Each season we run tests on our grain harvest to determine nutrient levels and to monitor for the possibility of fungus in the grain.  Even in the wettest of years, where infection of the crop seemed likely, we have never had a problem.  This season being as dry as it was I do not atincipate any trouble, but I have to wait for the results regardless.  As soon as the results are in I will work to set a day that the most members can be present for a pick-up day.  I hope to find a day where everyone can make it!

More Soon!

Hello out there...Adam here.  Here is a picture of our wheat crop in the foreground and barley in the background!  Despite the hot dry weather the early season small grains are coming in fine and the corn an bean crops look good as well.  We will need some rain before too long to bring in the late crops successfully.  The drought will be driving up food prices, and so maybe the recent focus on localized production will serve as a buffer against climate related food price fluctuations as the Earth warms.  Participating in CSA may become the safest,most economical method of buying food!

Early Season 2012

Thanks to folks who have signed up for 2012! Plenty going at the farm: planting, field prep, and helping out with Solid Ground Farm veggie CSA run by my friend Mike Byrne.

Pickup Cancelled

We heard today that Hurricane Irene was downgraded to category one storm, which hopefully means we won't be hit too severely. It turns out my family on the coast is likely to experience lower wind speeds than we will get here in Belchertown!

We regret having to cancel and hope most people can make it to the farm on Patriot's Day in two weeks for barbecue and potluck!

Getting the harvest in! More soon when we have time!

(Food) Independence Day

Longest Days of the Year...

Working hard to raise the black turtle beans. Raising heritage grain varieties for saving seed and non chemical weed control are keys to a future natural food system! Stay tuned for some locally grown nutrition and hardy good times...

Banatka Wheat headed up and turning golden brown. 

We are sprouting our undersized grains and feeding them to the chickens. So far so good!

Spring Update

 

It has been a soggy few weeks, we are glad for these few hot sunny days. Both the winter and spring small grain is growing fast, and now with the warmer weather on to planting beans and corn.  Some of the winter wheat is just starting to head up. Adam put ribbons on the earliest heads so that we can save seed from these.

We are now raising red heritage meat chickens. Our seed cleaner not only blows out the chaff, weed seeds and the odd grasshopper, but also grain that is much smaller or broken. We decided this would make good chicken feed, and in combination with pasture (they love burdock!), and a supplemental organic grain mix that we soon hope to replace with our own blend.

Save the Date! - The farm tour day will be August 28th. More information soon. Arnie's hay wagon we use for hay rides is over 100 years old, made in the last century in Central Pennsylvania craftsmen who brought the design over with them from Germany. It is made for loose hay, which is why it has sloped raised sides, instead of the flat bottom on modern wagons created for baled hay. “It is perfect for hay rides, because you can fluff a lot of hay in it, and people can flop in the loose floppy hay” according to Arnie.

A great start to 2011 field operations!

More Snow?

Well at least we got a good head start on primary-tillage (plowing), Wednesday before the storm. The dry and windy weather for a couple of weeks has really dried out the soils, and so Adam and our good friend Dave Olson (pictured) were able to prepare fields for early spring crops.

With some snow flying around yesterday, Alice and I marked out fields for plowing, and were able to see which sections are still quite wet. Also, fall planted crops: winter wheat and rye are just beginning to put on a bit of growth and "green-up". We scattered red clover seed under some winter wheat on our seed-development field; it fell into the cracks in the soil from recent thawing and refreezing. There it will be ready to grow when consistent warm temperatures take hold, and after the grain is harvested we will have a lush carpet of green leaves suitable for grazing, and crimson blossoms for medicinal teas.

We are eagerly waiting for barley seed from Andrea and Christian of Valley Malt: a new WMass business. Besides growing for the grain CSA we will market the 2-row barley to local Massachusetts breweries, who are putting money up front for buying the seed, to be malted in Hadley. If we let them know in advance, we can most likely get CSA member's barley malted for home brewing.

