We did it folks!  It took a ton more processing work than we expected (like Ben and Adam at the Granary on Christmas Day, de-hulling oats), but we got a lot of folks their grain shares last Sunday.  Hooray!  First, we crammed every available inch of the bakery with grains, and with some amazing help from my dad and some wonderful volunteers, weighed it all out into the share portions.  I’m not sure if these photos really capture how truly crammed the bakery was, but you get the idea.  (There was hardly even room to walk

Then, on Sunday, we opened the doors and most of the first 50 families who signed up came to collect their grains and beans!  (Those who couldn’t make it will have their shares waiting when we re-open next week.)

It was really incredible to be able to give these shareholders, some of whom supported this project when it was just a crazy passionate brainstorm, their grains and beans!  A huge burlap coffeesack full, in fact!  Below is one shareholder, very excited to mill some wheat to take home for baking.

And everyone got one of the beautiful hand-sewn grain bags, as well.

Whew!  It was thrilling, and also exhausting.  We learned so much this year, and can’t wait for another season to get our new ideas out of our heads and into the soil!  We still have a second distribution coming up later this month, but for this week, the bakery is closed.  Next week we re-open, but here is a secret – Ben and Ella and I won’t be there.  Breads and croissants will still be coming hot out of the oven, but we will be in Montreal!  Magnifique! First stop, our favorite chocolatier . . .

(Montreal 2009 – photo by Ben)

We can’t wait, and we promise to show you lots of photos.  Happy New Year everyone.

I want to take a moment here to thank Arnie Voehringer: Master farmer, mentor, farming partner, friend, all around cool guy, and many many things to many many people…too many to name here, but Arnie has taken me and Adam under his wing these past two years and given us so much of his time, and shared so much knowledge, and expertise that we couldn’t thank him enough! In the photo above he is harvesting “Early Riser” corn for the CSA on his White Oak Farm contours which he has so generously planted for the CSA! Thanks Arnie…You Rock!!!Adam planted this corn back in early June and it performed beautifully! These fields are have been maintained so intelligently that no fertilizer application was necessary to produce these huge and productive ears. The crop rotation itself provides most of the fertility needed on the whole farm. Only small amounts of compost are applied selectively to keep things in balance.Getting to work on this beautiful farm with Arnie and Adam this year has been such a blessing I can’t express enough gratitude. Don’t get me wrong…farming is hard work, but when part of team it’s amazing what can be accomplished. Here we are getting ready to head into the field(below).Then Adam and I had the pleasure of riding in the wagon while the corn tumbled in…it doesn’t get better!

Now that the corn is coming in we are about ready to announce distribution dates. Stay tuned…!

It’s here folks!  After months and months of cross-Atlantic, cross-lingual communications and waiting and nerves, and some final customs wrangling, the mill arrived.  In one piece.  And it is a beautiful sight to behold.

It is not plugged in yet, but we have the electricians coming soon, and by the time we get the rest of the harvest in, and all the shares bagged and weighed, this baby will be ready to go.  Hooray!!

Also, if you’re not a CSA member but you’re interested in getting local bread this winter, we’re putting together a Bread Share program – details coming soon.

Pictured above is 3 varieties of corn being grown for the CSA shares this season. The big yellow guys are “Early Riser”, the tiny red ones are “Strawberry Popcorn”, and all of the multicolored corn forming the arc is “Mandan Bride”. The corn will be ready for harvest in the next 2-4 weeks depending on weather and are looking like a fantastic crop!

What is a  landrace and why is it so important to sustainable local food systems? A landrace variety is a gene pool of seed created in a geographical region by farmers and gardeners, selected over many generations to suit the tastes, climates and growing conditions of an area and people. Before about 1950 almost all seed belonged to this category. One hallmark trait of a “Landrace” is it’s genetic diversity and therefore it’s ability to adapt and thrive into many incarnations. “Modern” seed has gone the opposite direction.

