Welcome, winter. Your late dawns and chilled breath make me lazy, but I love you, nonetheless. -- Terri Guillemets | The End of Winter Break is Close Winter for the guys is a time for some rest and contemplation. They need it before things get fired up in the spring. The garden seeds have arrived and are being sorted according to when they need to be started in the greenhouse. The warmer winter has helped make conditions more pleasant for fixing up the workshop where James works on equipment, which needs to be serviced, so it's ready to be used when spring springs. Band practice continues to be entertaining. There are only a few more weeks for everyone to enjoy their musical instruments before they are exchanged for field equipment. Martin started incubating a batch of layer chicks. Three weeks and we'll have little fluffy balls cheeping in the chick barn. A sure sign that winter break is almost over is Martin ordering broiler chicks and turkey poults. Busy days when those arrive. Enjoy your break while you can, guys! Spring is close. | The freezers are full. In the poultry section, you'll find whole chickens, as well as all the various parts, ground meat, sausages, and soup parts. We also have mixed turkey roasts, parts, and ground turkey. The lamb section has a selection of roasts, chops, stew, and ground. Ready for you to enjoy with family and friends. And we have lots of beef. No more, "Where's the beef?" If you don't see the cut you like, ask us. It may be hiding among all the other cuts. All our meats are raised and finished on lush green pastures with Grander Living water, resulting in a tender, tasty, and nutritious product. Here's a short video of our operations. | The Chi Machine and HotHouse (Far Infrared Dome) provide highly effective, easy-to-use marvelous technology that stimulates healing on the most fundamental level. We've been using these devices for over twenty years and love them. The Chi Machine provides a relaxing, therapeutic massage that leaves you with a wonderful tingling sensation, the result of increased oxygen and blood flow. These two fundamentals do several things to improve your health and quality of life. The HotHouse (Far Infrared Dome) radiates a gentle, healing frequency that deeply penetrates and slightly elevates body temperature. The resulting stimulation is in harmony with the body's own heat generation and internal processes, providing benefits that have been found to be helpful for many health conditions and overall wellbeing. Learn about the other wonderful HTE products here. Experience better health now! | Harvest Haven Whole Pastured Chicken – Truly pasture-raised, these chickens are moved to fresh pasture daily where they get a diet of lush grasses, bugs, and certified organic feed. The result is plump birds that have tender, tasty, and moist meat. Perfect for dinner! Harvest Haven Garlic – Did you notice we like garlic? A must-have from savory meat dishes to mashed potatoes and everything in between. The superfood of superfoods! One of nature's greatest natural antibiotics. Harvest Haven Pastured Chicken Bone Broth – Bone broth has so many health benefits, especially for your joints and digestive system. Besides being a refreshing warm beverage, its use in recipes is unlimited. Organic Rice – We have White Jasmine, Brown Long Grain, White Long Grain, and White Basmati Rice in 700 g bags. Any of these can be ordered in 25 lb bags. Prices vary. Frozen Wild Saskatoon Berries – These wild saskatoons are hand-picked at the peak of ripeness. The sweet, nutty almond-flavored berries are high in fibre, protein, and antioxidants. Sprinkle on your hot or cold cereal, bake in muffins, or make a special dessert. Truly a taste of the prairies. Frozen Organic BC Blueberries – Remember summer with frozen blueberries. Incorporate them into muffins, sprinkle on pancakes, blend into a smoothie, or stir into yogurt. Enjoy little bursts of juicy sweetness in every bite. | Please note, all ingredients in our recipes are organic. | Lemon Garlic Chicken 1 whole Harvest Haven chicken
2 lemons, sliced into thin rounds
5-8 cloves Harvest Haven garlic, peeled
1 tbsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper
1-2 pats of butter, optional Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Stuff 1/2 of one lemon into the chicken's cavity with 5-8 garlic cloves. Generously salt and pepper chicken. Add to dutch oven and throw in rest of lemon and garlic. Sprinkle chicken with oregano. If you like extra crispy chicken skin, add a pat or two of butter to the top. Add lid and cook 1 1/2 hours, checking temp every 20 minutes after an hour. You want the temp to get to 160 F, and then remove the lidded dutch oven, as it will keep cooking to reach the safe internal temperature of 165 degrees F for a chicken. Let dutch oven sit for 10 minutes after removing from oven to allow for carryover cooking, and so the juices have a chance to rest. Remove from pan, and carve! | Garlic Butter Rice 1 1/2 cups dry long-grain white rice, rinsed in a fine sieve and drained well
