Hello everyone and Happy Fall!  We had a great time last weekend at the Garlic & Arts Festival and got to talk to lots of new folks about local grains and eating whole grains.  We wanted to share with you some of the most frequently asked questions, and also some of the really exciting improvements to this year’s shares!

We also had our mill and roller hooked up to a Solar panel, Thanks to our friends Keith and Sarah from Birch Moon Farm, for the demo. We have plans to install our first two photovoltaic pole mounts at the Farm. Hopefully Solar Power at the Bakery Someday too!

We served A lot of Local fresh ground bread samples and everyone was blown away. No Butter needed. We also talked a lot and got a lot of really great questions.

The most frequent question was:

Can I still sign up? Yes!  The deadline to sign up for a 2011 grain share is November 15th. Distribution is either the first Saturday (the 3rd) or the second Sunday (the 11th) in December. Your choose which you’d prefer to attend.

And the second most common question was: Do I need special storage?

Nope!  We distribute all the grains in their whole form, which is not only the best way to store them, but also maintains their fresh complete nutrition, so that it’s all available to you when you cook them or grind them.  You can store your share in your kitchen cabinets – we keep our personal share in glass jars on the counter, so that we can enjoy their beauty.

(this year’s spelt crop just before harvest)

Improvements in 2011

We’re always working to increase the variety, improve the quality, and improve the experience for our shareholders.

* We consolidated the distribution this year, so you will get your entire share in one pickup.  Pickup is either the first Saturday (the 3rd) or the second Sunday(the 11th)  in December.

* We will have a designated “swap” area set up at the distributions, so that shareholders who don’t want one or more of their grains can find someone to trade with.

* For shareholders, we are going to offer some additional bulk buying options this year.  (Please note, this is an add-on to your share, not an a la carte option).  The following grains will be available in bulk 25-lb bags:

Zorro Wheat $62.50

Turkey Red Heirloom Wheat $75.00

Heirloom Flour Corn (variety to be announced) $87.50

To add bulk grains to your share, you must email us your order by November 15th.  You may pay by check or cash at the pickup.  Fifty pound bags are also available, ask for pricing in your email.

* As always, we’ll continue to share recipes and cooking tips through our blogs, and we even hope to bring you some cooking videos soon!

Thanks , and we’re excited for another year filled with locally grown grain goodness!

As summer winds down and the busiest season for both the CSA and the Bakery approaches, we are filled with excitement about all the new things that are happening!

CSA shares are filling fast, so we urge everyone who has not yet signed up to do so sooner rather than later… we don’t want anyone to miss out!  Also, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at info@localgrain.org!

Although we have discussed the reasons behind creating the grain share to many of our members, we feel that it is important for everyone to understand the values that drive us on a daily basis.  In a nutshell:

• Locally grown heirloom grains taste better and are better for you!
• Locally grown heirloom grains preserve history and genetic variations in our crops!
• Locally grown heirloom grains boost our local economy and foster community development!
• Locally grown heirloom grains help our generation as well as future generations!

If you go to our CSA main page you will find a full explanation under the handout section entitled “Value of a Grain Share”.

We would also like to take an opportunity to reach out to those customers who are interested in buying a share, but might not have the financial means.  Please contact us at info@localgrain.org and we can discuss helping with the cost of the share.  We want everyone who wants local grain to have it!

Enjoy the final days of August,

-the PVHG Team

I was interviewed by DC Denison from the Boston Globe about the Grain Share and my upcoming presentation at the Summer NOFA conference/Animal Powered Field Days and the article came out today! Check out the article here. Lara helped me cultivate the wheat trials this year and helped me get them up on display! We started by trialing over 50 varieties and have paired it down to about 6 excellent performers. Seed for our trials was obtained from the National Small Grains Collection and represent genetics collected from all over the world. All the wheat we selected to trial were collected between 1890 and 1950 and are known as “Landrace” wheat.

This is an important distinction between the “pureline” wheat varieties that now dominate world wide wheat production. Landrace varieties have a diverse gene pool, giving them greatly enhanced ability to thrive and adapt to a wider variety of conditions. You know the saying…”don’t put all your eggs in one basket”

…Unfortunately that pretty well sums up the majority of current agricultural practices except you amend the phrase to say…”don’t put all your genetically modified eggs in one chemically laden basket”. We will plant more seed from the harvest this year and expand the quantity to a crop size if all goes  well. Come see the display!

Alan’s spelt stands ready for harvest. It will be harvested by a neighbor’s combine and loaded into large tote bags where it will wait to be de-hulled and cleaned.

Spelt or Triticum Spelta is ancient type of hulled wheat that is highly nutritious, with a deep nutlike flavor

This clever machine is performing the work of what would otherwise be thousands of man hours cutting and threshing the grain.

Always a happy moment when the crop comes in…no more worries of weather, disease, or weeds(until next year anyway)!

Still more work to be done but at least it is in the bag!

This past week we went on a crop tour of some of this seasons crops!  Alan Zuchowksi,

who is growing for the CSA in Hadley, gave us a grand tour through his fields of open pollinated corn, heirloom wheat, spelt, and beans.

(Alan looks over his field notes to give us yield estimates)

As a sweet corn grower, Alan has an affinity for cultivating corn varieties, and this year there are many unique varieties to be excited about.  The largest corn crop is the beautiful “Mandan Bride.” This is an ancient multi-colored Native American variety, and was a hit in the CSA share last year. Alan is also planting Hopi Blue, and Oaxacan Green Dent, which was grown for centuries by the Zapotec of southern Mexico and traditionally used for green flour tamales.

Mandan Bride Corn

The “Plimouth,” a flint corn that is new to the share this year, is great for making grits and pancakes.   Alan procured this heritage variety from the Research and Development department of Plimouth Plantation.  He has successfully multiplied the seed from two ears to a successful stand.  Alan told us that eating grits made from Plimouth Corn gives him so much energy he could “jump over the barn roof”!

The Spelt and Turkey Red Wheat crops are beautiful, and despite challenging weather, the Turkey Red is growing golden and will produce a solid crop this season.  The Black Turtle bean and Pinto bean crops are also coming along nicely.

Black Turtle Beans are thriving in the world famous Hadley loam and should make for a fruitful harvest.

So far all the crops are looking great!  Keep an eye open for updates on the other CSA crops…and see a video below with Alan’s own words

We are very excited to announce that we are now accepting sign ups for the 2011 season!  Please head over to the CSA page for details.  All sign ups are online this year.

Between this weekend’s distribution and the previous one, we moved Ten Thousand Pounds of local, organically grown grains into the eager hands of our CSA members.  There were over 200 people in my living room and kitchen Saturday afternoon scooping their shares, there were five fantastic folks helping us make it all possible, and one sweet toddler happily demonstrating the new electric mill by her daddy’s side.  We’re a little tired, but very, very happy.

Sunday, October 10, 2010
1:00pm – 4:00pm

Come see the growing Wheatberry Farm in Shutesbury, MA.  This event will include a demonstration of our Three Sisters Field, a talk on heirloom wheat varieties – why they matter and how we are working to restore them, hands-on fun including bean threshing (yes, this means whacking beans with a stick – great fun!), demonstrations of home mills, a chance to meet our sheep and draft horse Cole (and possible draft horse demonstration weather permitting), and of course some delicious samples of local grains and dried beans.

Please join us for this fun event – we are located at 114 Wendell Rd in Shutesbury. See you Sunday!

Best,
Adrie, Ben, & the Wheatberry team