Loafer's Glory
Lacking cattle's second stomach, the closest we humans get to eating grass is bread. The story of how domesticated grass -otherwise known as wheat- gets transformed into a loaf is really the story of western civilization. The patience and foresight of cultivation, the social cooperation of harvest, the technology of milling, the conviviality of baking on a central hearth: these have made us what we are.
As quaint and archaic as this seems by post-modern standards, it it nonetheless inescapably true. We know there's nothing really “great” about sliced bread. Or about industrial food systems or disappearing farmland. Knowing where our bread comes from is as basic as eating itself.
At Hungry Ghost Bread we mostly bake bread -organic, naturally-leavened, wood-fired. We also mill what little local grain we can get, and make it into flat-bread and crackers. We have raised different varieties of wheat on our small front lawn in an effort to determine which of the tens of thousands of wheat varieties would best grow in our ever changing climate. Dubbed “The Little Red Hen Project” we enlisted the aid of our customers. 100 enthusiastic local grain fans responded and throughout the pioneer valley and hill towns some front lawns were torn up or small plots of community gardens planted. While the grain yield was minimal the desire for bread made with local grain reached a near frenzy.
This season four farmers have grown wheat, rye and spelt, in total approximately eight acres. Some of this wheat has made delicious cookies and scones. Soon after this next harvest we will begin to use more of these local grains both in current bread recipes and develop recipes adapted to the characteristics of the flour. We talk about bringing back a sustainable food economy with our customers: kids, parents, carpenters, professors, farmers, city councilors. We host groups from college nutritional anthropology classes and high school French field trips. We bring to bear all our skills developed over the years as organizers, educators, performers, social workers and cooks.
What we need now is a bigger pot to boil things in. Beyond the small shop, we need fields to plant, barns to fill. Inspired by a French group of organic farmers, “paysan-boulangers” (peasant-bakers) who cultivate older heritage wheats, process, store & mill it themselves and then bring the grain to fruition by baking it into delicious bread we now have an understanding and clear vision of the direction we need to take. A 10-20 acre farm would allow us not only to experiment with different varieties of wheat (there are tens of thousands) as well as spelt and rye, but to grow enough to test out planting techniques and machines for cultivation and harvesting. Equally important, we would put the grain to the baking test developing methods adapted to the less than standard principals to which bakers are accustomed. A portable wood fired oven would complete the cycle of seed-to-loaf and give a gathering focus to visitors of all kinds: school groups, interns, nutritionists, neighbors, people who eat. “Portable” implies the ability to travel, part of an educational road show that would be available for farmer's markets or local fairs.
Ultimately we would seek to establish a centralized storage and processing facility that would allow not only ourselves but other area farmers to make better use of the grain they already grow (rye) and to expand their repertoire of rotational crops (along with potatoes, corn, beans). A moderately-sized grist mill (24#) would be the lynch-pin in turning those crops into a value-added and sell-able product -to bakeries throughout the region.
We are looking for financial and logistical support for this project, this vertical expansion of what we already do in our community. In the last three years much has been done to re-introduce local grains but there's still a long road ahead. Re-building crucial infrastructure, choosing appropriate varieties, re familiarizing ourselves with the whole process of sustaining life. Why else are we here?