As we round the foods on the holiday plate, it’s time to talk about growing corn! Corn isn’t just one of the staples for a healthy holiday season, it’s a consumable that has been around since the beginning of time. With so many types, varieties, colors, flavors and people that grow and harvest it, there’s a TON to learn about this little, robust and incredibly diverse crop!

Iowa Corn Farmer Dave Walton

To walk us through corn, we turn to Dave Walton of Walton Farms in Wilton, Iowa! (Yes, that’s a photo in a soybean field. Oh well!) Connect with Walton Farms online today and tell them the Grounded By The Farm Podcast sent ya’!
Walton_ Farms on Instagram

WaltonAgSeed on Twitter
Walton Farms – Iowa on Facebook

What is teosinte?

When we say the word teosinte, what comes to mind for you?

Teosinte is a tall grass native to Mexico and Central America. And it is commonly considered the ancestor of the corn that the world enjoys today in a vast number of ways. I don’t mind admitting that it just looks like a bunch of overgrown grass till you look at the seed head.

While we’re talking about corn, did you know that teosinte is inedible until it is processed by grinding or something?

Growing and eating corn is a BIG deal! Speaking of “Big” do you remember the movie scene from Big Janice mentioned where Tom Hanks eats “baby corn”? You will after watching this scene!

Different Types of Corn

How many types of corn do YOU know about? Inside this episode you’ll learn about many different kinds of corn – not all of which is bred for human’s to eat… some high starch corn is used for livestock, in processing and even fuel.

Sweet corn is right where many of us go to when we think of corn…. I mean, it is so amazing fresh out of the field!

What is your favorite way to eat corn on the cob? While sweet corn has more sugar content, and yellow dent corn has more starch, there are many different ways and types of corn to eat.

Ever heard of “really old corn?” There are a series of corns that Dave talks about that are actually from colonial times! It’s unique, grows tall, but looks pretty different from his field corn. He sent us a photo that shows the difference in cobs — the one on the right has more starch in it and dents as it dries down, the one on the left is one Dave grinds for use in food at home.

Where can one find more information about “heritage corns” and corns from different times in history? It takes getting creative, but Dave says it’s worth the networking!

Farmers like Dave test the moisture in corn to keep an eye on quality. It’s the same process Matt walked us through when we talked about growing quality popcorn last year. Listen to this episode of Grounded By The Farm to make sure YOU have the right level of POP in your corn!

Keeping Corn On-Hand

Looking for the secret to freezing corn to save for later in the year? Farmers like Dave Walton have got the system down! He shares his in this episode… give it a listen to hear his tips.

You can also check out this post from my friend Leah who’s written out our family’s fast and effective how to freeze corn in great quantities if you are lucky enough to have that deep freezer ready in July!

Home Ground Corn for All the Things

Dave shares some of the ways the family uses corn at home in this episode saying that they love to make tortillas with some of the blue corn and some of the older varieties make great polenta too! He even sent photos of some of the polenta he had made.

Masa – are you familiar with masa? It’s mentioned several times in this episode and is critical to those tamales! Dave and company make it “Fresh as it can be” at Walton Farms. Dave talks about grinding corn to various textures.

 

Holidays and Corn Go Hand-in-Hand

How many of you have CORN CASSEROLE during the holidays? It’s a centerpiece inside of many tables – including Dave’s! And cornbread / cornbread dressing is the best! Definitely a family favorite of ours.

Being Southern, I turn to tamales for Christmas-time enjoyment of corn! Having friends of Mexican heritage, tamales are the spot, but I also spent years in the Mississippi Delta — a region that holds that food so dear that they have a tamale trail! And I can hear it calling me and may have to head back down once covid is behind us. For anyone in the St. Louis area, you should check out The Tamale Man — feel free to hit me up if you want help placing that order! I love what they are doing!

Growing Corn in Your Garden

With corn being native to the Americas, it can be grown in most areas of the US. And growing corn is pretty popular in backyard and community gardens. We asked Dave what we should know? and he points out using top soil as a base.

And many home gardeners The Three Sisters Method: Are you familiar with it? It’s a way for corn, beans and squash to all thrive together.

Importance of Healthy Soil

Ready to help your soil be healthy, retain structure and stay in place? Dave talks through you how to keep our soil healthy and ready not just for corn – but for “Cover Crops” that are a used on farms all over the world!

