Farm News and Ramblings

Hi all!

What a busy crazy time!  Here it is, the order cut-off day and I haven't found a moment to write a quick email!!

Somehow we've managed to attract some incredibly talanted energetic WWOOFers to the farm -  4 from France (pics on Cool Springs FaceBook) and 2 from Belguim who just arrived 2 days ago- and things are really getting done!  When you have great help like this, there's not much time to get to the computer!  (If you don't know about the WWOOF program, it's a great way to travel  and get experience working on all types of organic farms all over the world - I wish I had know about it before we bought a farm- oh well, must be tabled 10 years and then we'll go!  :) )

They've tinned the barn (which I've been waiting for 4 years!), modified the chicken shelter to move sideways in the pastures and then moved the chicks out there, welded up some much needed improvements on Donny's (our handicapped boarder) wagon.  The girls have been baking Frech bread every second day and cooking and cleaning, playing with the kids, and looking after the ducks geese and chicks.

Victor who raises the famous Label Rouge chicken in France and who's Grandpa is a butcher, showed us how to make the famous Boudin Noir or Black Pudding (aka Blood sausage) a traditional treat just at hog killing time  and Rillettes du Porc (ree-yet) which is a delicious appetizer of spiced, potted meat that is thickly spread on bread....soo good!!!!  

Has anyone had this type of "Charcuterie" before??  Would you be interested in seeing them in the store??

In other new... 300 Duckling and 250 geese are doing fantastic...soon to get out to pasture as well!

Next delivery (in June) we will have a new  batch free-range chicken in the store!  They are a NEW breed called Freedom Rangers or Red Bros, which are actually a slower-growing, red-colored French chicken designed for the Label Rouge progam in France.  We got them from a Pennsylvania hatchery and although they are new to Canada, they look just like normal French chickens to Victor!  We won't be ordering them outside of Canada again, since we where stung with 238% duty on them, but by next year we will probably switch entirely over to them since there are Canadian breeder flocks starting this year... YAY!!!

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The orders have been pouring in and we are sold out of a LOT of products, so I apologize if you didn't get your order in or get what you wanted!  The combination of the mailing list growing...  and... this being the time of year where we are running out of the stock pile but not ready with the new crop, is PAINFUL for you and me both!

Bear with us as we get stocked up again!

If you have been telling people about us (someone must be!! :),  LET US KNOW so we can give you your $10 referal credit!  I'd far rather give it to YOU that  GROUPON!!

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Take care!

We'll see you Saturday...

Janeen
(for the team...Sam, Lyle & Grace, and Kate. Emma, Tess and Beau)

www.coolspringsranch.ca

547-4252

Hey "Folks"!

Remember Joel Salatin from the renowned food documentories "Food Inc" and " Fresh"?
...and most recently "American Meat" which I havn't seen yet.

I've been a Joel fan long before he became famous. I found his first book "Salad Bar Beef" in McNally Robinson in Saskatoon in 2000. As I flipped through it, it I wondered "WHY did I not learn one STITCH of this stuff in College??"
I took it home and read it cover to cover that night...and my course in "farm-life" was forever altered!  My "agrculture college knowledge" suddenly became almost completely useless. A new paradigm began to shape a new dream... a farm were animals had a life and  actually HEALED the land, where food was nutricious, where local food systems where the norm, where there was a future for families on the land!

Over a decade later, the journey of the dream is well on it's way -  it's still exciting for me,  and Joel's writings still inspire me, from his articles in the 2 best Ag magazines out there, The Stockman Grass Farmer, and Acres USA and  all the way up to his 8th and most recent book "Folks This Ain't Normal"!

 I'm not going to try to give you an elequent book review (there are plenty online) but "FOLK'S THIS AIN'T NORMAL - A Farmers Advise for Happer Hen, Healthier People and a Better World" is a book I hope EVERYONE can read!! It's intense, it's entertaining (as Joels writing always is!) and not easy to put down! It WILL make you think about many things you  never realized were ABNORMAL and you WILL come away with a new perspective!

