Spring Seeding 2012

Garreth and a friend filling the small drills

The seeding season went fairly well. Between Chris, me and Dad we managed to get our fields tilled and seeding in record time this year. A full week earlier than last year. Even with our fields spread over creation, three people helped with the logistics of moving equipment and keeping things progressing. Son Garreth even got in some good tractor time helping out with cultivation and harrowing. He also helped here and there with cleaning out the seed drills and filling them between crops. We bought an old end-wheel seed drill for spreading Red Clover Seed in one of our fields. Our big drills don't have a grass box for such a task so it was necessary to purchase this old drill. It also worked well for seeding our smaller plots with the specialty grains. 

We are trying a few different things this year. As I mentioned earlier we planted some Red Clover. We did this as an underseed for our Oats and our Gold Flax. This will act as a nitrogen fixer in the soil for next years crop. We will plow it under next spring or perhaps this fall.

 Bags of Red Fife Seed

A few different wheats went into the ground this spring too. Red Fife, Park and Spelt. All three are heritage varieties and the Spelt is truly heritage as it is known to have been grown 6000 years ago!

Breaking Hayland

A lot of effort also went into breaking a piece of old hayland across the road. It is around 40 acres. Breaking hayland takes a lot of time and effort. The sod is difficult to break down into viable seedbed. We probably should have taken some time last fall to at least run over it with the chisel plow. But, we managed to get it seeded into Oats/Clover. Hopefully we will get a half decent crop of oats out of it and it will be ready for wheat next year.

Now, we gratefully watch the rain fall on newly seeded fields. What perfect timing! I finished seeding and it started raining the very next morning. The only things left to do is a little bit of harrowing on the oat seed, another disc of the field where the Hemp is going and then seeding Buckwheat in June. Fingers crossed for a warm, dry summer after some June rain. That's all I can do now.

Spelt Spaetzle recipe by Paul Shufelt, Blair Lebsack and Tony Le

Here is a tremendous recipe and article from yesterday's Edmonton Sun by Chef Paul Shufelt VP Culinary Century Hospitality. He and Chef Blair Lebsack and Chef Tony Le have come up with what I suspect will be an outstanding dish for Saturday's Slow Food Fundraising Gala...Roots, Shoots and Garden Boots. Stone ground mustard Spelt Spaetzle.

Organic Spelt Spaetzle by Paul Shufelt

Terra Madre 2012!

We are incredibly excited to have been nominated, and won, the award of Terra Madre 2012 delegate for Northern Alberta! Terra Madre is an annual event by Slow Food, an organization of more than 100,000 members in 150 countries worldwide. It is a time for people from across the globe to convene and share thoughts and knowledge about local, sustainable food production. It is a prestigious honour for us to have been selected and we are extremely proud. This year's Terra Madre is being held in Turin, Italy so Cindy and I are brushing up on our Italian and learning all that we can about the event. We will be part of the Canadian Delegation and will participate in manning the trade show booth as well as attending meetings and conferences. Of course, we will be in Italy...so there will be some touring and eating as well. A sneak peek at 2012 Terra Madre.


Slow Food

We are proud to have Grapevine Deli as a new depot for our products in St. Albert! This is a tremendous food store that we have been supporting for years now. Jay and her family are doing a wonderful job with this store and we should all do our best to support them! If you are looking for Gold Forest Grain products and you are in St. Alberta be sure to stop in to Grapevine. We'll have our products on their shelves by this Thursday...April 24.

Dr. Davis "Wheat Belly" on youtube

I really like the message that Dr. Davis is bringing the world. It is a message that we have been on about for some time now. Modern varieties of livestock, plants and grains are simply not all that they have been made out to be. Dependant upon anti-biotics and chemical inputs, they work just fine. However, heritage varieties are healthier, cleaner and more durable in every possible manner.

We will have more information posted soon regarding the dietary benefits of diets that contain heritage and ancient grains and flours that are 100% whole grain or "entire grain" products. Stay tuned.

A new customer!

Sunset at Gull Lake

We are very proud to introduce a new customer of ours. Clarissa and Thomas of Gull Lake Centre purchase freshly milled HRS Flour, Rye Flour and our famous Pancake Mix for use at their camp. It looks like a wonderful place for a kid to spend a week in the summer! Please have a look at their website and support them if you are able.  

a great video

Here's a wonderful little video from Malorie @countryaccent featuring Owen Peterson from Prairie Mill Bread and Shannon from Nature's Green Acres. It was rather amusing and informative at the same time. Hope to see more!

