Stone-Buhr / Shepherd's Grain Flour

I often attempt to buy at least some of my food from trace-able sources, and this is often not easy to accomplish. Mega-stores like Whole Foods are probably no better, and it could be argued are actually complicit in the attempts to reduce traceability and consumer knowledge of food sources and composition. Many so called organic products are actually distributed and packaged by some of the largest agricultural entities in the world. Just look at the organic spinach fiasco from 2 years ago propagated by some of the biggest food companies. All you have to do is look at who owns who and you realize that real spinach grew in the ground and needs to have the dirt and sand washed off in a sink.  It doesn’t come pre-washed, in little plastic bags pumped full of just the right amount of inert nitrogen and product, then shipped from the Salinas Valley in California to Washington state via Texas. Similarly the peanut butter fiasco of a couple of years ago doesn’t lend any feeling of a safe or trace-able food chain … even companies like locally owned Cougar Mountain cookies were misinformed about the provenance of the peanut butter they were purchasing.

A few years ago, I tried to alter at least some of my buying habits to enhance my knowledge of the products I was purchasing, and the companies that made them, and the chain down to the farmer level. As at least some of you know, I make bread, and lots of it. A natural place to start, no?

50 pound sack of unbleached or bread flour from Costco … good price, wow that stuff is cheap … bakes up pretty good too … but ConAgra foods … located pretty close by in Kirkland … “one of North America’s largest packaged foods companies … spent heavily to defeat Oregon’s measure 27, which would have required food companies to label products that contain genetically modified ingredients” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConAgra_Foods) … need to look elsewhere. The bulk bins offered no comfort, just exorbitant prices and no labeling I could take home and investigate … no lot codes or expiration dates. This is going to be tougher than I thought.

Wheat Montana Flour

Five or six years ago, as I was perusing the bulk department at Central Market in Shoreline (http://central-market.com/), out of the corner of my eye, I spotted clear 10 pound plastic bags of flour from Wheat Montana (http://wheatmontana.com). I checked ‘em out … family farm (Folkvord), operate their own mill … 12000 acres … Montana … sustainable farming practices. It’s very nice flour (Natural White, Prarie Gold, Bronze Chief). The Natural White, an unbleached flour has more gluten than a lot of “bread” flours, and the baked goods are great. The mill uses an impact milling process, so the flour only gets to about 95 F during milling. The ingredients list is really short and sweet. Great example of complete control of the growing, milling and distribution chain. And I can find the entire operation on the map. This one’s a keeper.

I recently learned that Stone-Buhr (http://stone-buhr.com) sources the wheat berries for its flour from sustainable, independent, small growers right here in the Northwest. Stone-Buhr’s original mill used to be in Fremont (http://stone-buhr.com/story.php). Their all purpose flour is made with wheat from Shepherd’s Grain (http://shepherdsgrain.com). Shepherd’s grain is an alliance of Northwest family farms that promotes something called “sustainable agriculture.” Stone-Buhr has a bit of a checkered past. It began in 1908 and was independently owned and operated until the early 1980′s when it was sold off. Through a series of sales, mergers, acquisitions it ultimately became a brand of Unilever. Josh Dorf and his company JOG distribution acquired it and have partially returned the brand to its roots. JOG is headquartered in San Francisco. The Washington White, Shepherd’s Grain All Purpose Flour has a date code on every bag which allows you to find the farmer (http://findthefarmer.com) who grew the wheat used to make the flour in the bag. The flour is relatively low in gluten content in comparison to Wheat Montana’s offering, so it works very well in cakes, cookies, muffins, pizza dough and other baked goods which don’t require the development of massively elastic doughs.

As a baker, I have noticed significant differences between flours, and this is exactly what you should expect when buying from smaller operations. Wheat berries grown in Montana or Washington have different characteristics than if grown in North Dakota, Nebraska or Manitoba. When buying from the the little guys, grains aren’t blended into an anonymous, untraceable mish-mash of pulverized grain speculated on by commodities traders from all over the world, then delivered to your supermarket shelf in a tidy little paper package.

In short, we have here, two great examples of traceability, and smaller operations making a difference. Both of these products cost more than the non-traceable product. In both cases, its nice to know there are companies out there, not part of the merger mania interested in delivering quality food grown by farmers and processed by real people at identifiable places.

Announcements

Significant Tree Program

- grant has been submitted by CHNA to Seattle Dept of Neighborhoods

- Go to CrownHillNeighbors.org to  tell about your favorite CH tree or trees.

Sat Nov 7.  Crown Hill Arts festival  6:30 PM- Art Walk
- Find out about local community groups
- Dance performances including Irish, Flamenco, and Ballet
- Beer Garden and music
- Instant Beer Cellar Raffle
- Day Care

Missing mail
- some neighbors have had mail stolen
- locking mail boxes available at seattleluxe.com and Home Depot

Discussed High School reassignment plan
- The new boundary for Ballard High is now 85th.  North of that will be going to Ingram.
Speed bumps & traffic circles
- Speed bumps on Mary are working out
- City has a new arborist for the traffic circle
- Overall the traffic has slowed down with the traffic circle and speed bumps.