(I'm going to place an order for a case lot of these books to sell at cost - if you are interested let me know)


One of the chapters is called "The Church of Industrial Foods Unholy Food Inquisition" and it's so applicable for most of Canada as well as the US.   The "ain't normal" point he wanted to make is...Never in history has food safety been a concern in local and neighborhood operations. It was born out of food industrialization, period. And it's being kept alive by the well meaning public that is so sure that stricter regulations will solve the food-borne illness epidemic (but they are barking up the wrong tree) The big retail stores now  follow the  "CYA" policy (Cover your ____) and want only "inspected" meat. The big guys USE the publics' fear to lobby for laws that guarentee them the market access they want. The little guy was never the problem, but he gets kicked in the teeth anyway!

"The single biggest reason local integrity food does not enjoy a larger share in the modern American marketplace is due to these non-scalable regulation. Farmers are ready and willing to produce for local markets, and they have the knowledge to do it. Consumers (or coproducers as Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, calls them) are ready and willing to buy. But between these two parties exists a labrynth of capricious, nonsensical, malicious, rediculous - let's think of how many adjectives I can think of - asinine, unreasonable regulations that preclude commerce.   Make no mistake, these regulations are not about food safety. They are about market access."


I am happy to say that Saskatchewan  is the ONLY province that is blessed to have relatively liberal meat laws. (our Regional Health Inspected butchershop would not be even close to legal in the rest of Canada) We can sell to EVERYONE in the province... except retail stores that have a CYA policy, and... the CITY OF SASKATOON that has a bylaw that says "only Carcass-inspected meat can be sold in city limits" (lobbied into place in the 1960's by the big packer Intercon)

The good news is that the city is currently revisiting this by-law!! and NOW is the time to put your opinions on the table!  PLEASE DO!!

- You can write to the City Council

- Like and post on Saskatoon's FaceBook page

- Talk or email councillor Charlie Clark, who is Pro-local food and working on this issue

- Talk or email the other councilors who may not see the complete picture yet.

- Send a quick email to the chefs at the Saskatoon Culinary Federation  that there are other options for quality food in this province than "local CAFO's" if they want it...just help us fight for it! Apparently they have a big impact when they show up at a Council meeting in their "whites"

-Tell them you want  more local, pasture-raised chicken and duck and pheasant, etc on restaurant menus and in the health food stores. The only reason it's not there is that there are Pine View Farms has the only local provincial chicken abbitoir; Smaller scale pasture-based farms are out there but the "embyo" required to birth the "required" abbitoir is too big!

-Tell them to let the marketplace decide what food they want, who they trust to grow and process healthy, safe food.  The city doesn't need to dictate this.

-Tell them that the Health Authorities are "finding no evidence of any issues with meat from Health Inspected abbitioirs elsewhere in the province." ...Quoted to me this morning!

As fans of "access to REAL Saskatchewan food", lets stick up for it together!   (and I'l love to hear what kind of reactions you get!)


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A little farm news...

We have a batch of Freedom Ranger chicks in the brooder!! There should be fresh pasture-raised chicken for the  2nd week in June! 

We've ordered 250 geese and 300 ducks!

Sam and I will not be along for the trip to Regina this week but Lyle and Grace will.  Kate is in her first year of Light Horse 4-H She has made her way to the Provincial 4-H Public Speaking Competition on Saturday and we wouldn't miss it for the world! Her speach is titled "Life on My Farm"  :)

Cheers!
Janeen
for the CSR team

www.coolspringsranch.ca
547-4252

Hello!

I think winter is over and spring is been looking very optomistic! (at least the animals seem to think so) The laying hens have been outside quite a bit already, snapping up anything green that appears.  I'm looking out the window right now... one pig is out, giving Suzie, our Border Collie, something new to "herd" besides the chickens!  :)

I can't help but get pumped up about what a new spring will bring...

We should see some grass-beef finally getting to the degree of "finish" we are looking for...  YAY!!
New piglets will be arriving...
Chicks are coming at the end of the month...
The Jersey girls will be freshening in May...