Wheat Berry Salad with Pine Nuts - Caroline

A tremendous recipe from one of our great customers, Caroline!


I wanted to send you that awesome recipe made with wheat berries......mmmmmm.....soooooo good! As I said, it's a little bit of effort, but worth every minute spent. I've done various renditions of this recipe (depending on what's in my fridge and pantry),  and it always turns out beautifully, but the best version is always this one - the original.
                                               Wheat Berries Salad with Pine Nuts

(One day prior to making the salad, make preserved lemon - see step one in recipe)

Preserved Lemon
3-4 lemons
1 tbsp coarse kosher or pickling salt

Wheat
1 cup hard wheat berries
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 cup medium or coarse bulgur
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 large, unpeeled garlic cloves

Salad
Juice of 1 large lemon
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 green onions, thinly sliced
3/4 to 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
3-4 large Roma or plum tomatoes
3-4 tbsp chopped fresh mint

1. To quickly prepare preserved lemon, lash sides of washed lemon 6 times, evenly spaced, from just below top to just above bottom. Work coarse salt into slashes. Place in a small wide-mouth preserving jar or ordinary glass measure. Microwave, uncovered, for 1 minute or until skin feels hot. Juice remaining 2-3 lemons; pour over hot whole lemon until just covered. Wedge lemon in jar, if necessary, to keep from floating. Cover and let stand at room temperature for half a day or overnight; then refrigerate.

2. Generously cover wheat berries with cold water in a medium saucepan; add 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until tender, about 45 minutes; drain. Meanwhile, combine bulgur, 1 tsp salt and measured boiling water in a mixing bowl; let stand while berries are cooking.

3. Place pine nuts and unpeeled garlic cloves in a small heavy skillet over low heat. Shake pan frequently for 8-10 minutes or until pine nuts are golden. Watch carefully, as pine nuts burn easily. Cool; then peel and mince garlic.

4. To make salad, stir drained wheat berries into undrained bulgur. Whisk lemon juice with olive oil, garlic and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir dressing into wheat along with green onions and parsley. For best flavour, cover and refrigerate for several hours.

5. When ready to serve, remove a couple sections of preserved lemon. Cut away mushy interior and most of the white; very finely dice remaining yellow peel. Cut tomatoes in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out seedy interior. Dice remaining tomato shells. Stir preserved lemon, mint, tomatoes and pine nuts into salad. Serve in a large bowl.

stop eating wheat? how about Stop Eating Modern Wheat!

"The Bible says, "Give us this day our daily bread." Eating bread is nearly a religious commandment. But the ancient wheat of our ancestors is something modern humans almost never eat.

Canada's first commercially viable wheat
from 1909 not ancient, but heritage.

Instead, we eat dwarf wheat, the product of genetic manipulation and hybridization that created short, stubby, hardy, high-yielding wheat plants with much higher amounts of starch and gluten and many more chromosomes coding for all sorts of new odd proteins. The man who engineered this modern wheat won the Nobel Prize -- it promised to feed millions of starving around the world. Well, it has, and it has made them fat and sick." 

  An excerpt from Mark Hyman's article in the Huffington Post.

The entire article can be accessed here.  This article by Dr. Hyman closely mirrors findings as outlined in Dr. Davis' book Wheat Belly that I am currently re-reading.  I only find it troubling that not enough emphasis is placed on the ancient varieties of wheat vs. modern. Dr. Hyman has spelled it out more clearly and I appreciate that.

Here's my view on the subject from a post I did a few weeks ago. 

upcoming events

I have been invited to present and lecture at the South Edmonton Vegetarian and Gardening Club's potluck supper on Sunday March 25th at the Pleasantview Community Hall. The event starts at 5:00 pm. I will be talking about organic crop production and how folks can apply these principles to the backyard garden. I will also talk a little about our adventure in building and living in a strawbale house. It should be a fun evening. Here is a link with some details on how to attend.

We have also been invited to participate in the Slow Food Canada's National Fundraising Gala on May 5th at the Enjoy Centre's Prairie Bistro. The gourmet dinner will feature our heritage grain flour along with other local fare.

And the event that we will be involved in very soon is Brittany Watt's Market Brunch at the Old Strathcona Farmers Market on Sunday March 4th. At this lunch event, I will be talking about our flour production business along with how we produce heritage and ancient grains organically. There are only a couple tickets left for that event and they are available at the market concession each Saturday. Here is the link to that event!

Geoffrey McGill's baking!