Planting with native plants.
- Doub G.  will be leading a 1 hour workshop at his house. It will include a tour of his the native plantings in his yard (took place in October)

Up coming Celebrations
Art Fair (see above)
>Dennis and Danielle: Info table information
>Lanae – Sustainable CH Flyer – Advertises successes including workshops
Halloween celebration – 24 October 6-8 PM at outside Crown Hill Center
Advertising needed
>Lanae – flyer, send out to sustainable list and CHN Newsnotes
>Dennis and Danielle work out how to have an RSVP for the email announcement

Future Activities
Fruit harvest

Discussed many different possiblities for CH and what other neighborhoods are doing.  Phinney has a grant to set up a program and pay for a coordinator.  They had a lot of success this year and looking for ways for the program to be self sustiaining.  Lanae is using the Lettuce Link flyer on her own and picking when people contacted her.  Bert brought up that we could identify a few (~3) trees that need pruning, provide the pruning in the winter and then come back to pick in the fall. To have a full program we would need to have a coordinator – either volunter or paid (through grants possibly?).  This is a big job. Decided that for now we would keep it small and informal in CH based on individuals identifying trees and contacting residents.  Several sustainable folks volunteered for the following
> Bert take the lead on 3 trees for pruning and harvesting
>Advertising: Dennis, Lanaie, Doug, and Michael.
>Look for trees: Danielle, Lanae, and Annie

Canning Workshop
Discussed holding a canning workshop.  King County Ag was teaching an canning class, a special event with Canning Across America (Check out their website http://www.canningacrossamerica.com/).  Discussed putting on a canning workshop.  We could bring in the King County Ag person. Possible locations with Kitchens, including Greenwood Senior Center and Whitman School.

Next Sustainable Meeting: Sunday 8 November 2009 at Crown Hill Center Room 4.
>Reserve room – key: Danielle
>Facilitator: Bert

Future Meetings will be held on the 2nd Sunday of the month at Crown Hill Center. Same format 5-5:30 potluck 5:30 – 7pm meeting.

First strawberries of the season

Woohoo! The first strawberries of the season are now maturing in our yards thanks to the heat of the last few weeks. We can soon expect to see Washington state berries in our local supermarkets and farmer’s markets. The imported California strawberries have suffered long enough on their journey up here and are far from their prime by the time they reach our mouths.  Strawberries lose flavor pretty quickly after picking, so the ones from your garden can’t be beat. Though usually smaller than the monster berries from the supermarket, the flavor of those freshly picked from your garden trump all.

Strawberries are pretty easy to grow from bare root starts available in February and March, and may even show up as volunteers in your yard like the plant these berries were found on. They can be grown in containers too. So put this plant on your list for next year. If you know someone with strawberries in their garden, you can also pick up plants from their runners.

I recently learned of another way to enjoy potatoes that doesn’t involve eating or growing them. A friend shared the following suggested exercise for seniors to build muscle strength in the arms and shoulders.

The original article suggested doing it three times a week. It’s so easy, I thought I’d pass it on.

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-pound potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, then relax. Each day, you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer.

After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-pound potato sacks. Then use 50-pound potato sacks, and eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-pound potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute.

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks.

And if you’re looking for music to memorialize the death of the PI,  former Seattle-ite Heidi Muller has this finely crafted contribution “Goodnight PI” to mark the passage.

Here’s my contribution to what to do with the proceeds of a particularly productive day of picking. Not so much a recipe, but a process.
Intense Blackberry Sorbet:

Equipment list:

• Inexpensive one quart ice cream freezer. Ours is a Donvier hand cranked model, but apparently some Cuisinart attachment can be had to accomplish the deed with electricity.
• Means to separate the seeds from the pulp and juice. I use an old fashioned conical potato ricer with a wooden pestle, though a strainer and a rubber spatula can be used with equal result.
• Stainable clothing or means to keep nicer togs blackberry stain free.

Things to do ahead:

• Freeze the cylinder of your ice cream maker. This can take from one to three days depending on how cold your freezer is, how often the door is opened, and whether the planets were correctly aligned.
• Make up some simple syrup to sweeten the mix. Simple syrup is traditionally a one to one (by volume) ratio of sugar and water. Honey can also be used as a more locally found sweetener for the syrup. You’ll need about 2/3 to 1 cup of syrup for each quart you will make depending on tartness. Bring the syrup to a hard boil for a minute or so, stirring vigorously after it boils. Let cool, and put in the refrigerator.

Day of picking:

• Collect a large bucket of ripe blackberries.
• Rinse the berries (particularly important for berries from roadside or otherwise dusty environments).
• Separate the seeds from the juice and pulp with the ricer or strainer.
• Place the juice and pulp in the refrigerator until thoroughly chilled.

When ready to make sorbet:

• Mix fruit juice and pulp with syrup until desired balance of sweetness and tartness is achieved.
• Take cylinder from freezer and assemble the ice cream maker. Pour about 3-1/4 or so cups of the berry and syrup mixture into the ice cream maker.
• Every minute or two, stir with the crank two or three revolutions for about ten minutes.
• As the mixture begins to thicken, increase the number of turns, until the sorbet is mostly frozen. You should not be exerting great amounts of force, or the plastic paddle will break.
• Scoop the semi-solid sorbet into a plastic container, and place in the freezer until ready to consume.

When fully frozen (assuming you can wait):

• Serve by shaving thin peels with the side of a sturdy soup spoon into small bowls.