Links Mentioned in the Show

Brandon Whitt, who grows barley for a local Nashville brewery is beginning to play with some of the heritage corn varieties too.

Tips on how to freeze sweet corn.

Natasha uses a lot of companion planting like the three sisters in the We Sow We Grow garden.

 

The post Growing Corn in Iowa, Dave Walton is Not The Stereotype You May Hear appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Few farmers have a more captivating history or voice than black farmer Lloyd Johnson who grows corn, soybeans and wheat in Alton, Illinois. The Johnson family — Lloyd’s great grandparents — bought the property in 1850, years before Abraham Lincoln would be president.

Lloyd talks with us about how he feels his path of being a farmer was part of a covenant made generations earlier. A covenant that ends with him he points out. The wisdom and life lessons extend well beyond what it is like to be a farmer to some of the things that make it a bit different since he is a black farmer. We ask him about advice for people looking to get into farming, about the creation of generational wealth, as well as some of the changes he’s seen in his 80 plus years in the St. Louis metro area.

You may also enjoy hearing from these other black farmers.

Photo of milo to show what he was talking about in terms of grain size.

For more information about the The National Black Growers Council visit the NBGC website or connect on social media at:

Twitter https://twitter.com/NBGC100

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NBGC100/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nationalblackgrowerscouncil/

Find Grounded by the Farm 

• GroundedbytheFarm.com for photos, blog posts, show notes and more
• Ask the Farmers Facebook Page
• Groundedbythefarm_ on Instagram
• Grounded by the Farm on Youtube
• @groundedbythef on Twitter

The post The History of Being a Black Farmer, Johnson Family Farm Preceded Lincoln’s Presidency appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Over the past several months, we have talked to several farmers including changes in light of covid-19. This bonus episode takes a totally different look at the world as we catch back up with Christian Spears at Tennessee Brew Works. Christian was featured in a winter episode about sourcing local grain for the brewery and that episode was accompanied by an interview with the wheat and barley farmer they source so much from…. That wheat from Batey Farms is featured in their summer seasonal wheat beer I Walk the Lime too.

Christian’s first words are about how much the world has changed since we visited in the winter. We talk through how the brewery has had to rework things in light of the pandemic. Some of the topics and timecode follow as we covered a lot of ground in 45 minutes!

Please support your local microbreweries, restaurants, etc. Look for their products, call for curbside service, order products for a couple of meals at once, buy logo’ed wear, share your experiences with friends, family and your social media networks.

02:46 Taking a total business approach

09:00 Wanting to help employees while protecting the company’s future too

20:42 Where are you now? What can people do to help microbreweries and restaurants? 

29:52 Introducing innovations to help contactless

33:31 New seasonal 100% wheat beer — I Walk the Lime

39:59 Supporting live music in Nashville as possible

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Christian Spears discusses local farm connectivity TN Brew Works has built over the years https://groundedbythefarm.com/crafting-a-beer-that-has-a-depth-of-local-flavor-connecting-to-farmers/
• Brandon Whitt, of Batey Farms, talksaboutgrowin barley& wheat for the microbrewery https://groundedbythefarm.com/ever-met-a-beer-farmer-that-malted-barley-has-to-start-somewhere/
• Video/ article providing background of TN Brew Works & Batey Farms https://groundedbythefarm.com/craft-beer-tennessee-brew/

Where to Find TN Brew Works Online:

• Brewery website:  https://www.tnbrew.com/
• Instagram TNBrewWorks. instagram.com/tnbrewworks
• Facebook TNBrew. www.facebook.com/tnbrew
• Tumblr TNBrew. https://tnbrew.tumblr.com/
• Twitter TNBrewWorks https://twitter.com/TNBrewWorks

Connecting with Grounded by the Farm on Other Channels:

• GroundedbytheFarm.com for photos, blog posts, show notes and more
• Ask the Farmers Facebook Page
• Groundedbythefarm_ on Instagram
• Grounded by the Farm on Youtube
• @groundedbythef on Twitter

Check out this episode!

The post What 2020 is Like for Local Microbreweries & Restaurants (Bonus Episode) appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Since we are talking with rice farmer Matthew Sligar this week, we wanted to make sure you knew how to make good use of some of that rice you have in the kitchen!

