The 8th annual Grain Growers Conference will be held on March 15, 2012 at THE INN AT ESSEX in Essex, VT. The year’s conference is all about “THE SEEDS THAT FARMERS NEED”! Loïc Dewavrin of Longprés Farms in Quebec will be our keynote speaker. The Dewavrin Family operates a 1500-acre organic grain operation just across the border in Les Cedres, Quebec. They grow a variety of grains including barley, oats, wheat, sunflowers, and vetch. They are known for their innovative ideas especially in the area of breeding, cover cropping, tillage, and equipment fabrication. Frank Kutka from the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society (NPSAS) will talk about farmer-participatory breeding programs and seed security. Join Margaret Smith for a discussion on breeding high nutrition corn. Grain milling expert Thom Leonard will be teaching a milling intensive which will include the specifics of milling and conclude with a demonstration of how milling affects bread baking characteristics. There will be workshops on small-scale rice and edamame production, pretzel-making and much, much more!

Download the brochure, complete with full schedule, here.

Click here to register! You can also register by mail. Download the brochure for more info.

This workshop, hosted by Jack and Anne Lazor at Butterworks Farm, will highlight post-harvest techniques for cleaning, storing, and processing small grains.  For more information, click here.

Join Dan Kittredge, life-long organic farmer and Director of the Real Food Campaign, for a presentation and discussion of building vitality in soils, crops, and bodies. The evening event is free and open to the public, and will be held at Butterworks Farm in Westfield, VT.

MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011.  7-9 pm.

For more information, click here.

June 21, 11am-3pm, Aurora Farms
4458 Lake Road, Charlotte, VT

Tom Kenyon is a seventh generation farmer who has been growing hay and grains at Aurora Farms in Charlotte for over 23 years.  He and his family sell their whole meal grains and flours in local stores and through their website under the label the Nitty Gritty Grain Company of Vermont. Tom and his son, David, will be discussing their production and processing techniques for growing organic corn and wheat, including their spring topdressing. Aurora Farms recently received a SARE partnership grant with UVM to look at inter-seeding wheat with clover.  UVM graduate student, Jon Zirkle, will discuss his research on interseeding wheat with clover and the effects on Fusarium Head Blight and DON.

The workshop fee is $15.00 per person; lunch will be provided by the NOFA pizza oven.

For more information or to register, please contact:
Heather Darby or Susan Monahan
by June 14, 2011 — Phone: 802-524-6501

For more information and to download the brochure for this event, click here.
For directions, check out this google map.

July 14 – 15, 2011, UMass Farm and Colrain Seed Farm

Join us at a regional event on growing organic landrace grains, share skills to reinvigorate heritage grain traditions, exchange seeds, learn how to bake artisan bread in a wood-fired oven, brew artisan beer, and celebrate the harvest.
For program updates and to register: www.growseed.org.

PROGRAM DETAILS:

July 14 – Growing & Breeding Local Grains
Location: UMass Agronomy Farm, 89-91 River Rd, north off RT 116, Deerfield, MA (Exit 24 on I-91)

9:00 Breeding Wheat for Local Farms and Community Vitality
Dean Spaner, organic wheat breeder, University of Alberta, Canada

This workshop will help build a foundation for local organic grains in New England, and provide guidelines to breed modern and historic varieties under organic management, using selection criteria of performance in mixtures, weed competition, height and yield capacity, seeding rates and capacity to adapt to weather extremes. We will explore how to strengthen community systems for local grains.

10:00 Organic Fertility, Rotation and Intercropping
Ruth Hazzard, Masoud Hashemi

11:00 Field Tour of Grain Trials with Dean Spaner and E. Rogosa

Potluck Lunch – Taste local breads from emmer, einkorn, heritage and modern wheats. POTLUCK LUNCH with Bread Tasting

1:30 Malting Workshop
Andrea and Christian Stanley (Valley Malt)
Cultivating barley for malting, its role in organic rotations, the malting process, building market partnerships with growers to meet the burgeoning interest in local malt for breweries.

2:30 On-Farm Grain Trials

How to conserve and restore landrace varieties and develop genepools for local adaptation

3:00 Harvesting, Processing and Storing
Large-scale Equipment – Arnie Volringer, White Oak Farm and Kyle Bostrom, UMass Farm Small-Scale Traditional Equipment and Skills – Tevis Robertson

4:00 Product Development, Packaging, Food Writing and Building Market Partnerships
June Russell – New York City Green Market, Margaret Christie, CISA

Sponsored by UMass Extension, Funded by NESARE & MSPA

July 15 – Bread from the Earth
Location: Colrain Seed Farm (Directions: 91 North, Exit 26, West on RT 2, Right after Hager’s Farmers Market onto Shelburne-Colrain Rd (to 112 North, Jacksonville, VT and Colrain), after 5 miles turn Left at Main Rd (sign says: Enter Here), less than a mile take first Right onto Foundry Village Rd (a windy road), Right at Yield sign onto Adamsville Rd, Colrain Seed Farm – 400 Adamville Rd. on left side)

9:00 Tour of Colrain Seed Farm with Cr Lawn (fedcoseeds.com)

10:00 How to Build, Bake and Cook in a Wood-fired Brick Oven
David Neufeld, truebrickovens.com

Discover the history of wood-fired ovens and how to construct a traditional Pompeii-type brick oven. Learn how to bake, roast, broil, and slow-cook a variety of foods in the brick oven hand-built by David.

