Farming isn't a battle against nature, but a partnership with it. It is respecting the basics of nature in action and ensuring that they continue. – Jeff Koehler

Summer's Here

Summer has arrived at Harvest Haven. Everyone is super busy!

The broiler chickens have all been relocated from field to freezer. And they are taking up a lot of space because they were ginormous. Lots of 7 and 8 pound birds with a 9-pounder we kept for a family dinner.

Now, the job of looking after broilers has been replaced by the arrival of the turkey poults.

The expression, "You turkey!" is appropriate. Turkeys can be really dumb. For that reason we have a few week-old chicks living with them to show them the basics of how to eat and drink. To keep them warm, the whole brooder barn has a thermostat-controlled heater, which maintains the building at the exact temperature with exhaust fans to remove air if it gets too warm. Turkeys don't have enough sense to go under the wooden hens when they get too cold and will die or just not do well. After about eight weeks, the precarious period has passed, the growing birds are quite resilient and ready for pasture.

Sunny and Shadow, Marseilles' pets have proven to be resilient, too. Look at how they've grown.

All of the livestock are out on pasture, enjoying the lush greenery. Even Ivan, our pet ram is feasting on verdant meadow with his companion, a bottle-fed lamb that is growing nicely.

The strawberries are doing well. They are almost ready for picking. When we bought the farm in 1995, we had 7 acres of strawberries, which required a number of Hutterite colonies to help us pick the ripe berries. They told us that "strawberries are green today, red tomorrow." We quickly learned they were right.

The strawberries, which will be ready soon, last for only about three weeks, and then they are done for the year. Place your order for flats of 10-pounds now to be sure you get some of the best.

If you want less than a 10-pound flat, there will be smaller containers in the cooler. Watch our Facebook page, Instagram, and an email announcement that they are ready.

Call us at 403-329-9157 or email: solutions@harvesthaven.com.

We've just received Naked Organs nutraceuticals – organic, grass-fed and finished, and affordable. Their description of who they are and why they make these products says it all.

Naked Organs was founded by a diverse group of family and friends including an Indigenous shareholder in Southern Alberta in 2022.

Coming from cross-functional backgrounds in small business, health, wellness and with a passion for livestock, we know what many don't...yet. That is, bison and beef organ meats are the most nutrient dense and bioavailable whole foods humans can incorporate into their daily routines. But we, like most people, don't find eating organs the "funnest", tastiest or the most convenient.

With all that in mind, we set out to tackle a few key issues and now offer our customers something truly amazing.

• Our products offer consumers an alternative for getting the benefits and nutrients of organ meats conveniently through a freeze dried and capsulized nutraceutical.

• We wanted our consumers to feel like the products they purchase are contributing to a more sustainable livestock industry here in Alberta.

• We wanted our consumers to have confidence that the products they get are 100% organic and come from grass fed and finished ruminant animals. Locally farmed and produced in Alberta.

• We want our consumers to be able to achieve health and wellness without breaking the bank.

• Our business model and products are designed to put money back into our consumers' pockets by eliminating unnecessary synthetic supplements.

• We wanted to offer consumers more options, which in our case is bison.
In a nutshell Naked Organs believes our products should be "O'Natural" (naked so to speak) with N.O. Bullshit. We hope you enjoy!

Naked Organics offers three products: Bison Liver, Bison Heart, and Bison Trifecta (Heart, Liver, and Kidney).

https://www.nakedorgans.ca/

Harvest Haven Pastured NY Strip Steaks – The New York strip is a butcher's favorite and a people's choice, often referred to as the 'Ultimate Griller's Steak.' And, for good reason. The rich marbling of the strip steak will melt into the meat as it grills resulting in an incredible steak dinner.

Maison Orphee Fine Grey Sea Salt, 500 g – Grey sea salt owes its colour to the clay-bottom pans of salt marshes from which it is harvested after the evaporation of seawater by the combined action of the wind and sun.

Extremely soluble, grey sea salt is an essential condiment in cooked food preparation. Use to enhance the flavour of roasts, slow cooked recipes, pasta and fish.

Harvest Haven Frozen Hashbrowns – Convenience without compromise! Fresh Harvest Haven potatoes are diced, deep fried briefly in hot tallow, quickly cooled, packaged, and frozen. Ready for a delicious meal.

Amy's Organic Cream of Mushroom Soup, 398 mL – A creamy blend of organic mushrooms and vegetables that's delicious served as soup, spooned over toast, or used in your favorite casserole. Soy free/corn free/tree nut free/kosher/semi-condensed.

Harvest Haven Rhubarb – 'Tis the season for fresh rhubarb. Throughout history, it has been used for both culinary and medicinal purposes. Rhubarb became popular for desserts in the 18th and 19th centuries after sugar became widely available. But, it makes a spicey chutney or sauce to go with savory dishes, such as chicken or lentils.

Walnuts, 250 g – So good for you, they should be a regular part of your meal preparation. Top your salads with chopped toasted walnuts, make a pesto sauce for pasta, toss into your favorite muffins, cake or dessert, use in granola, sprinkle on yogurt or hot cereal for breakfast.

Important: We keep all our nuts, including walnuts, in the cooler, so they are always fresh.

Please note, all ingredients in our recipes are organic.

Sweet Strawberries

Nothing compares to a perfectly ripe, aromatic, sweet-tasting strawberry right from the field. There's a reason why some berries are sweeter than others. It involves working WITH nature and not against it.

Plastic under the plants may look like a good idea, but it isn't.

Most people have long forgotten how the strawberry got its name. It's especially a thing of the past now that black plastic weed suppressant has become the norm among strawberry growers.

Harvest Haven strawberries are grown in an actual field of straw. As I'll explain, straw is essential for growing the perfect strawberry.

Every year, in the fall, we roll out 10 to 20 round bales of straw onto our strawberry field and evenly distribute it with pitch forks.

The straw insulates the plants for the winter, protecting the delicate crowns from the bitter cold while holding in the moisture during the dry winter months. In the spring we carefully expose the dormant plants so they can get some sunlight. During the growing season, the straw suppresses the annual weeds, while holding the moisture and keeping the roots cool.

Cool roots mean the crop ripens slower, which gives the plant more time to sweeten the fruit. You'll notice that our strawberries are very red and sweet, all the way to the center.

Also, the straw breaks down and feeds the soil microbes which also contribute to making the fruit sweeter.

When the field is finished after 6 or 7 years, the soil is rich with broken down straw and better off than before, except for the weeds that creep in.

Black polyethylene sheeting on the other hand is awful.

It suffocates and overheats the soil. The heat accelerates the microbial life in the soil which then quickly uses up all the oxygen while at the same time preventing oxygen from getting to the roots. This leaves the root zone anaerobic. This anaerobic state produces alcohols which roots hate. The fruit ripens too quickly and is too warm, which leads to premature spoiling.

The extra heat can easily damage the flowers during blooming, ruining any opportunity for perfect pollination. This is where deformed strawberries come from. In a field covered in the straw, the water evaporating from the straw after a good watering cools the whole field for hours, protecting those delicate blossoms.

Then after your field of plasticberries grows tired, which happens much faster with plastic, you have a big mess to clean up, and dumpsters full of wasted plastic.

So, we'll let you decide whether you want strawberries or plasticberries.
Here's a funny video of Martin and James from the fall of 2015 when they needed a bit of a comic break from their long hard days.