Don’t forget, as Matthew explained in the podcast episode on rice, you want to be sure you are using the right kind of rice for the dish you are making.

Using Medium Grain Rice

Sushi has become a bit of a family tradition for us. My sister lived in Japan for several years and with all the loved ones we have there as well as Japanese friends and family in the U.S., it provides us a great touchstone. Besides, we’ll take almost any excuse to eat great food.

Love this video where Matthew and his wife Clara took time to learn to make sushi and thought some of you may be interested in giving this a go.

Long-Grain Rice Recipes

More of the recipes I have typically use long-grain rice…. it’s used in casseroles, salads, as a side and more. Growing up, my family would just put a little butter on it… maybe some salt & pepper. But here are some ideas for getting that rice out of the canister.

Red Beans & Rice

My go-to recipe is red beans and rice…. I make that pretty often and just love it! It’s also a favorite for several friends and family members– in fact a 5-year-old friend is a total fan! I started making it years ago with a crock pot red beans and rice recipe a friend’s wife shared — just a few ingredients in a crock pot. Some Hillshire Farms sausage, red beans and sauces (A1, Worcestshire, and Heinz 57) in one pot and cook rice in another. A friend helped me convert it to the instant pot too, and I think instant pot red beans and rice is even better!

Slow Cooker Beef Stew & Rice

Sarah is the farmhouse blogger at Farmwife Crafts and she has a slow cooker beef stew recipe that is served over rice making it more for a plate than a bowl! I love that as a farm family she starts by explaining stew meat, where it comes from on cattle, what you may substitute and more. She also talks you through cooking it in the oven verses the slow cooker!

Porcupine Meatballs

Not gonna lie, when Nicole from Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom shared this recipe in my thread asking about farm recipes including rice, I shook my head. But rice is both part of the porcupine meatballs but you serve them over rice too!

One Skillet Chicken Rotel & Rice

If you have seen our other recipes, you probably were already wondering what Jent from Farmwife Feeds would be adding to the list. The wait is worth it with this one skillet chicken rotel & rice!  I love one pot meals, especially these days when it seems like cooking and washing dishes never stops! And if you have rice, cheese and tomatoes with some sort of protein I am there for it. She also has an instant pot recipe for chicken, rice & peas I’m going to check out.

Best Ever Turkey Layered Hotdish (Casserole)

I giggle just typing in hotdish as I can remember wondering what that was, but it is a casserole. (Although Midwestern friends like Val Wagner who feed big families swear hotdish is so much more appetizing than casserole.) I can’t lie though, I love a good casserole and in my experience, rice contributes to a lot of the really good ones! Lara with My Other More Exciting Self has this best ever turkey layered hotdish that will have you checking your local grocery meat counter for turkey breast you can cube up.

More Great Recipes from Farm Families

We hope you have been enjoying some of the recipes farm families have shared for you to make up yummy dishes with mushrooms, wheat, avocados and we have more coming!

The post Rice Recipes that Will Fill You Up and Make you Smile appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

This post includes an affiliate link for the book. Using and purchasing through that link may generate income for this site. 

As I prepared for the interview with Matthew Sligar of Rice Farming TV about growing rice, I was pulling together questions I had, questions from friends and then I had a new source of discussion topics — the children’s book Matthew recently published. The book, Daddy’s Got Dirt: A California Rice Story  (available directly from the author & from Amazon) provides a story from the viewpoint of Matthew’s daughter. It’s presented in rhyming verse with great illustrations that is perfect for children who have an interest in food or farming.

To get a good feel for the book, I not only read it, but had a young friend read it aloud for her family & me last week. As someone who loves to share the story of how our food is grown, I enjoyed it and so did the family I shared it with.

The Basics of Daddy’s Got Dirt

Daddy’s Got Dirt is a book that brings words and pictures together in a way that lets us have an intimate peek of a rice farm in California. The story is told by a daughter who learns about the soil, seeds and more from her dad and is passing along their story.

Planting and harvest seasons are time when long hours are spent at work growing rice, and the book shows images of what the various tasks are. It provides more of the story than just saying we need to plant as you see what is done to prepare for that I couldn’t help but think the story would resonate with a wide range of children and families as you have big tractors moving dirt or harvesting crops one minute and see the connections families have with farm dogs and wildlife the next.