But our latest thought is to add a few more species to the list - Free-range DUCK and GOOSE... since we are so limited on our turkeys! (The "Turkey Board" is not as pleasant of a group to deal with as the Chicken people. There is a firm "quota exemption limit" of 99 turkeys that Non-quota holders are allowed to raise. Apparently, turkey sales have been slowly declining in Canada and they really DISPISE us "back-yard flockers" for any market share we are taking.  I'm not sure why they are so opposed to changing their factory production model...it might really help their cause!)

But...why not raise Goose and Duck? There's no "police" for these animals!
Well I did some research and it appears that Free-Range Goose is ALL of Europe's most favorite Christmas/holiday meat!  There are countless farms like ours over there, WITH geese! Even Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver love it! Make no mistake, the goose is re-gaining it's seasonal appeal in all guises...the meat most definitly, but also the eggs and the down and feathers!
 
So can I put the question out there... Would you be interested in a  slow-grown Traditional Free-Range Goose this Christmas/Holiday season? and how about Pekin Duck? is the Julia Child in you been immerging?  Last fall I had the opportunity to pour for hours over a few of her cook books and was very inspired to expand my reperatoire for special occasions...maybe you will too!

If you can send me a reply to this email, I will keep a list of requests and it will help us decide what kind of numbers to start with.

Happy Spring!

Janeen
For the CSR team

547-4252
www.coolspringsranch.ca


ps The chickens are laying really well! if you want more than 6 dozen eggs, make a note on your order and we will accomodate where we can.

pss. In case you missed it, our most popular sausage, "mild chili sausage", which had very little to do with chili, has been renamed  "Rockford Bratwursts" after our cool little area of Saskatchewan!

Regina orders in by Wednesday. (No Saskatoon orders, please!)
Many of you have already ordered but in case you haven't, this is the reminder!

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The Mild Chili Sausage finally has a new name!  It's came from a collaboration of neighbors actually.  We could not agree on something that actually described it, so we named it after our "almost-mythical-ghost-town/hunters paradise" of Rockford, Saskatchewan, which is just 5 miles away!

"Rockford Bratwursts"
Brat sounds like Rock, and it's German for a large and usually longer fresh sausage made from pork and or beef, grilled or pan fried and sometimes cooked in beer or broth... there are many versions of them!   This is ours!

It's the same delicious juiciness with just a little kick!

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        Last week Western Living magazine came out their "Top Fourty Foodies Under Fourty" list.  My friend Julie Rempel (with Fresh Air Flavours) and I made the list!  I was a tad puzzled as to how that came to be, but the mystery is over...Amy Jo Ehman (Saskatchewan's favorite local food author and blogger) sent a whole list of nominees of which we were on...Western Living researched submissions from across Canada and we were selected in the "producer" catagory!
So, on Monday last week, CBC featured  us on on Blue Sky -  it took us both by suprise but it was fun!

Some of you were wondering if there was a link to listen to it...here it is

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        I mentioned a while ago that the Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan had agreed to meet with me in their April or May meeting. It sounded hopeful that the quota excemption limit would be raised to 2000 chickens (like BC and Alberta)  although I wanted more . So I was pleasantly surprised when Clinton Monchuk (CFS CEO) phoned in the middle of February to say that I could meet with the board in their March 1 meeting! I managed to throw a propsal letter together, collaborating with Mark Lane from Farm Gate Food, who did some editing for me, and I headed off to Saskatoon on Thursday morning.
Well, we had the meeting and it couldn't have went any better!! They were all very easy-going people which was nice, as I was anything but relaxed when I  arrived! They were impressed with the plan.  THey were actually very interested in our website and want to come tour our farm...imagine that!

Although not offical yet, it sounds like we could have a 5000 bird Pastured Poultry Permit program in place by the end of summer!  How cool is that?? :)

Look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

Janeen
for the Team

www.coolspringsranch.ca
547-4252

A bit of news... We're in the news!

Somehow we made the "Top 40 Foodies under 40" list in Vancouver's Western Living magazine...I have no idea how they came up with that...we have not even really "branded" ourselves yet, as marketing has not been our weak link. 