Farmer Poached Eggs on Crusty Toast

Back in December Geoffrey came up to my table to purchase some supplies for his day long baking course he was hosting for some friends. That morning they had spent some time at Old Strathcona Farmers Market picking up the ingredients they would need for the various dishes that Geoffrey had planned. What I didn't expect was that he would take such wonderful pictures of the finished baking and share them with me. What a wonderful surprise! So, here they are for everyone to enjoy. 

Buon Pizza Margherita 

Pull Aparts

Dinner Buns

Crusty Rustic Bread

Focaccia with Roasted Market Vegetables

bread...the staff of life

A fine loaf of sourdough from one of our great customers
@_BrendaLe

"{bread} contains more nutrients per weight than meat, milk, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables (Thomas, 1976)."


An interesting article from McGill University on bread and cereal grains. This is a must read for those who are interested in human nutrition and grains. This information, combined with Dr. Davis' book Wheat Belly, confirm in my mind the need for better education on modern wheat varieties and how they are poisoning us and the absolute need to revert back to the older, heritage varieties of grains.
  
http://eap.mcgill.ca/publications/EAP35.htm

a discussion on organics

I had a visit last week at market from an Agronomist who used to work for Monsanto. She said that she doesn't like the company anymore, but she still wouldn't agree with me on some of my points regarding the benefits of organics and the issue of modern wheat varieties causing our modern dietary sensitivities. I have to truly wonder if she isn't still brainwashed by the company she claims not to respect any longer? Hmmm. Anyway, she went on arguing with me on my points regarding modern wheat varieties. Once she started losing that argument, she started in about certain studies she was aware of and whether or not organic agriculture has increased nutrition over conventional, chemical based farming.

I don't mind people disagreeing with me...when they're correct. One thing I cannot stand is uninformed or ignorant opinions. Opinions that lack common sense. Come at me with a point that makes sense and it is probably the right opinion. Here's an example of some of the criteria I use to form my opinions. Usually in the form of questions...so I'll pose some questions to you.

What makes more sense to you?

Organic agriculture is in fact more nutritious because the practice of organics involves the increased health of the soil...micronutrients and microbiology. OR...modern, chemical agriculture produces more nutritious food because it simply injects P, K and N in the form of petroleum based fertilizer and soil-sterilizing Ammonia? 

Which statement makes more sense to you?

Humans have de-evolved in the past 20 years to the point where many of us can no longer safely digest grains and certain nuts. OR

Certain grains and nuts have been biologically changed through intensive breeding practices and chemical and genetic intervention to the point where our bodies can no longer safely digest them?

Don't talk to me about the effectiveness and correctness of certain studies either. We are all aware that any study and almost any statistics can be manipulated to say what we desire them to say. Which study would an intelligent person, concerned about their health and family's well being choose to believe?

A study sponsored by a huge, multi-national corporation with a team of lawyers and scientists at their disposal? OR

A study sponsored by a relatively small University or industry based organization, likely regional, but certainly independent?

People are afraid to believe something other than what they already believe. I do not understand that fear. What if I am wrong about my views on the world? How would my world be negatively effected if somebody more intelligent than I came up to me and made a series of points that made me understand the errors of my ways? Wouldn't that be a good thing? Shouldn't we all wish for that sort of enlightenment? 

While I will always consider the source and choose to form my opinions based on common sense and independent studies, I will always seek out opposing viewpoints and have an open mind. By all means...give me an argument. Just don't be wrong about it.  Comments?

spelt waffles

We enjoyed my new Waffle Iron this morning. It was a Christmas gift to me by my wife Cindy. One of those gifts that had my name on it, but wasn't really for me! So, for the first time, I hauled it out and came across this recipe for waffles. The only substitutions I made was our fresh milled Spelt Flour and the Vanilla we purchased on our recent trip to Mexico. It is a clear vanilla, organic and aged...wonderful!

The waffles turned out spectacular! A very successful recipe and a great way to use Gold Forest Spelt Flour!

My camera went missing recently so you'll have to take my word for it that these waffles came out golden brown and perfect! The waffle iron is by Cuisinart as pictured.

"Park" wheat - our heritage variety

Over the years, we have found that the Park variety of wheat has been the most successful for us in our organic rotation. Park is a heritage variety that was finally released to the public in 1963. It has a lineage of parents that go back directly to North America's first commercial wheat "Red Fife".