A Bonus I Can Get Behind

Our family loves coloring, drawing, etc. and to see that there is a free downloadable coloring book that comes along with Daddy’s Got Dirt gave me a big smile. And yes, I had to download it and break out my box of 64! Fun to take a break but more importantly, I’m sure a lot of people (like me) learn more by interacting with things.

Coloring the pages gives you a chance to slow down and think about even talk about the various components of the image.  I wish I’d printed copies before I went to visit friends cause coloring is so much fun with friends. And I can totally see myself printing a page or two when I go read to a classroom in the future.

Growing Rice Is A Unique Job, but Touches So Many

American families eat a good bit of rice. In fact, according to Think Rice, we average eating 26 pounds per person each year although that differs among cultures, geographies, etc. As Matthew and I discussed in the podcast, I think my family helps pull the average up since we are Southern and have Asian family members too.

But rice is only grown in half a dozen states or so, that means a lot of us enjoy the food but probably haven’t had much experience in how it is grown. This book is a way to see how it’s grown as is Matthew’s Rice Farming TV channel on YouTube. (you can watch this year’s rice crop from week to week too.)

Details on Daddy’s Got Dirt

Here’s are a few of the details on the book Daddy’s Got Dirt you may want to know:

• 40 pages
• Hardcover
• Full color
• Beautifully illustrated by Daniel Vincent
• $19.95 plus shipping (available directly from the author & from Amazon)

Don’t forget to listen to the podcast episode with rice farmer Matthew Sligar too!

The post Learning About Growing Rice from a Children’s Book appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

While I didn’t meet a rice farmer til I was an adult, I have a lot of them to thank for a lifetime of enjoying rice! I’ve had the chance to meet and talk with rice farmers across the U.S. and in several countries in Asia. I love hearing about how it’s grown. So sitting down for a conversation with Matthew Sligar who farms in Northern California is something I relish. We’ve had the chance to visit on his farm several times but for this podcast episode, we were two thousand miles apart.

What kind of rice is grown in California?

Matthew and other rice farmers in California (the northern Sacramento Valley) grow medium grain rice, he explains that it is the sticky rice that is such an integral part of many Asian foods including sushi! The long-grain rice that is used in some other foods is usually grown in Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Since for many of us, we think about brown and white rice as the types of rice we put on the plate, Matthew walked through the process of milling with us. The milling process is where they take the rough rice that farmers grown and remove the hulls and determine whether the bran will remain making it brown rice or the bran is polished off making it white rice. He walks through the process in this video.

Getting His Creative On

As you can see in the video above, Matthew has a creative side that combines with helping people better understand where their food comes from.

I found him online several years ago because a video he did offering trick or treaters a single grain of rice rather than the expected candies. And while most of his videos are more directly related to the way food is produced, this rice farmer always makes the videos interesting with his witty sense of humor and video style including fast edits. His YouTube channel is called Rice Farming TV and he produces videos weekly! You can follow the 2020 rice crop in this playlist too.

And this year, he also has published a children’s book about what happens on his farm! The book Daddy’s Got Dirt:  A California Rice Story is great for young kids with rhymes and images. You can read Grounded by the Farm’s review of Daddy’s Got Dirt here too!

Show Notes

Blog post that provides photos & more:   https://groundedbythefarm.com/rice-farmer/  

Where to find Matthew Sligar online:

• RiceFarming TV on YouTube 
• RiceFarmingTV.com

Rice recipes from some farmers who love to cook

Where to find Grounded by the Farm online:

• groundedbythefarm.com
• YouTube Grounded by the Farm
• Instagram GroundedbytheFarm_
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groundedbythefarmpage/

Matthew’s videos we mentioned:

• Offering trick or treaters a grain of rice 
• Explaining what it’s like to be a Rice Krispy Treat farmer 

• Making sushi 
• The difference in brown and white rice 

• Planting Rice! Tractors Working on the Farm Day 1 
• The full 2020 crop year playlist 

• 2019 harvest on the farm— a story of breakdowns 
• 2019 rice harvest is Brazil 

The post A Rice Farmer Who Loves Farming, Food & YouTube — Meet Matthew Sligar appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

As I talked with Michelle Jones about her family’s wheat farm, I craved all the wheat-based recipes and comfort foods. And with the way so many of us are accessing the food system differently, although this is the first spring I’ve felt compelled to bake and I am far from alone. Some of my friends on the farm have some amazing recipes to share. Go ahead… make sure you have all the flour… you are going to want to fire up the oven!