But we will be on Blue Sky at about 12:10 today (Feb 27)

My friend Julie Monroe from Fresh Air Flavours will also be on with me...

Let me know what you think if you hear it!

Cheers,

Janeen

Hello all!

This weekend was the perfect example of the reason for our "meat shop dream" as it began!

Sam grew up with a tiny, albeit sort of crude, meat shop on his farm (near Rockglen, SK)  And even as we were dating, I have happy memories the family meat cutting days we had there.  His aunts, uncles and cousins would all come out from Regina and area to cut and wrap a beef that had been hanging for 3 weeks.  Maybe it was work, but it didn't hardly seem like it...just good times with family, ending in a wicked BBQ of  Ribeye steaks, baked potatoes with all the fixings and what ever else that was fresh in the garden!

I really only got in on the tail end of those times before the farm sold, but it left an impression on  me I won't  forget...we need a MEAT SHOP on this farm so we can cut meat together for our families! ( Obviously, the idea evolved since then - now we have a Health Inspected butchery and have turned it into our business.)  But it really was fun this weekend to have Sam's Mom and Dad, his brother Pat and Karen, with a whole bunch of cousins out to cut up Pat's 2 Holstien steers.  The work got done in record time, a little reno-ing got done in our house, we ate like kings, and the kids skated, ski-dooed and quad-ed them selves to exhastion...  As I write, they are crammed like sardines in all corners of this house...finally sleeping quietly!

More family came today and tomorrow, official "Family Day", will be pure play along with an "prototype" wiener roast, ending with 4-H Public Speaking (good thing we got them writtten tonight!)

So, I don't know how much personal stuff is appropriate to share here, or if you care to hear any of it at all, but the point I want to make is...putting up food together is such a great dimention to add to family culture! It doesn't matter if it's digging potaoes on Labour Day, building a backyard "chicken tractor" with your kids, picking crab apples around the neighborhood for applesauce, or cannning the season's tomatoes... it is my wish that every person can produce some of their own food and enjoy doing it with their families!

Happy Family Day!

Janeen (for the team)

www.coolspringsranch.ca

547-4252

ps.  Whole chickens are out of stock but their are still chicken pieces for a little while

       Ground beef is in stock again, but not a lot of beef cuts until late spring

       Patured Pork Lard is instock again!

Hi again!

This is really a last minute notice but I thought I'd mention that the Regina Weston A. Price Chapter is showing a movie tomorrow night.  I think Sam and I are going to try get there after the deliveries. We don't often have much time to visit then so maybe we'll see you there!! 

"Farmageddon: the Unseen War on American Family Farms"

Regina Public Library Film Theatre, 2311-12th Avenue, Regina,

Saturday December 10 at 7:00pm... AND... Sunday December 11 at 9:00pm.


Americans’ right to access fresh, healthy foods of their choice is under attack. Farmageddon tells the story of small, family farms that were providing safe, healthy foods to their communities and were forced to stop, sometimes through violent action, by agents of misguided government bureaucracies, and seeks to figure out why.

Filmmaker Kristin Canty’s quest to find healthy food for her four children turned into an educational journey to discover why access to these foods was being threatened. What she found were policies that favor agribusiness and factory farms over small family-operated farms selling fresh foods to their communities. Instead of focusing on the source of food safety problems -- most often the industrial food chain -- policymakers and regulators implement and enforce solutions that target and often drive out of business small farms that have proven themselves more than capable of producing safe, healthy food, but buckle under the crushing weight of government regulations and excessive enforcement actions.

Farmageddon highlights the urgency of food freedom, encouraging farmers and consumers alike to take action to preserve individuals’ rights to access food of their choice and farmers’ rights to produce these foods safely and free from unreasonably burdensome regulations. The film serves to put policymakers and regulators on notice that there is a growing movement of people aware that their freedom to choose the foods they want is in danger, a movement that is taking action with its dollars and its voting power to protect and preserve the dwindling number of family farms that are struggling to survive.

http://farmageddonmovie.com/

ps I saw part of this last fall at the Wise Traditions Conference in Pennsylvania last fall and it looked very well done...looking forward to the rest of it!!

