While the local food movement has expanded markets for produce, dairy, and meat, it also has called attention to a shortage of locally grown grains and beans. In most parts of the country, there simply aren’t local options for the staple foods that, by some estimates, make up 50 to 65 percent of the diet.

“As part of the de-commodification of our food, grain is going to have to be dealt with at some point,” said Tevis Robertson-Goldberg, a Massachusetts grower who is experimenting with small-scale grain production on his vegetable and livestock farm. “Grain is the hole in the localvore movement, because even where people grow grain, it is grown for the commodity market and shipped to a mill somewhere else.”

An increasing number of growers view the local grain shortfall as an opportunity. Across the United States and Canada, people are exploring the possibilities for growing grains and beans on a small scale and selling them locally.

So far, these farmers are finding a ready market and tremendous enthusiasm for their products. CSAs, farmers markets, farm stands, local bakeries, and supermarkets are the channels for selling grain locally. The biggest obstacle to local grain production is the lack of scale-appropriate equipment for harvesting, cleaning, and milling grains. But progress is being made on that front. Growers are finding ways to repair old equipment, adapt similar equipment, and import equipment from abroad. Next month, you’ll read more about the tools and equipment needed for successful grain and bean production.

Most of the action in local grains has been in the Northeast and Northwest. And much of it has been instigated by people other than farmers.

“People from all parts of the food system are working together on this; that’s what’s exciting for me,” said Judith Gillan of the New England Small Farm Institute, which has a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture to discover whether current market interest in locally produced grains can be a good business opportunity for farmers. The organization has been working with a group of farmers in western Massachusetts to grow, harvest, and mill grain.

“The whole project was market-driven; the people who wanted the product organized themselves as a CSA,” Judith said.

The CSA is called the Pioneer Valley Heritage Grains CSA, and it offers a $300 share that consists of 30 pounds of wheat, 50 pounds of beans, 15 pounds each of oats, barley, rye, and corn, and 5 pounds each of flax and sunflower seeds. The group offered 50 shares this year, sold them all, and has a waiting list. All of the products will be distributed to shareholders at one time, in the fall.

The primary organizers of the CSA were Adrie and Ben Lester, co-owners of Wheatberry Bakery and Cafe in Amherst, Massachusetts. They provide an important link in the local grain chain by allowing CSA members to use the mill in their bakery to make flour.

Judith says the grain CSA has been a great community-building project. For example, in August, members got together to sew bags for the distribution, play old-time games, listen to music and have a potluck supper. Although she has been involved in food production for decades, she says, “this beats it all in terms of bringing pure joy to people. There’s something satisfying about staple foods.”

Variety trials
The original concept for the CSA was heritage grains, but Judith says customers are more interested in diversity than in heirloom varieties. Several projects are under way to trial varieties for local production in Massachusetts.

“There has been almost no small grain production in western Massachusetts since World War II,” said Tevis Robertson-Goldberg of Crabapple Farm in Chesterfield, Massachusetts. He has been planting a half-acre of wheat the past few years, to figure out the best varieties and growing practices. This year, he has three dozen varieties in the trials.

“Our 3-acre main vegetable field is divided into six sections, so winter wheat is one section in a six-year crop rotation,” he said. “This year and last year we have had very wet Julys, which is our harvest season, and we haven’t been able to get even that small of a field all harvested by hand. But we have harvested most of it this year. Doing a patchwork of small variety trials, I don’t have a very useful yield estimate for what we’re getting per acre. But we’re currently only harvesting several hundred pounds a year, not tons. We are selling whole wheat berries at farmers markets and at the farm stand. I would like to get a larger mill so that we could grind some and sell flour at market, because I think that would sell really well. And as we increase production, we’ll need to sell more.”

Asked about how well grains fits into a vegetable operation, Tevis responded: “With mechanized harvesting, I think it would fit in fairly well with the rest of our work schedule (in addition to vegetables for market and CSA we raise beef and lamb, so we’re juggling haying at the same time). With hand harvesting, it is definitely a strain finding the time.

“I like having grain in our crop rotation. I have seen beneficial effects in our soil in fields where we’ve grown it. From a purely monetary, economic point of view, it is crazy. But that could be said about almost all aspects of our operation.”

Michael Ableman, farming in British Columbia, Canada, also wonders about the economic prospects for growing grain, especially since he has to deer fence everything he grows.
“Our intention is that grain production is part of our rotation with vegetables,” he said. “We’ve designed an eight-year rotation that includes grains and peas. I think I’d have a hard time rationalizing any kind of deer fence for those crops. But viewed as part of a broader system of rotation, it makes sense.”

Michael planted 10 acres of yellow and green peas and spring red wheat this year. The deer took out virtually all of the green peas (leaving the yellow peas) and some of the wheat. But the crops that did make it were promising enough that he plans to continue to experiment with the staples.
“I have felt for years that as small-scale farmers, especially organic farmers, we have been entirely too fixated on refining our skills as fruit and vegetable growers,” said Michael, who is the author and photographer of Fields of Plenty and several other books about sustainable agriculture. “We need fruits and vegetables, of course, but we can’t survive without the engine of the diet, which is seeds, beans, and grains.”

On a personal level, he hopes that mechanized grain production will be a good fit for him as he ages. “I’m 55 and I’m still doing great with vegetables, but I’m looking at the possibility of moving into crops with less handwork with the hope that at some point we’ll have younger people to take on that work. Growing grains is less frenetic than vegetables. But we’ve got to be creative because the money is not there. We’ve got to find ways to make it work.”