Pure line genetics and high yielding hybrids, and most recently GMO’s, now dominate the landscape the world over. While these new reductionist scientifically developed varieties are not inherently a bad thing(although it certainly can be argued that GMO’s are very dangerous in nature) the overwhelming dependence on them is where the danger lies. It is a simple matter of investment diversity. If we invest everything in a handful of pure line seed genetics and they begin to fail for any number of reason like climate change, or disease epidemics, as a species we will suffer grave losses. On the other hand if we continue to invest in and develop our heritage landrace seeds we will no doubt be in a better place as the landscape of Earth inevitably changes over time.

This year we grew many “landrace” or “heritage” seeds. Our spring wheat was a Canadian landrace called “Red Fife”. We grew 5 types of heirloom beans(Charlevoix Kidney, Boston Favorite etc…) and 4 types of heirloom corn. The “Emmer”(also know as Farro)  we grew is a very old landrace wheat variety and our sunflower seed crop is comprised of two landrace varieties. We also grew 15 wheats from the USDA National Small Grain Collection Germplasm depository to restore some varieties that are no longer commercial grown. Each season we will strive to find and expand the genetic diversity in our fields and reap the rewards for generations to come. The sheer beauty of heritage seeds is alone enough to convince one of their invaluable place in our fields and on our plates. It’s not only the heirloom tomato that generates such oohs and ahhs on the tongue but all our food crops. And while science has yet to document this I know the nutritive qualities are as superior as the look and taste are. This time of year our sunflower crops are hanging heavy with seeds and will soon be ready for harvest.

Despite all the rain we’ve had and our struggle to get the beans in(we did harvest quite a lot of beans thanks to the harvest parties!) We are having a very good year. The small grains all came in without a hitch and our corn and sunflowers couldn’t look much better. Arnie, Adam and Bill have gone above and beyond and done an amazing job. The MAIC grant, MDAR and NESFI have played a critical role in helping us develop the needed infrastructure and the support from the membership and community has been unrelentingly helpful, kind and thoughtful! Thank you all and here is to one amazing first season!!!

(a bouquet from Sunday’s sewing bee)

Have we mentioned that we love you, our shareholders, supporters, friends, our community?

We do.

Today’s bean harvesting party started out a bit depressing.  It was discouraging that we had to have a bean harvesting party at all – the combine is broken and under serious repair by Arnie, Captain Bill, Adam, and Ben.  And the bean field is nearly buried under weeds, because earlier this season the cultivating tractor broke, and despite our best efforts at the weeding party, and Adam’s continuous work, the weeds did some damage.  (As all of you with home gardens know, this was a particularly vicious weed summer.)  It was so sad and frustrating to think how amazing the bean fields would have been if only .  . .  I took a break to nurse Ella, and when I gave a big sigh she said, “Mama?  You’re sad?”  “Yeah, sweetie, I’m a little sad about the bean fields.”  “Oh, Mama,” she said, standing next to me to give me a hug and kiss, “You need special love from me.”  My sweetest girl.

Down at the fields, we got out our recycled coffee sacks and started picking . . . a few volunteers arrived to help, and the weather was stunning.  And then, lots more help arrived, and we filled bags and bags of beans, and everyone had a lovely time.  The two tiny tots and two big girls present were amazingly chill about letting us harvest, and we got in a lot of Hutterite Soup Beans and Charlevoix Red Kidney Beans. We had some fresh local cider, some local beer, some chips and homemade salsa.

(photo by Ben Lester)

Ben’s still down at the shop with Adam, Arnie, and Bill, working away so we can get the combine out to bring in the rest of the kidney beans and the Boston Favorites.  Keep your fingers crossed, otherwise, we might see you down at the Contours for another bean harvest real soon!

(photo by Ben Lester)

So many thanks to the folks who came to the sewing bee Sunday, and to the harvest Monday- you remind us all what it means to be a part of Community Supported Agriculture.  Thank you to our friends, shareholders, Jarrett and the crew at Stone Soup Farm CSA – also located at NESFI.(Jarrett Man, owner/manager of Stone Soup Farm, Volunteered as human strapping to keep the load of beans from flying out the truck. Don’t try this at home…Jarrett is a professional)

As Ben said this evening, this is not about agricultural perfection.  It’s about connecting to our fields, connecting to our food and our community.  We’re doing our best for you.  (Oh yeah, and giving the middle finger to the industrial food system, ahem.)

