Going With The Grain - Harvesting Local Wheat

Against most culinary adages, I'm going to recommend that you begin cutting with the grain. Not meat of course! But locally harvested, indigenous, grains. Last week's article was about salt; this week, we're talking about 'the salt of the earth’.

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There is next to nothing that we consider as simply satisfying and as fundamentally necessary as bread. When we're doing well, we're the breadwinners and the upper crust, when we're being punished; we eat nothing but bread and water. In recent years we've seen the locavore movement devour vegetables, fish and grass-fed meat, so grains must be the next great frontier.

These grain pioneers were out in force, earlier this month, at the fourth annual Kneading Conference! Skowhegan, Maine, hosted this year’s celebration of artisanal baking with locally sourced beans and grains. Farmers, millers, bakers, oven builders and random curious visitors brushed shoulders with Jeffery Hamelman, Bakery Director of King Arthur Flour as well as Fred Kirschenman, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, previously a member of the USDA's National Organic Standards Board, and many others. Demand for this kind of local northeastern grain is being fueled on both sides of the fence; consumers crave the nuttier, richer flavor, while bakers are excited by the challenge as well as comforted by the decrease in ecological impact. According to many of the conference’s key organizers, one of the greatest aims of the conference is to let people know they are not alone.

And they’re not. From bakeries in Massachusetts to flour mills in Pennsylvania to farms in Vermont, everyone is investigating local wheats. Cayuga Pure Organics is the first vendor to sell locally grown grains, beans and flours in Manhattan, while Island Grains, a grain-heavy Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) co-op in Vancouver, celebrates its second birthday this year. Even Californians are moving away from a total reliance on midwestern wheat. Everyone is excited about the benefits: from the obvious (reducing your eco footprint and contributing to your local economy) to the more obscure (heirloom wheat varieties, which offer exceptional tastes and unique textures, are in danger of being completely forgotten).

Of course there are still issues to be confronted. Frank discussions at the Kneading Conference highlighted the lack of info-structure (the mills and processing facilities) for this largely fragmented movement. There’s an increased cost to consider, as well, according to Cayuga Pure Organics’ liaison, Tycho Dan. If you bought Cayuga's local grains by the container full, you would be paying at least thirty percent more than traditional varieties. Additionally, like all “natural” things, consistency can be a problem. But bakers call it a joyous challenge, rightly claiming that an anonymous commodity isn’t nearly as appetizing!

So let’s face up to facts. The honest truth is that transporting supplies via road or rail is becoming less and less sustainable. We have to start investigating alternative options now, before we’re out of goods…and ideas.

In other words, completely abandon those old half-baked schemes and let’s get this local grain movement on a roll!

*Don’t forget! Bread isn’t the only great use for local grains; think about quenching your thirst with a locally sourced wheat beer.