Farmers market sales
Anthony and Carol Boutard at Ayers Creek Farm in Gaston, Oregon, have been growing grains for years in addition to vegetables. They grow wheat, which is harvested green and toasted to produce the delicacy known as frikeh. They also grow three types of hull-less barley, which is eaten the same way as rice, soft red wheat for the wheat berries, and corn, which is ground into cornmeal.

“It’s challenging; it’s very tough to do in coordination with the rest of your crops,” Anthony Boutard said. “One benefit is that it helps with symphylans (soil arthropods that are a problem on farms in the Northwest and California) because it allows you to dry down the ground hard. So we use the grains as a break, to interrupt the symphylans’ cycle.”

Anthony grinds corn into cornmeal, and that is a popular seller at farmers markets. But he has chosen not to use his mill for other grains because many of his customers have gluten intolerance and don’t want to buy cornmeal from a mill that was also used for wheat. He also thinks that selling whole grains is better for the grower, because it is less perishable. “If you don’t sell it, you can take it home,” he said. He sells grains in 1-pound bags for $4.

“It’s selling well but it’s not blazing out of the place,” he said. He has spent several years growing out the seed of the varieties he likes, holding back half the crop for the next year’s seed. So he hasn’t tried yet to market his grains to the chefs that buy his cornmeal and vegetables. But as his production increases, restaurants will be a likely market.
 
Other grain CSAs
One of the pioneers in the local grain movement is Windborne Farm in northern California. About 100 grain shares are offered through another CSA. A grain share includes 12 to 14 pounds of grains each month, for example: 2 lbs. of hard red wheat flour (for baking bread), 2 lbs. of pastry flour, 2 lbs. hot cereal mix, 2 lbs. pancake mix, 2 lbs. beans (for example pintos, red beans, lentils, or garbanzos), 2 lbs. cornmeal, and 1 lb. whole grain (such as millet or amaranth). The grain shares are for one year, with new signups due in April, and the first delivery is the beginning of June. The grains come from a single farm operated by Jennifer Greene, who uses horses rather than tractors.

Another example of a grain CSA is the Kootenay Grain CSA, in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada (just over the border from Idaho). The project was launched in 2007 and the following year, three farmers in the Creston Valley grew grain for 180 CSA members. The CSA got even more interesting — and won more publicity — in the fall when four members of the Kootenay Sailing Association volunteered to transport the grain in their sailboats up Kootenay Lake from Creston to CSA members in Nelson, BC. The alternative press was jubilant about the carbon-free and highly scenic delivery, which took 2.5 days of sailing in each direction. There are a number of articles about it online, and here is a website with lots of photos of the sailboat delivery: http://www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/030509.htm.
This year, the Kootenay Grain CSA is offering a 100-pound share that consists of 20 pounds hard spring wheat, 20 pounds hard winter wheat, 20 pounds spelt, 20 pounds Khorasan (kamut), and 20 pounds of oats. The cost is $125. Add-ons of lentils and red fife wheat, Canada’s heritage wheat, are available for $25 each.
Upon hearing about the Kootenay Grain CSA, people in Vancouver were inspired to start their own grain CSA, called Urban Grains. They found a farmer, Jim Grieshaber-Otto of Cedar Isle Farm in Aggasiz, BC, to grow a variety of grains. 200 shares were offered and quickly sold out.  “They’re redefining the paradigm of grain, flour and bread,” said Chris Hergesheimer, one of the organizers.

British Columbia may be the epicenter of the local grains movement. A small seed company there, Salt Spring Seeds, offered a “Zero Mile Diet Seed Kit” for $42 and sold out. The kit consisted of 12 packages of seeds: Blue Tinge Ethiopian Wheat, Faust Barley, Golden Flax, Multi-hued Quinoa, Amaranth Mix, Heritage Bean Mix, Darlaine Soup Pea, Winnifred’s Garbanzo, Manitoba Soybean, Russian Kale, 20 Lettuce Blend and Mishca Paste Tomato.
“If you are living on a piece of farmland, you could easily grow them all and get a rich and diverse harvest,” the seed company’s website says. “By combining them with locally grown vegetables, fruits and nuts, you could become close to 100 percent self-sufficient in food.”
Much of this new emphasis on grains requires growers to push the envelope on what can be grown in a given location, with some surprising results. Linda and Takeshi Akaogi decided to try growing rice in an area of waterlogged soil on their southeast Vermont farm. They applied for and received a SARE grant and in 2007 and 2008 grew 30 varieties of rice in three constructed paddies totaling 4,320 square feet. Twenty-five of the varieties produced seed. Three were selected for yield trials, and they produced a mean extrapolated yield of 5,847 pounds per acre.
“This three-year experiment shows that rice can be grown productively in the northeastern United States and has potential to become a commercial crop,” they concluded. Their final SARE report is available at http://www.sare.org/reporting/report_viewer.asp?pn=FNE08-624&ry=2009&rf=1

Other resources
The Northern Grain Growers Association is a fledgeling group that will be building its website with educational resources for commercial and home grain growers. Dr. Heather Darby, University of Vermont Extension, has a page “Top 10 factors to consider before growing grains.” www.northerngraingrowers.org.

The New England Small Farm Institute will be adding information about the Pioneer Valley Grain project as it progresses. Go to http://growingnewfarmers.org and click on Special Projects.