Place it into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes before using in the recipe for extra flaky results. Handle the dough with your hands as little as possible. Work quickly to keep your dough cold. If you need to, you can pop the formed biscuits into the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes to chill before baking. | "Depression" Chocolate Crazy Cake 1 1/2 cups flour
3 tbsp. cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
5 tbsp. sunflower oil
1 cup water Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix first 5 dry ingredients in a greased 8" square baking pan. Make 3 depressions in dry ingredients – two small, one larger. Pour vinegar in one depression, vanilla in the other and the vegetable oil in third larger depression. Pour water over all. Mix well until smooth. Bake on middle rack of oven for 35 minutes. Check with toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Cool. Top with your favorite frosting. Enjoy! | REGENERATION: THE BEGINNING (A video from Farmer's Footprint) There's a lot of information about health and farming that comes to our attention. But this video stood out because it made the connection between what happens on the farm and the land, and the health of our population. Similar to the family in this documentary, we've been farming regeneratively for two decades and have experienced huge changes in the land since we bought it. However, we've taken regenerative farming further than these folks. Using small paddocks to rotationally graze the cattle and sheep, followed by poultry in their enclosures, we've seen the fields become lush with a huge variety of grasses and forbs. Spreading well-decomposed compost and watering with Grander Revitalized water have produced exponential growth. The other difference we have is that the consumer can receive our products directly from us. Many of our customers have noticed the benefits to their health. Regeneration: The Beginning features the trials, lessons, and victories of the four-generation Breitkreutz family from Stoney Creek Farm transitioning from conventional farming to regenerative agriculture in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Using conventional methods, they saw their soils degrade and their input costs rise every year. Transitioning to regenerative practices helped their row cropping operation and significantly reduced the input cost for their cattle. The video ends with this disturbing statistic: In 1965, 4% of our entire population had a chronic disease. Today, 46% of our children have a chronic disease. The doctor featured in this video gets it. "I cannot turn the tide in the clinics. I can't shift the momentum by working with one cancer patient at a time. It's far too slow and it's not at the root of the cause. So, I look to these farmers to realize the salvation of human health."
Dr. Allen Williams Back to basics! | |
