Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain Project

Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain Project

Summary

The Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain Project has sought to address the re-establishment of community-based grain, bean, and seed production through a direct collaboration between Pioneer Valley farmers and the Pioneer Valley community. By linking farmers in need of new markets with a community eager to buy local staple foods, we have brought together the synergistic underpinnings of a new and profound market. Our Grain and Bean CSA is the only one in the Northeast. It is a model we are working to help other farms embrace and adopt.

CSAs are an alternative consumer-producer relationship that revitalizes local economies, preserves farmland, nourishes whole-being health, and sustains local food systems. Our plan for 2010 is to expand on last year’s success, by increasing production for our CSA from 30 acres to 50 acres, and doubling our membership from 125 families to 250 families. We will continue to assist other Pioneer Valley farms, by helping to source seed, providing education on production techniques, and assisting with harvesting, cleaning, and marketing. In 2009, two farms produced grains and beans for the CSA; in 2010, we plan to increase that to four farms.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Increasing production for our CSA from 30 acres to 50 acres: We increased to approximately 75 acres.

Doubling our membership from 125 families to 250 families: We were only able to increase to about 160 families, due in part to not accepting members until July. In 2011, we plan to remedy this by starting to sell shares at the hugely popular winter farmers markets, and also by accepting payment by credit card.

In 2009, two farms produced grains and beans for the CSA; in 2010, we planned to increase that to four farms and we successfully did so.

Ben Lester will present a workshop “Returning Diversified Grain Production to New England” at the NOFA/MASS Annual Winter Conference – this did happen, with so many participants they were standing outside in the hall.

Spring Field Tour and Workshop – this turned into a summer field tour at Lazy Acres Farm in Hadley, with a fantastic educational talk by farm Alan Zuchowski, which was videotaped and will be posted for viewing.

Second Annual Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain Field Day – this was held in September at Wheatberry Farm in Shutesbury. We had over 100 attendees, far exceeding our hopes, and were able to demonstrate bean threshing by hand, draft power in the Three Sisters field, using a hand crank mill, and talked with many community members and farmers.
Our goal is to clean and bag earlier than in 2009. We were quite successful in this, and finished our distributions in November (2009 distributions weren’t until January).

We weren’t able to renew our partnership with White Oak Farm, but developed wonderful new relationships with Cliff Hatch at Uppingill Farm and farmer Giles Dewitt of Granby, MA. We furthered our relationship with Alan Zuchowski of Lazy Acres Farm, and were able to provide members with a bountiful share in good time.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Increasing production for our CSA from 30 acres to 50 acres: We increased to approximately 75 acres.
Doubling our membership from 125 families to 250 families: We were only able to increase to about 160 families, due in part to not accepting members until July. In 2011, we plan to remedy this by starting to sell shares at the hugely popular winter farmers markets, and also by accepting payment by credit card.
In 2009, two farms produced grains and beans for the CSA; in 2010, we plan to increase that to four farms.

Ben Lester will present a workshop “Returning Diversified Grain Production to New England” at the NOFA/MASS Annual Winter Conference – this did happen, with so many participants they were standing outside in the hall.

Spring Field Tour and Workshop – this turned into a summer field tour at Lazy Acres Farm in Hadley, with a fantastic educational talk by farm Alan Zuchowski, which was videotaped and will be posted for viewing.

Second Annual Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain Field Day – this was held in September at Wheatberry Farm in Shutesbury. We had over 100 attendees, far exceeding our hopes, and were able to demonstrate bean threshing by hand, draft power in the Three Sisters field, using a hand crank mill, and talked with many community members and farmers.
Our goal is to clean and bag earlier than in 2009. We were quite successful in this, and finished our distributions in November (2009 distributions weren’t until January).

We weren’t able to renew our partnership with White Oak Farm, but developed wonderful new relationships with Cliff Hatch at Uppingill Farm and farmer Giles Dewitt of Granby, MA. We furthered our relationship with Alan Zuchowski of Lazy Acres Farm, and were able to provide members with a bountiful share in good time.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

The farmers were worked with are thrilled to be growing these exciting staple crops which are still quite unusual in our area. This gives them a niche to fill, brings them a good price, and, in the case of Uppingill Farm, gives them a much-needed outlet for their product.

Through our blogs, we are able to reach farmers and non-farmers all over the country (and beyond!) who tell us they are inspired and amazed by our work. Many of them are seeking out locally grown grains within their own communities, or beginning to grow grain on their farms. In fall 2010, we started a cooking meme on our blog called “Whole Grain Weekends” where we post whole grain recipes and other bloggers and readers are invited to post theirs as well. We expect this to grow and grow, and the response has been very enthusiastic. By exposing the public to the concept of local grains, and how easy those grains are to prepare (and delicious!) we can have far-reaching effects.

Any piece of this project could easily be replicated on another farm or in another community. The CSA model is one we proudly promote, and we answer many emails and phone calls from interested farms. Grains grow in diverse climates, and most communities are now familiar with both the concept of CSAs and the concept of eating locally. Our world seems more ready than ever to keep money within the community instead of shipping it out, and to build local stability and security by producing food as close to home as possible. Maintaining the communication tools of our mailing list and our blog are quite simple to learn, free, and have been very successful for us.

Collaborators: