Q. Was taste part of it?
A. That ended up factoring in more and more as we went along. Most of the grain you buy is bred for high yield and chemical production tolerance, not taste or nutrition. But as we started experimenting with the older varieties, we discovered that the taste was a huge bonus. It is incorrectly assumed that wheat is wheat, and oats are oats. That simply isn’t true.
Q. Is freshness really a factor when you’re talking about grains?
A. Yes, particularly when it comes to flour. It turns out there are very flavorful, sweet, nutty oils in grains like wheat, spelt, and rye. As soon as you break them out of the berries they evaporate. Most of the flour found on the grocery store shelf is months, if not years, old.
Q. Do many of your CSA members mill grains themselves?
A. About half of our members have their own mills but you can also use a mill we have here at the bakery for self service. You can buy a home mill for about $50, with good quality electric ones starting at about $200. At our bakery we fresh mill about 20 to 30 percent of our grains.
Q. How much does a grain share cost?
A. $375 for 2 bushels of grain - about 110 pounds - which people pick up once a year. Last year we had 119 members.
Q. That’s a lot of grain. Does it fill up a car’s back seat?
A. It’s not as big as you think. Grain is dense and heavy, so it doesn’t take up a lot of room. A full share will fill two bushel baskets each with approximately five 10-pound bags. It’s generally enough grain for two or three meals for a week for a family.
Q. Which grains are the most popular?
A. Emmer is very popular. It’s very easy to use, and very tasty. We have a strong focus on older wheats, the so-called “ancient grains.’’ This year we’ve added barley and flax to the wheat, spelt, and rye we already offer. A share has between 10 to 15 crops. We also include dried beans, because they are a storage plant. Anything that’s a seed - that’s hard, dry, storable, and delicious - that fits into our definition of grain.
Q. Was it difficult to get Massachusetts farmers to grow grains?