Park Wheat - 1963 from "Thatcher"
Thatcher - 1935 from "Marquis" and a Durum variety (maybe this is why Park makes such great pasta?)
Marquis - 1910 from "Red Fife" and "Hard Red Calcutta"
Red Fife - 1885 See a bit of it's history in my video below.


We have grown several different varieties of wheat over the years. Our professional bakers have always been our best source of information as to the actual baking qualities of different wheats. Park Wheat flour from our farm is currently being used exclusively in Bon Ton Bakery's Heritage Whole Wheat loaf and other select products in their store.

This is the same wheat that my Grandfather grew in the 60's and 70's and today it produces as well as it did then. Park is our main wheat variety and as a heritage variety, we'll protect it for future generations to enjoy.

back to business

Now that we are back from our little Christmas holiday with friends in Mexico, I feel re-energized and fresh. Time to start thinking of ways to expand our farm product sales and make things more efficient. In the coming weeks, we will be hiring some farm help in order to help me stay caught up with orders. Our milling building, while functional, still needs some fine-tuning and minor carpentry work.

We are also going to be working on our booth at the Old Strathcona Farmers Market. Some of you have noticed our new display stand that we purchased from TR Greenhouses, now we will work on some better signage and display items to further enhance our presence there. One of the things we are working on is a farm video that will play during the market showing some of our farming activities. Lots to do.

We are really looking forward to 2012. We will continue to work hard at finishing our farm yard and house projects along with growing the flour business. I hope you will continue to follow along!

John

Merry Christmas from sunny Mexico!

Doesn't feel a whole lot like Christmas where we are right now. As I type, my wife is reading in a lounge chair near the pool and I sit under a thatched roof poolside. Not a sign of Christmas anywhere other than large Poinsettias on the patio. Still, it is indeed December 24th and we are thinking of Christmas wishes for our friends and family back home.

There are a few new plans for the farm for 2012. We will have an on-farm store where folks can come and pick up their orders at their convenience. This makes things easier for everyone and will allow us some cost savings instead of making extra trips to deliver smaller orders.

We also have some additional storage bins on the farm this year, that will allow us to control a larger amount of grain products. That means that we will run out of products far less often.

There is still a lot of work to do around the farm and our business but we are devoted to making things work better and more profitably in 2012. Stay tuned and please be sure to visit us at Old Strathcona Farmers Market and Wild Earth Foods. New customers will also be announced in 2012!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you! Thank you for supporting our little farm in 2011.

John

kutya (kutia) traditional Ukrainian Christmas dish

For all my Ukrainian heritage friends out there we are making it easier to enjoy a holiday favorite by providing wheat berries at the Strathcona Farmers Market every Saturday from 8-3. 1kg bags to 22.7kg

Traditional Ukrainian sweet grain pudding...a Christmas tradition!
Picture from Ukrainian.ca

Of course many people are now interested in achieving a local rice substitute...wheat berries may be the ticket. Enjoy this easy to prepare dish at any time of the year. The variations on this dish are endless, so use your imagination. The Recipe


Perhaps instead of a sweet grain pudding it is savory...cumin, garlic, roasted onions. Develop your own favorite way to enjoy wheat as a rice replacement and support your local farmers!

a great food blog

The Laughing Gastronome

I got tuned in to this blog through my friend Kevin's Blog. The particular post regarding pain a l’ancienne has me excited to try something new with my bread. I have not had the time to really sink my teeth into truly good bread building, but it is something that has always intrigued me. As always, it will be with our own fresh milled flour so I trust that I will have to adjust for the healthful benefits of a true "entire grain" flour. The extra germ and bran will be dealt with accordingly, possibly through sifting. I can then use the sifted germ/bran in my oatmeal or a nice batch of raisin bran muffins perhaps.

Anyways, I thought I would share a new blog discovery with you and thank Kevin for inspiring me to bake some bread again!

hand powered flour mill - Nov. 29 2011

The most popular post on our blog is this one from March 16, 2009. It is a simple little post about hand powered flour mills. I am not sure why I never followed up on this, but it is certainly about time. @cinnymom (twitter friend) pointed out to me that the Bosch Kitchen Centre, which I guess is actually Barb's Kitchen Centre, has hand powered mills here in Edmonton. They are on 9766-51 avenue and their number is 780-437-3134.

I am not sure what brand they carry or the quality of the mill so check it out and comment if you can. I am almost never in that end of town and can't make a special trip at this point in time so I'll rely on somebody to post a comment if they can here on the blog.

If you know of other hand powered mills like the ones sold here in Armstrong, BC please share your comments with everyone. Apparently its a popular topic...since 2009!

playing with tractors

Cold start of the 3788 2+2 tractor on Sunday.