Since planting season is 3 weeks away, this Saturday will be the last time we are at Amherst farmer's market (to sell anyway) until late July. We will have whole wheat flour and un-milled berries.

More soon...

New website is up.

Hello - Adam here. We put up a basic website yesterday at: http://www.whiteoakgrains.info/, (Alice did most of the work).

Thanks to NOFA for advertising for us this week in the Organic Food Guide!

Also... I was surfing Google earlier today and found a Boston Localvore post talking about our farm, White Oak Farm, with a link to the PVHG grain CSA, which is a big mistake. We helped get their "CSA" off the ground a couple of years ago, but had a difference of idealogy which did not allow us to continue working with them. We grow all of the crops for our grain share, with a high standard of organic methods. We try to keep the price reasonable because we believe local-organic food needs to be a real food alternative, not a fad, trend, or niche. Thanks.

Wednesday Feb. 9, 2011

A system of community self-reliance...

Our grain farming depends on the granary equipment at New England Small Farm Institute (NESFI). (Here is the grain dryer attached to my John Deere 520 in front of the NESFI barn). Local fabricaters in Amherst put this trailer unit together based on plans from VT farmer Jack Lazor of Butterworks organic dairy farm. The funding came from Mass.Dept. of Ag. Resources, through a grant written by NESFI. Grants ususally require in-kind matching funds. The funds used for this grant were from many community members and their projects to further local grain production.

Amherst Winter Farmers Market

We are now at the Amherst Winter Farmers Market at the middle school selling wheat berries, flour, and soon all local pies and other baked goods. Look for us in the far corner of the cafeteria! The market is held every Saturday from 10-2.

Beer from the fields!

We recently sold some grain to Valley Malt, a home garage-style malting business that has started up in Hadley, MA. It's exciting to see people make a go of reviving this on a cottage industry scale locally.  They in turn are selling our malted wheat to Worm Town Brewery in Worcester, who are making it into beer, which then will be sold to a brew pub in Cambridge MA. I think this is the longest regional supply chain we have ever sent our grain down, an interesting venture into the world of a larger (but not too large) food-chain.

Eat our grain at Hungry Ghost Bakery!

For the past few months we have been selling wheat to Hungry Ghost Bakery in Northampton, home of the famous "Little Red Hen" project. They are a great community establishment and bake really delicious sourdough breads daily in their wood fired oven (pic above!).  They are now baking up a "locavore loaf" every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, as well as flat breads on Saturday and Monday,  often made with our wheat (ask!) Check out their website: http://www.hungryghostbread.com/

Heirloom wheat multiplication project

We hand planted a 1/4 acre of a heirloom variety of wheat called Banatka, as part of a SARE funded project headed by Eli Rogosa and the Heritage Wheat Conservancy. We are excited to take part in this important work of multiplying these old wheats, that in many cases exist only in very small amounts. Planting by hand was quite a way to plant a wheat field in contrast to the house-sized combines and planters in the mid west! For more information about the conservancy visit: www.growseed.org

Cover Crop Seeding

Ideas for processing your grain

There is a lot of information out there about using whole grains. Because we have had a lot of requests from people about how we process our grain, the following picutres are intended to give people a starting point for looking into different ways to use whole wheatberries and other grains.

Sprouted: You can sprout grain as you would other sprouts in a mason jar, by soaking the grains and then rinsing them a couple of times a day until they sprout. Sprouted grains can be used in salads, sprouted breads and pancakes, and more. Also, you can make wheatgrass!

    



Cooked as whole berries in a pot, crock pot or rice cooker : You can cook whole berries in much the same way you cook rice, the ratio of water to grain is a little higher - 2.5 to 1 instead of 2 to 1. Cooked berries can be used in salads, added to yoghurt, soups, caseroles etc.

Milled: Home mills are readily available and range from about $100 to 600+ above - a "Family Grain Mill" which comes with a flaker attachment, so you can make cerial.

Harvest!