Do what you love to do, and be around things that make you smile. The cows make me smile every day. – David Jackson

More Additions

There have been a few more additions to our flock of sheep with some of the first time ewes giving birth to Ivan's progeny. We have a lot of lambs this year.

The busyness of spring just took a major leap. Almost nine hundred broiler chicks have arrived and are comfortably settled under their cozy wooden hens in the broiler barn. These guys require a lot of tender loving care. They grow quickly and will be ready for pasture in five weeks if the weather is warm enough by then.

Another addition to our operation is Luna, a new milk cow. You'll read about her in the Down On the Farm section.

I don't know if you can call Jeannie's seedlings that are sprouting their first leaves additions, but they are new and are added to the spring work load. They, too, need tender loving care, sunshine, and fresh water everyday. And the gardens are being cleaned up in anticipation of warmer days when these tiny green shoots will be planted to produce tasty herbs and fruits.

Ah…spring. It's so nice to have longer days of sunshine and warmth. But, grab your boots, guys, and hit the fields running. There's work to be done!

Another unique product coming from the Harvest Haven kitchen…dehydrated organic sourdough starter.

What is a sourdough starter?

The quick version: a sourdough starter is an active colony of wild yeast and good bacteria cultivated by combining flour and water and allowing it to ferment. By feeding it continually and keeping it in happy conditions you will have a reliable "natural yeast" culture that can be used to leaven (raise) breads and pastries of all kinds.

The science: a sourdough starter is a symbiotic community of lactic acid bacteria and wild yeast. Both yeast and bacteria feed on the carbohydrates present in flour when hydrated with water and allowed to ferment. As you refresh the starter with new "food," each microbe gets stronger and more vivacious, releasing gases (providing air and lift) as they consume. These two live microorganisms exist in harmony within your starter, creating an environment rich with lactic and acetic acid. These acids provide both flavor and nutritional benefit.

Breads that are made exclusively with sourdough are referred to as naturally leavened. Naturally leavened breads have a longer fermentation time than commercially yeasted breads, which allows the lactic acid in the sourdough to "unlock" the nutrients within the flour. This creates a more flavorful, digestible bread with more readily available nutrients. From The Basics Behind Sourdough Starter

Harvest Haven starter is made with organic flour and Grander water, both of which produce a healthy, vigorous product. This is the same starter we use to make our naturally-leavened bread that is so popular.

Because the starter is dehydrated, we can package it in small packets and ship wherever.

Instructions for rehydrating:

Combine the full contents of the package into a clean 1 quart glass or plastic container. Add 50 grams of all purpose flour and 150 grams of warm water.
Cover the container with cheese cloth or a tea towel, and allow it to sit at room temperature (22C/72F) for 12 hours.

Place another 1 quart container on a scale and press the tare button on your scale.

Transfer 150 grams of the starter mixture (half) into this new container. Add 75 grams of flour and 75 grams of water to the new container. Mix, cover, and let it sit for 12 hours at room temperature. You can discard the starter from the original container.

At the end of 12 hours you should see signs of bubbling and rising levels of the starter.

Your starter should now be out of dormancy and can be maintained daily by removing half the volume by weight and then adding that same weight in equal amounts of flour and water. This should be done every 12 hours.

There are lots of links on maintaining starters. Here are two we found helpful: Sourdough Starter: Everything You Need to Know and How to Feed, Maintain, and Store a Sourdough Starter.

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 is becoming more applicable every day as we see prices for everything rising. It's becoming more important to reuse whatever we can.

Which brings us to glass canning jars, plastic stock containers, and cardboard egg cartons.

We sell a number of products in canning jars and 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.

The plastic stock containers with their lids are becoming more expensive, so we would appreciate the return of these in good condition, as well. Because they are high quality and durable, we are able to sterilize them for other uses.
Clean egg cartons are always useful, too.

We are grateful for the return of these items. It helps us and the environment. Thank you!

Harvest Haven Pasture Raised Chicken Drumsticks – Enjoy these plump and delicious drumsticks served hot off the barbecue or from the oven, or fried and tucked into a picnic basket.

Bioitalia Organic Crushed Tomatoes, 418 mL – The unique aroma and the rich and intense flavor of Bioitalia rustic style crushed tomatoes are the result of processing that takes place only a few hours after harvest.

Harvest Haven Dehydrated Organic Sourdough Starter – Here's the first step to great naturally leavened bread and baked goods. Simply rehydrate and start baking.

