If you tickle the earth with a hoe she laughs with a harvest. – Douglas Jerrold | Getting It Done The hay is baled and in the shelters. James and Martin got it done just before it rained. They were thankful. The strawberries are done for another year. It was the first crop of berries for this field, and with some winter damage from the desiccating winds and freezing temperatures, the crop was not as productive. As farmers say, "There's next year." The second and third years for June strawberries are usually very productive. So, we look forward to next year's harvest. It's rewarding to see lush gardens weeded and supplying delicious produce. This is such a wonderful time of year. Martin and James have continued working on the new pond and greenhouse near the Van Popta's house. The kids and maybe adults, too, will enjoy paddling their feet in this refreshing pool under the green ash tree. It's very relaxing on a hot afternoon. | Understanding Our Soil: The Nitrogen Cycle, Fixers, and Fertilizer We have no idea about the life under our feet. All of creation is so complex and intricately intertwined it's beyond our understanding. But, we can appreciate the benefits, try not to mess with it, even cooperate and produce with its help. A friend shared the following video with us, to which Martin responded, "This might be the best illustrated explanation I've ever seen for the nitrogen cycle. I've explained it in some of my essays, but I think this presentation is effective and worth sharing." | Another recent and wonderful discovery we don't understand, but know it works, is Grander Water Revitalization. Even as purification is necessary today, so revitalization is needful because of how damaged water has become. Filtration does not bring water back to life; purified and distilled water is still dead water. For water to impart vitality it must be more than just clean; it needs to be ALIVE! That's what Grander products do. Grander Immersion Energy Rods are just one of the many Grander products for revitalizing water. These units are used where there is standing water or other liquids, such as wells, storage tanks, pipes, dug-outs, ponds, and hot tubs.
Installation is easy and there are no operating costs. Simply submerge the appropriate size Energy Rod in any body of water or liquid.
Under normal circumstances, the units' effectiveness will last a lifetime and beyond. Check out these short descriptive videos.
https://www.harvesthaven.com/products/grander-immersion-energy-rods | This is the time of year to enjoy all the freshness of the garden. Here's the short list of what we have available:
• Garlic scapes
• Herbs including basil, dill, cilantro, and parsley
• Salad greens such as, lettuce mixes, leaf and romaine lettuces, arugula, and kale
• New potatoes
• Tender young onions Some of these garden goodies will be found in the cooler while others are picked fresh when you ask for them. Now, that's fresh! | Harvest Haven Pasture Raised T-Bone Steaks – Let's barbecue! This special cut is tender and tasty requiring just a simple preparation to be spectacular. Splendor Garden Organic Garlic Pepper – If you enjoy pepper and you enjoy garlic, you'll love garlic pepper! Use liberally on almost anything from meat and potatoes, to grilled veggies. Splendor Garden is a Canadian company that started in 2012 in the small community of Watson, Saskatchewan (almost local). Harvest Haven Baby Potatoes – Every summer we wait impatiently for these tiny orbs of pure delight. There's nothing else like boiled baby potatoes with fresh cream and dill. Harvest Haven Dill – Another "must have" during the summer! Dill weed (maybe it's called a weed because it replants itself and spreads widely) is delicate with a sweet, fresh, and grassy flavor. It imparts that wonderful flavor to dill pickles, potato salad, and egg dishes. Organic BC Apricots – Fresh BC apricots are back! Rich and golden in color, with a tangy, sweet flavor, and soft yet firm flesh. Great for snacking, jams, pies, and cobblers. Wholesome Organic Brown Sugar – This soft, moist, and fine-grained sugar is perfect for all your baking needs, and is especially good in cakes, cookies, pies, and candies. Great on hot cereal. Wholesome Sweeteners has a strong commitment to sustainable agriculture. In adherence with strict organic standards, the sugar cane fields are green cut and are not burned or treated with herbicides or synthetic fertilizers. This is better for the environment, which ultimately is better for everyone. This also creates the highest quality, most delicious-tasting, unrefined brown sugar you can find. No chemicals, bone char, or animal by-products are used to make or de-colorize this sugar. | Please note, all ingredients in our recipes are organic. | BBQ T-Bone Steaks Harvest Haven Pasture Raised T-Bone Steaks - about 1 inch thick
Coarse Salt