Join us if you can!!

:)

Janeen

Hello from Ontario!

We are on a HOLIDAY...imagine that!! ...that is, Sam and I and the kids...poor Dad and Mom are keeping up, I hope, with the chores and meat cutting all by themselves! We're here at Sam's brothers place in Dunnville, Ont, which is not that far from Toronto. 

I thought there would be plenty of time to send out my little reminder email but, wow,  time has been hard to come by! (funny thing!)

It's so interesting to see the farms down here...so many things are different than Saskatchewan, such as the tiny size of the farms and that the grass is still green in the middle of November (I only wish!)  but, alas... many things are the same!   I have yet to see a chicken or a milk cow...even though there are THOUSANDS of them around here!  They are ALL inside barns and NEVER get to eat any of that nice green grass!!

Out of morbid couriosity, we are going to visit one of these large "robot-milker" dairy farms tomorrow...I'm not sure whether I'll be impressed or disgusted with the technology is that has elliminated the need for REAL PEOPLE to milk and feed the cows!  But I can say I'm totally thrilled to be visiting Michael Schmidt and his family (Glencolton Farms) on Thursday, and experience his Biodynamic Grass-fed Milk Raw Dairy in operation...the highlight of the trip for me!  :)

On Wednesday we are attending the Toronto Food Freedom Rally in Queens's Park.  ( I'm not looking forward to downtown Toronto again...Yonge St was my most recent nightmare!)  Michael Schmidt and many rawmilk/food freedom people will be speaking... I'm sure it wil be an enlightening experience!!  

November 23 has become the NATIONAL Food Freedom Rally day actually...events are happening all across Canada, including Saskatoon and Regina!  I DO wish I was there for them but I booked in here before they made it a NATIONAL thing!   But I strongly encourage everyone of you to go and show your support... show your government that you want the right to choose your own food... want the right to access raw milk if you choose. That your farmers need freedom to raise the numbers of animals that would make their farm profitable, that health regulations  and by-laws don't prevent them from marketing in this city or that...oh the list goes on.  You will learn more at the Rally!

Saskatoon's Food Freedom Rally is in front of City Hall over the lunch hour.

Regina's Food Freedom Rally is in from of the Legislature Buildings, over the luch hour.

And just as an aside...you may become "preffered customers" for attending!!  :)

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Saskatoon order window is on until Wednesday... we'll be back to bring you great food on Saturday

but at a new location ---> Peter and Judy Gulacher's home on 302 Vincent Cresent.

Free-range chicken,

Free-range pork,

junk-free, gluten-free sausages

farm-fresh eggs

(limited beef and no pet food yet)

Hi Saskatchewan foodies!

Well what a crazy last few months the real food world has had! I wish we could say that we can relax now, but the fact is that it's just starting to ramp up!  and I don't know how little old me (never-done-anything-activist-y-in her life!) found myself in this positon, but I guess when something so basic as what we eat and drink in our "free" country is decided by the factory farming/food industry via the government...it gets my hackles up!!

If you are interested in access to real sustainably-raised foods and raw dairy......and PLEASE don't hesitate to show your support for it and the farmers that are being criminalized for raising the most basic healthy foods!! It definilty will make you a prefered patron!!

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I'm sure most of you heard the raw-milk selling charges against Michael Schmidt were re-instated in an Ontario government appeal in September, after the first judge declared cow-shares a perfectly legal arrangement (as are vacation property time-shares and sharing a horse with a friend at a boarding stable...informed private contracts!)

A few days after Michael embarked on a Hunger Strike, which of course the large group of international supporters he has were very concerned about! Michael's words were something like this "why is it that no one is going to stop me from killing myself by having NO food but it is illegal for people to nourish themselves with a completely natural food  as raw milk"  He wasn't about to quit after one judge could come up with the complete opposite ruling as the first judge...it wreaked of blatent corporate facism flexing it's muscles.  With no other options left, he entered a Hunger Strike with the ending condition that Ontario's Premier Dalton McGuinty meet with him man-to-man and start a dialogue about this issue, which is what he's been respectlfully asking for for 17 years.