Baker's Supply House Organic Baking Powder, 210 g – 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 very well.

Organic Quick Oats, 5 lb – Rolled oats are great for cooking oatmeal or for adding nutrition, fibre, and flavour to your baking. They're thinner-cut, and therefore quicker to cook than regular oats.

A steaming bowl of freshly cooked oatmeal is the perfect way to start off your day, especially if you are trying to prevent or are currently dealing with heart disease or diabetes. Studies have shown that oats lower high cholesterol levels and can therefore reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.

In addition, oats are known to help remove cholesterol from the digestive system that would otherwise end up in the bloodstream. Studies also show that oats can help stabilize blood sugar, proving helpful for people with type 2 diabetes.

Organic Omega Nutrition Coconut Oil, 908 g, 1.5 kg, 3.17 kg – One of nature's most beneficial, nutritious and easily digestible culinary oils. It is extracted from fresh coconuts and made within a maximum of three hours. It is processed at temperatures so low that it is suitable for a raw food diet. Athletes and body builders will love it too!

• Full of coconut flavor and aroma.
• Converts into energy!
• Supports a healthy immune system.

Coconut Oil is ideal to use as a cooking oil because it can take high heat without losing its healthy properties. Most importantly this non-hydrogenated naturally saturated oil does not contain trans-fatty acids.

Please note, all ingredients in our recipes are organic.

About Cows
Our Hong Kong shepherd, Tony, who has been watching the ewes via camera hook-up, says the sheep make him smile. Lambing is taking a bit longer this year, so he's had almost a month and a half of enjoyment.

Sheep make us smile and laugh, too, especially the lambs as they frolic through the sheep corral in a flurry of excitement and pure joy that their tiny legs can propel them over and around so adeptly.

But this story is about cows…cows that make us smile.

A few weeks ago, you saw how the new Jersey heifer, Mabel was trying to make friends with Cherry, our milk cow. Although Cherry was much larger than Mabel, she would have nothing to do with this small creature. It was the horns!

Eventually the two bovines were reconciled and are now gentle companions. Cherry had her calf a few days ago and all three of them are quite compatible as you can see in this picture. This will make YOU smile.

Before a cow has her calf, you need to stop milking her for at least a month. This gives her time to produce colostrum for her newborn. Not to mention, just before the cow calves, her milk tastes absolutely awful, like baby puke. It's definitely a heads up from the cow to stop milking her.

Because we had to dry up Cherry before she calved, we were looking to buy a replacement cow that was milking. Mabel was one of the finds, but she is only a heifer that will produce milk for us next year after she has her first calf. Martin saw other cows, but there were issues with them of one sort or another. That's why they were for sale, I guess.

Finally, there was a nice looking purebred Jersey that was milking, bred to a Jersey bull, so her calf could be a keeper if it was a heifer. But, only three of her four teats gave milk.

"I can work with that, I guess," Martin thought. "I've seen her advertised for a month now, so I'll see if she's still available. She's five hours away, but I haven't found anything closer."

"Sorry, we sold her just two hours ago and she's being picked up as we speak," the lady at the other end of the phone replied to Martin.

Back to the For Sale pages.

Minutes later, James calls. "There's another cow for sale. Not a Jersey, but she looks good. And she's just down the road at a neighbor's."

"Okay. Let's take a look."

There she was, a gentle young cow with a healthy udder, giving milk now, and only three miles away. Perfect!

An added bonus was that she was a Fleckvieh crossed with a Holstein. Fleckvieh are dual-purpose cattle which are raised for both milk and meat. They were used as draught animals, that is, as oxen in Europe in the 1800s.

Meet Luna, so named because she has a broad white face like a full moon.

Luna was a little nervous coming to a new farm, but the grain she got helped her settle down in the milking stall. But, when she was about to have the milking machine attached, she showed just how agile she was with her hind leg, as it came up and out with a strong right jab. Thankfully the milkman was more agile and able to dodge the hoof with only a slight nick on his thigh. Bring out the kick bar (a harmless device that slips over the cows back and under her flank to keep her from lifting her leg to kick the milker).

When Martin told Joe, the local organic dairy farmer, about the incident, he replied, knowingly, "Ya, that breed…they are good cows, gentle, give lots of milk, but have a bit of an attitude. They're good cows and they know it."

Nevertheless, everyone's happy now. Luna has a new home with tasty grain; the farmer can milk in peace; the cats and lambs have enough milk to drink, and so do we. Smiles all around!