12:30 Potluck Lunch with Discussion of Traditional Harvest Celebrations

1:30 Swimming in the Colrain River – optional

2:30 Artisan Bread Baking with Einkorn & Heritage Grains
Michael Jubinsky, stoneturtlebaking.com

Basic arts of artisan baking in a wood-fired oven; mixing, kneading, shaping, scoring and baking in a wood-fired oven with modern, heritage and ancient grains. Learn how to combine the unique qualities of each flour and flavor for your own creative baking.

4:00 Brewing Beer – Ivan Hennesy, Brattleboro Microbe Brewers and Friends

5:30 ‘Bread from the Earth’ - Eli Rogosa

History of bread, beer and civilization, biodiversity, climate resilience, ancient grain traditions

6:30 Potluck Dinner
Blessings & Song inspired by Republic of Georgia & Shabbat

Lughnasah

Let the people bathe themselves and their farm animals in “living water” of a river, lake or the sea;

Offerings and prayers of thanksgiving be made. Let them cut a sheaf of new grain and set it alight in the ancient manner, burning off the husks with fire. Let them grind the grain and bake a bannock and share it round with the people, circling sunwise round their dwellings. After bathing in sacred water and attuning the forces of chaos, shall the people visit a hill top, better where there is also sacred water. Let them honor the water with offerings and prayers of thanks. Let them also honor the Sun that gives energy to the crops, the Moon who makes the crops grow with Her juices, the lightening who purifies the air and the winds that bring good weather. Likewise the good soil that nourishes all beings. Let them feast and play games, pick berries and make merry as they please.

Tuesday March 29, 1 – 4:30 PM, Cook Farm, 1 E. Hadley Rd., Hadley, MA
Directions: http://www.cookfarm.com/directions.htm

Join us to share knowledge and skills to grow small grains, and to build infrastructure and markets for local grain and bread. It takes a community to grow a loaf of bread!

Schedule

1:00 – Introductions – Participants will introduce themselves, key challenges and concerns.

1:30 – We will establish regional working groups (WG) for:

• Variety Trials and Breeding
• Production and Equipment
• Marketing and Baking

[ Each group will take time to consider needs and plan next steps. ]

3:00 Refreshments – soup, artisan bread, coffee and cookies

3:30 Planning for the Grain Conference at UMass, On-Farm Wheat Trials, and Baking Quality

Testing: Bakers will be provided with locally-grown flour samples to compare baking quality and flavor. Bakers are invited to bring their breads to the UMass field day for taste-testing with the community.

Contact Eli Rogosa: growseed@yahoo.com with questions or suggestions.

To register, contact Jacqui Carlevale: jacquicarlevale@gmail.com

Sponsored by UMASS EXTENSION

Click here to download a flyer (pdf)

October 2nd-3rd

9:00 am-5:00 pm

695 Doolittle Rd

Shoreham, Vermont

$3.00 donation- under 12 free

Door Prizes for Exhibitors.

All brands of equipment welcome.

Antique Demonstrations

Rain or Shine

Plowing, Historical Sawmill, Corn Picking, Hay Loaders, Mowing, Grain Threshing, Corn Grinding, Cotton Picker, Tractor Games, Stationary Engines, Horse Powered Hay Press, Ensilage Cutter, Antique Farm Tractors and Equipment, Draft Horses

UVM Extension Cereal Testing Submission Form

Producing High Quality Organic Bread Wheat
Tuesday, June 8 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Gleason Grains
Bridport, VT

Download a pdf version of the brochure.

Ben and his wife Theresa have been growing organic grain and milling on their farm in Bridport for over 28 years! Join us as we tour their farm and milling facility.

Ben will talk about his experiences growing organic grain including; crop rotation, weed control, and plant fertility. One of the most challenging aspects of growing organic wheat is providing the crop with enough fertility at the right time. UVM Extension is currently collaborating with Ben on a SARE Partnership grant to address this issue. We’ll take a look at this organic fertility trial, investigating topdressing strategies and how they relate to wheat growth, production and quality.
We will then have the opportunity to tour Ben’s wheat processing facility, where he’ll discuss grain harvest, storage, seed cleaning, and his milling operation.
The workshop fee is $10.00 per person

Lunch will be provided by the NOFA pizza oven

For more information or to register by June 1, please contact:

Phone: 802-524-6501
Heather Darby or Erica Cummings