And now, I’m gonna go make some more grain bags.

Getting ready

Harvest loaves from the spring “Red Fife” wheat we grew here at White Oak Farm, part of your upcoming shares!!!

Ben baked one whole meal loaf (the entire wheat berry ground) and one lightly sifted loaf.  Both were naturally leavened with our  sourdough  culture. The loaves  disappeared in a matter of minutes.  I loved the whole berry bread.  It was perfectly moist, light, and a touch chewy with a mellow tangy sweetness. Heirloom grains like “Red Fife” have a more pronounced flavor, are deeper red in color, and are far superior in taste and nutrition than modern chemical-tolerant wheat.  This wheat is very well suited to sourdough bread baking.

Alina (below) expresses just the sentiment I felt when those loaves came out of the oven!

Before we cut the bread we took a tour of the Granary, and got a sneak peak of all the harvested grains(wheat, oats, barley, emmer and rye). We also watched the Clipper seed cleaner and  Arnie’s 1964 John Deere 40 Combine Harvester in action! Thank you MAIC grant and MDAR.

Perhaps a future farmer…?

Adam and Ben talk grain harvest and more in the Granary…and then onto a presentation from Ben about the 15 heirloom wheats he is growing out from The USDA National Small Grain Collection Germplasm Depository.

Time to taste!

(photo by Jeanine Dargis)

He also let everyone try out our new home stone mill (made by the same German company who made our large stone mill, which is on its way to America!).  The small mill works really beautifully – it is capable of a finer grind than our electric home-sized mill (Nutrimill), and on the coarse setting, it will roll oats.  Woo hoo!  This mill is available from Nova Naturals, out of Vermont.(photo by Jeanine Dargis)

Sewing grain bags, men, women and children!

We were grateful to have Christian Elwell, of South River Miso, do a presentation on growing rice in New England.

(photo by Jeanine Dargis)

And then there was an awesome local food potluck, music, wobbling, and hayrides.

(photo by Jeanine Dargis)

(photo by Jeanine Dargis)

So many thanks to everyone who helped pull this together, and to all of you who came out and made it such a pleasure.  And if you didn’t come – well, why the heck not?  See you next time!

And then we drove straight through it with Arnie”s John Deere 40 Combine harvester(1950’s) pouring over 5 tons of Winter wheat, Barley, Emmer and Esker Oats into the bin on top of the This “heritage” machine! So much Thanks to Arnie, Adam, Captain Bill, White Oak farm, NESFI, Judith Gillan, Adrie, Ella, Wheatberry Bakery staff and customers, The Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain  CSA shareholders, The Mass Department of Agriculture, the MAIC grant, The amazing community of the Pioneer Valley, The board of PVHG, all of our contributors, Lynn Kendall and the SBA,  Seth and Bethany Seeger and everyone else who has helped. You have all made this possible. To local food and community supported sustainable agriculture!!!  Sincerely,

Ben Lester

Co-founder of Wheatberry Bakery and Pioneer Valley Heritage Grains

Arnie and Adam are Bringing it in!

Thanks to Arnie, Captain Bill, Adam, MDAR, and the MAIC grant for funding and restoring this essential piece of equipment.

What a beautiful haul of winter wheat!

We did have to pull a few weeds…

Then we emptied each load into a 1.5 ton bag and moved it into the new grainery!Thanks MDAR , and the MAIC grant and for Funding the grainery restoration!

Once we had the huge bags of grain inside the grainery we immediately ran them through the clipper fanning mill to remove all the green material. One pass through and the grain was very clean. One more pass through the cleaner and it will be ready to go. Adam fine tunes a screen adjustment. Thanks to the MDAR, and the MAIC grant again for funding the purchase of this machine!And the wheat comes out perfectly clean.Thanks Ella for this comic relief! It’s very sweet to eat fruit while the grain comes in.Back to the fields for another round of harvesting.Adam and Alice with headlights on easy into the afternoon.

Yeah!!…golden good winter wheat.More soon…