LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

By Liza Gabriel

 

When we built our house ten years ago, we designed it around a beautiful Waterford Stanley wood cookstove. Deep forest green and looking like new, it came complete with the bread-warming oven on top. I baked two mediocre loaves of bread in the oven before Wide Awake Bakery opened its doors a half mile down the road. I’ve never baked bread since.

 

Wide Awake bakes with flour milled by Farmer Ground Flour, a little further down the road, who mills the grain grown by Oechsner Farms, who manages 1200 acres of organic corn, winter and spring wheat, buckwheat, rye, soybeans, clover, hay, and cover crops in the region. I’m grateful to eat this bread knowing it’s been made, from soil to oven, by the hands (and hearts) of my neighbors. The lead visionaries of these businesses, Stef Senders, Greg Russo, and Thor Oechsner, are part-owners of each other’s companies and are embedded in each other’s success – “entirely entwined, englutened perhaps, in a web of curiosity, care, and artistic labor,” says Stef (p. 35).

 

Relationships like these are why the grain movement exists far beyond this corner of Trumansburg, NY, and are particularly important when organic grain imports are underselling US producers. June Russel shares, “The story of regional grains in the Northeast is ultimately about people,” farmers experimenting with new crops, bakers committed to sourcing locally, organizations fostering community and knowledge-sharing, and institutions coordinating to connect all the dots. This collaborative group of farmers, millers, malters, bakers, scientists, and engineers are “a testament to what can be built when communities work together toward a shared vision of resilient, just food systems where farmers, land, and communities all thrive (p. 26).” As Noah Courser-Kellerman puts it, “Salad is great,” but for our local food movement to truly be regenerative and meet the dietary needs of our region, farmers need to grow plants that fuel people (p. 24). 

 

Regenerative also must mean being adaptive. “People who literally see a year’s worth of hard work wash away in a rainstorm are resilient and unafraid of dreaming big,” reflects Randy George. “Success for the farmers [Red Hen Baking] works with is to grow grain that produces a great loaf of bread while also taking care of the land” (p.18). For example, growing grains, beans, and vegetables, along with bountiful cover crops in a well-planned rotation, can be part of the solution to agricultural runoff. Cultivating rice can be part of how Northeastern agriculture adapts to a changing climate (p. 34). And, research into heritage grains offers the promise of pest resistance or drought tolerance (pp. 39 and 46).

 

While the grain movement is certainly strong, access to land, infrastructure, equipment, and adequate markets are obstacles to its growth. Fortunately, for us, “these grain farmers are some of the smartest and most determined people,” Randy says. Thanks to the collaborative community, solutions such as the Here and There Grain Project (p. 6), the Maine Grain Alliance, and the Champlain Valley Grain Center (p. 49) are helping address these challenges.

 

“Grain is a foundational ingredient for resilient rural economies and strong communities. That’s what this movement is all about,” says Tristen Noyes. “And in Maine and across the Northeast, that story is still being written — one field, one loaf, one beer, and one collaboration at a time (p. 37).”

 

On another note, as we near the winter solstice, I want to bring your attention to and welcome the 15 new advertisers who joined TNF this year. Please find their ads within these pages and on our website, and consider supporting them. As nonprofits like us continue to face extreme changes in our funding landscape, all of our advertisers and support from readers enable TNF to continue, and hopefully thrive. Finally, I’m pleased to bring your attention to a reformatted and renamed section, “Chapter Spotlights” (p. 63), paired with a NOFA Calendar highlighting events for the coming season (p. 66).  As always, I welcome your letters and comments.

 

Wishing each of you connection, joy, and a warm loaf of bread in the coming year.

​

###