1/4 cup finely chopped yellow Harvest Haven onion
1 1/2 Tbsp minced Harvest Haven garlic
2 1/2 cups Harvest Haven chicken bone broth
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 Tbsp butter, cut into 1 Tbsp pieces, divided
1 Tbsp minced fresh parsley (optional) Melt 1 Tbsp butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add yellow onion and saute until starting to deepen in color, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute until just barely starting to deepen in color (not browned), about 1 minute. Pour in chicken broth, season with salt and pepper to taste and bring to a boil. Add rice and stir once, cover with a snug lid then reduce heat to low. Let simmer until liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest 5 – 10 minutes. Add remaining 3 Tbsp butter, toss and fluff with a fork. Serve warm garnished with parsley if desired. | Saskatoon Berry Cobbler Filling:
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 cups thawed frozen Saskatoon berries
5 cups thawed frozen blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon butter Biscuit Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon brown sugar Stir flour with 1/4 cup cold water; set aside. In a saucepan, combine 2 cups of the Saskatoon berries, the sugar, lemon zest and juice, and 1/4 cup cold water. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium and cook just until berries start to break down, about 3 minutes. Stir in flour mixture; cook, stirring until thickened,1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in remaining berries and butter. Scrape into greased 8-inch baking dish. Biscuit Topping: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until in coarse crumbs. With a fork, stir in milk until soft ragged dough forms. Drop dough, in 9 equal spoonfuls, evenly spaced, over fruit mixture. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake in 400°F oven until biscuits are browned and no longer doughy underneath, 20 to 25 minutes. | Making the most of lazy winter days Life on the farm is the opposite of city life. City folk look forward to those warm lazy days of summer when they go on vacation. Whereas, for us farmers, summer means long, hot days of crazy busyness. Winter is our time to relax and enjoy being lazy, as much as a farmer can be lazy. The Van Popta children have been enjoying these winter days, too. After they finish their school lessons and chores, there's time for fun and games. Here's a note from Konstantijn describing some of their games. Hello, Konstantijn here! Today I'll be talking about why I like playing games like chess. For those of you who don't know how to play chess, the objective of the game is to get your opponent into a position where their king is in "check" (in other words, the king is being threatened by another piece), but the king is unable to move out of the check. This is checkmate. I like playing chess because there is lots of strategy involved and there is plenty of helpful material on the internet on different openings and tactics. I like to play with my siblings and dad, and I also like to play online on chess.com. I'm only a 470 rated player but I hope to get to 600 by the end of the year! Recently we bought a strategy game called Scythe. It is very complicated, but the objective is to earn six stars and have the most money by the end of the game. As soon as someone earns their sixth star, the game ends and everyone counts their money. I bought it because I love strategy games and complicated rules, but I won't lie, a big reason I wanted it is just because it looks really cool. The other game we bought was for Marseilles, and it's called Everdell. It's also sort of a strategy game, but there isn't really anything you can do to disadvantage your opponents, so it's a lot less competitive. Marseilles isn't very competitive, and the game is very cute, so it's perfect for her! The objective of this game is to build a city by placing cards, and whoever has the combination of cards in the end that are worth the most points wins! Marseilles says her favorite card is the queen mouse because it's pretty and useful. | As well as challenging herself with strategy games, Konstantijn loves playing the piano. We often hear her tearing over the keyboard with something new she's learning. Her piano teacher sent us this video of K with a brief comment. Hi! Enjoy Konstantijn's latest piece, a Sea Shanty called "The Wellerman." She heard the song online, downloaded the music, and has enjoyed working on this. She makes it look easy and is having fun with all the hand over hand sections. If you like, send Konstantijn a word of encouragement. Kathy Konstantijn does make it look easy and we DO enjoy hearing her play. What a wonderful world, music! | |