By the way, the old Pontiac is for sale if anyone is interested. I was told by the owner that it is a 1970 model with the GTO engine. So that would be the 400? I am not sure. Other cool old vehicles to follow.

gluten free crazy

Here is the definitive article on the subject of the consumption of wheat and the "gluten free" fab dieters who have it all wrong.

Read the whole article through. Anyone who has ever talked to me at my table will have heard the same speech and long before I ever came across this article (5 mins ago).

McLeans Article on Wheat

Modern wheat varieties are bad. They are indeed killing us. Modern flour production practices are bad and again, are slowly killing us.

"It could turn out that if we wind back the clock 100 or 1,000 years, and resurrect einkorn or some of the heritage forms of wheat, maybe that would be a solution."
Dr. William Davis


Eat whole, raw, unprocessed "entire grain" flour. Buy it from local producers who are growing heritage varieties of wheat and your gluten concerns go away. There is a lot of research that shows eating all of the raw bran and germ from a wheat kernal will in fact lower the glycemic index and HELP with weight control.

Don't be a sheep. Look for good quality food and follow your common sense. People have not de-evolved from eating wheat over the past 20 years when we've been eating it for 10 of thousands of years. What's changed then? The wheat.

what comes around...

We just got an amazing phone call today from some friends from our old neighborhood. They are bringing us a load of firewood this morning! We didn't ask for the wood and we were certainly not expecting it, but nonetheless here it comes. What a wonderful surprise.

It just got me to thinking about things a bit. Lately I have been on a bit of a good deed splurge. Not for the sake of getting something in return, just because I haven't done enough of that sort of thing lately. I certainly had no intentions of telling anyone about these deeds...I didn't even tell my wife. I just wanted to do something nice for people, have a good feeling about myself, and know that I've helped out just a little bit in this world.

Then comes today's little surprise and it gets me thinking about cosmic banking. How many credits do we put in the bank before an automatic withdrawal is made? Go ahead and drop a 20 in the Salvation Army bubble and don't take a tax receipt. Stop along the side of the road to help somebody change a tire. Even something as simple as shoveling the extra sidewalk length for a neighbour.

I remain of the opinion that we should do nice things for strangers for the sheer joy of doing so, but it doesn't go unnoticed that when we do nice things, we achieve nice things. I guess it really doesn't get much more simple than that does it?

Beef Update

I spoke with my butcher Tony yesterday. He is feeling a little better and is at least mobile with a cane. He is scheduled to process the beef on Dec. 4th. It will hang for more than a week and then be cut and wrapped. All of our beef should be ready to go around the middle of December! Yaay! We are eating the only beef we have left...burger. Getting anxious for a steak!

straw bale house performance

Thought I would post again about our little strawbale house on the prairie. It got down to minus 26 last night and sits right around minus 20 today. But, the sun is shining here in Sunny Alberta! What that means is that our passive solar design is busily heating our home...for free...without petroleum...without any cost or extra energy whatsoever.

We have not had the propane fueled in-floor heating run since at least two days ago. When it runs so seldom it is hard sometimes to remember when it last worked. Usually though, we turn that heat on only when we decide that we would like the comfort of hot floors on a cloudy, cold winter day. Luckily that seldom happens here in Alberta. Our winters are noted for their cold, but cloudless days. The sun blasts through our south facing windows, its radiant warmth soaking into our concrete floors, granite counters and various furniture. Once the sun sets, that stored heat is slowly released into the home. Actually, even on the coldest of days it sometimes gets too warm in our house and we are forced to crack open the window in the kitchen to let in some cold.

Besides the passive solar heating, our main source of heat is the little wood stove in the living room. It is one of the smallest stoves on the market, but once it is hot we have to turn all the settings as low as they will go to avoid sauna-like temps in the main living space. A heat-powered fan sitting on the stove pushes some warm air down the hallway to the back bedrooms...everyone is comfy cozy.

As I type, watching football on a Sunday afternoon, we have not had any fuel-based heat source in our house since before bedtime last night. The stove has been cold since sometime in the middle of the night and it has been a t-shirt temperature ever since. At some point later this afternoon, probably around suppertime, I will start the woodstove again. I really love this house.

p.s. The power went out earlier this morning and I started thinking about our neighbour's houses. How long can the power stay out before an ordinary house starts getting uncomfortably cool...or cold...or water lines start to freeze? Especially when it is minus 30 or 40 degrees in the middle of January.