Garlic Pepper Rest the steaks at room temperature for about 1 hour, if possible, allowing the steaks to come to room temperature. Apply salt and garlic pepper at the start of your resting period. Trim the beef of extra fat. This is important to prevent "flare-ups" that will burn your steak. Preheat your grill to maximum. As hot as it will go. Clean and oil well. Do not use olive oil here due to the low smoke point. Place over direct heat. After five minutes flip the steak. If you are into crossed grill marks, you should have rotated the meat 90 degrees at about 2 ½ minutes. Grill for approximately three more minutes for rare, four more minutes for medium-rare and 5 minutes for medium. Your timing will vary by your grill and meat, so as always, check the internal temperature with an instant-read meat thermometer. Never cook by time alone. Warning: If you want rare, it is very easy to over shoot and the meat will rise a few degrees after removal from the grill. Rest before serving by lightly tenting with foil for 5 to 10 minutes. | Baby Potatoes with Creamy Dill Sauce 2 lb Harvest Haven baby potatoes
1 tbsp butter
1 heaping tbsp flour
1/3 cup cream
1/3 cup milk
1 bunch fresh dill leaves, chopped roughly
Salt and pepper, for seasoning In a medium to large pot, boil potatoes until tender. After removing the water, place the pot back to the heat for 2 to 3 minutes to remove additional moisture from the cooked potatoes. Set aside. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add flour. Mix until flour has turned into a soft paste. Add cream. Whisk to avoid getting clumps. Slowly add milk, continue whisking. Simmer for around 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Mix with spatula or wooden spoon, scraping the sides of the pan and making sure that there are no lumps in the cream. Pour cream mixture on the cooked potatoes. Mix. Add chopped dill. Mix to combine properly. (Try to coat each potato with cream and dill.) | Apricot Cobbler 2 lb apricots (approximately 6 cups, cut into 1/2-inch slices)
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch Cobbler Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter (cold, cut into small cubes)
1 Harvest Haven egg
2/3 cups whole milk Preheat oven to 350°F. Apricot Filling Combine the apricots, brown sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch in a large bowl. Toss gently to combine, set aside. Cobbler Dough Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the pieces of butter and cut in with a pastry blender, fork or your fingers until the butter is in pea-size pieces. Whisk together the egg and milk. Pour into the flour mixture and stir gently until just combined. Spread the apricots and any accumulated juices into a medium baking dish. Top with dollops of the cobbler dough. Sprinkle with extra sugar, if desired. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Serve as is, or with vanilla ice cream. | RoHand II – Picking Assistant for Harvest Haven At the end of every weeding and strawberry picking season, Martin grumbled that he's going to find a way to do these jobs, so they aren't so backbreaking. He worked through options in his mind and even sketched out his ideas. But nothing materialized. Then, in early spring this year when the realization that the backbreaking work would be upon us soon enough, Martin got serious about finding a suitable option. Discussing what it would take to build something, he realized it would be too time consuming and probably reinventing the wheel. He knew there had to be a machine out there that worked. And he found it! The RoHand II is exactly what he needed. Like most things that happen to us at Harvest Haven, there's a story. Finding the RoHand II in Pennsylvania was the easy part. Getting it to Southern Alberta took a few steps. The manufacturers of the machine were helpful in putting together a unit for us, but absolutely refused to dismantle it for shipping. The cost of shipping the unit intact would have been horrendous and almost the cost of the machine itself. Interestingly, we have friends living 30 minutes from these folks. Their son, Paul, was able to pick up the RoHand II, take it to his woodworking shop, dismantle the unit, build a shipping crate, pack it, and ship it to us. As it turned out, Paul knew the manufacturers because they were former Amish companions. The RoHand II is well built with all the options thoroughly thought through, and the shipping crate Paul built was masterfully constructed. The Amish are true craftsmen. Another friend in Texas has a business that requires shipping parts all over the United States. He gladly arranged shipping for us. And the pièce de résistance was an unexpected surprise, still another friend gifting the unit to us. How amazing is that? Martin is delighted with being able to get backbreaking field work done with ease, even pleasure, if you can believe it! The manufacturers knew from experience what was needed to make labor intensive work easier and more productive. We are truly thankful to all those involved who were so generous and kind to provide this wonderful machine. | |
