Volume 8 • Number 1 • Fall 2009

Wheat on the Way Back in New England

In addition to the locally grown vegetables, fruit, dairy and other farm products that we routinely find in our grocery stores, wheat and artisanal flour may soon find their way to the "made in Massachusetts" section of our local markets.

When most of us think of wheat, we think of “the nation’s bread basket” – massive, uniform fields in the Midwest. That very uniformity poses a threat to the heritage wheat varieties of the world, which were selected by farmers and adapted to local conditions, according to Eli Kaufman of Northeast Organic Wheat, a multi-state consortium of organic farmers, artisan bakers and Extension specialists working to bring wheat back to the farm fields of New England.

Kaufman has been collecting wheat varieties from Europe and the Middle East, as well as from the U.S. seed bank. That’s where she found "Red Lammas," a type brought to Massachusetts by early settlers. In the first year of a four-year program funded by Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, Kaufman teamed up with UMass Extension educator Ruth Hazzard and organic farmers in western Massachusetts to plant a range of wheat varieties in local test fields. They are hoping to identify varieties most suited to the region, and those that will also produce delicious and nutritious bread. By the end of the program, Kaufman plans to develop farmer-baker cooperatives that will produce truly local or regional breads.

One of her test fields is on the UMass farm in South Deerfield where 40 different wheat varieties were grown this past season. The wheat drew a good deal of attention from farmers attending the UMass Amherst Agricultural Field Day there last spring.

"There seems to be quite a bit of interest in wheat among farmers," Hazzard said. "I think there is a market for this that didn't exist ten years ago."

Credits:
Writing: Ben Barnhart
Photography: Ben Barnhart

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