Well, something was different this time...a HUGE, CONNECTED, INTERNET-SAVVY group of raw milk/ real food lovers who have the highest respect for this man (myself included)   were moved to not let Michael die over this.  The time was ripe and a FaceBook Page called " Supprt Michael Schmidt" was started...in 24 hours it had 1300 people and 2500 in 2 days...it's now around 5000.  They totally MOBBED McGuinty's office via phone, email and fax...until...on Day 37 of the hunger strike, he finally met with Michael in his office...they had a positive, mutually respectful visit...and Michael ended his strike - YAY!!! Read about it on The Bovine

Everyone breathed a big sigh of relief but there was also an awareness that it's only the beginning of this Food Freedom war!   and let me clarify... THIS IS ABOUT ALL REAL FOODS...the first platform that it's being played out on is Raw Milk but there are MANY other corporate-biased laws that strip your easy access to the healthy sustainable food you're looking for! That's a large topic for another day...

So how can we create awareness and support Food Soverienty in this country? Here's 4 ways...

 #1  Join us for a screening of ...

MILK WAR - a Documentary about Canadian Food Rights

When: Thursday November 10, 7:00- 9:00 pm

Where: RIC 19 (Research & Inovation Centre) University of Regina

Contact: Regina WAPF Chapter Leader - Jana Kutarna 

jkutarna@gmail.com  586-0887

Face Book Event

RSVP if possible :)

# 2  Join the whole country for the  Canadian Food Freedom Rallies on November 23!  Every province is participating and Saskatchewan, BC and Ontario are actually having 2 Events!  A lot of people are coming out, even those who don't drink raw milk but know that this is a social justice issue Canada needs to resolve! Help us show the world that we will NOT accept the government version of a Canadian menu!! Our bodies = our choice!!  (We must be careful to not incriminate any farmers that are providing milk for Human Consumption...some are very concerned) But we do hope to serve Raw Milk and Cookies! Come over luch hour...

Canadian Food Freedom Rally - Regina 

Where: in front of the Legisture Building

Time: Wednesday Nov 23 12:00pm 45--60 minutes

Contact: Katy Helliwell    katytraveller@yahoo.com  306-585-3320

Canadian Food Freedom Rally - Saskatoon

Where: in front of City Hall 

When: Wednesday Nov 23 12:00pm 45-60 minutes

Contact: Davidson WAPF Leader Carol Ritchie McBride   info@resumeresort.com 306-567-2002 or 1-877-899-8109

#3 Join us for a screening of... 

Farmagedon - The Unseen War on American Family Farms

Where: Regina Public Library

When: Dec 10, 2011  7:00- 9:00pm

Contact: Regina WAPF Chapter Leader - Jana Kutarna

jkutarna@gmail.com  586-0887

Face Book Event

RSVP if posible

Saskatoon and the Good Spirit WAPF Chapters will be holding screenings as well...no dates yet

# 4  The Canadian Constitution Foundation is going to represent Michael Schmidt as this whole issue heads to the Supreme Court of Canada. If you feel moved to donate to this cause, they are it. I am quite certain tha,t on a constitutional basis, they have a very good case!  It's our bodies to choose how to nourish and our right to enter into a private contract that arranges to share the milk of a cow and pay someone to take care of it when it is not an option for urban dwellers! End of Story.

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This email is getting long and if you read it to the end, you'll get this reminder...   :)

The cut-off for ordering CSR food delivered to  REGINA on Saturday...is Wednesday!

Back on the list is Pastured SOUPer CHickens!  complete with giblets and feet

THese are mostly our young roosters that we raised from the chicks we hatched and a few laying hens that have served there time... obviously neither are laying eggs but are a tasty addition to SOUPer healthy chicken soup!

Take care and hope to see you there!

Janeen

for the rest of the team...Sam, Grace and Lyle

www.coolspringsranch.ca

547-4252