Since my family craves bread enough that babies will cry hysterically ruining their first birthday photos if you dare try to pull a yeast roll from their clutches, I’m sure my people will be taking note.

Having Dessert First with Beyer Beware

When I looked through some of the recipes that friends sent when they heard we would be talking about different kinds of wheat, I couldn’t help but think this almond danish puff pastry from my friend Leah Beyer at Beyer Beware needed to lead the post. After all, I’m a grown up and can start with dessert if I want LOL!  And I can so see Leah sneaking a piece of the danish when she was younger and her mom fixed it for guests.

Bread with My Fearless Kitchen

You may remember Marybeth Feutz of My Fearless Kitchen…. She showed us around her cattle farm and talked to us all about how to pick steaks out and ways farmers take care of their cows and the planet. Well, she likes to bake too!

Easy Homemade Bread

When a recipe puts the word easy in the name — like easy homemade bread — I can say hope lights. This recipe offered not only the hope of an easy recipe but as it is raining here, seeing the photo of Marybeth I took years ago as we soaked up vitamin D in Florida, I found myself hoping for the warmth of the sun too.

Blackberry Bread 

This is one of many recipes that you will see in this recipe post that I haven’t only not eaten, but I hadn’t thought of at all! And blackberry bread? I am a life-long lover of blackberry and we are poised for blackberry season… I need this in my life. Seriously when I saw it, I ran to Instacart to put blackberries on the list!

Farm Wife Feeds Baking Breads

When we share recipes, often Jennifer Campbell (who I call Jent a lot of the time) of Farm Wife Feeds is usually spot on. She feeds the Indiana crew and enjoys sharing lots of recipes. Her mom (and her Kitchen Aid mixer) got her hooked on homemade bread, so you won’t be disappointed.

Honey Wheat Oat Bread

Jent says this is a Gooseberry Patch recipe her family has worn out and just the name honey wheat oat bread…. well it makes my mouth water! And the photo? Stop it.

Two Ingredient Beer Bread

Not going to lie as everyone else was desperate to find yeast, I asked a few folks why they didn’t just make beer bread and you’d think I’d straight laid voodoo on them. Two ingredients? Since this post is all about wheat-based recipes and has beer in the name, you can easily guess the two ingredients! Jent talks us through it and just give it a look… it pairs with beer.

Homemade Rhubarb Donuts

Sharing a recipe for rhubarb donuts means putting my life in the hands of others… my sister has discovered a deep love of rhubarb but lives in the rhubarb-less south. She’s going to want this tasty treat. Hope someone else can find it so she can get cracking on this wheat-based recipe.

Wheat-Based Recipes on Plowing Through Life

Another friend named Jennifer Osterholt has been Plowing through Life in Ohio for a while. She named the blog at a time when there were some adversities and she’s definitely had challenges, but loving wheat… if that is wrong, I don’t think Jennifer wants to be right with the wheat-based recipes she shared! I have to say these options make me rethink banana and pumpkin bread.

Farmhouse Peanut Butter Bread

I’ve never even thought of peanut butter bread, which Jennifer changed that. As a household that has included multiple jars of peanut butter and lengthy debates on brands and textures that are best, I’ll have to give this one a whirl. Maybe make it next time I visit my nephew too. And I think I’ll have to have it with the Nutella spread option!

Carrot Bread (Farmhouse Style of course!)

There are more than a few carrot cake folks in my world, but carrot bread? That seems like such an obvious choice but I’ve not made it. The orange flecks makes it perfect for a niece of mine too!

Who’s ready to bake some wheat-based foods now?

Seriously. My pantry is stocked and all of these ideas…. well, the grocery list will be growing to include a few components I need to make one or two friends on the farm recipes this weekend. Really glad talking about all things wheat led me down this path!

The post Wheat-Based Recipes You May Want to Give a Go appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Wheat is one of those basic building blocks of diets for many of us and yet, it’s not something we get to know well from the farm perspective. I realized that recently as friends have been baking so much and some were wondering about what kind of wheat the bread flour was from. It led me to this conversation with Montana wheat farmer Michelle Jones.

We talk through the various kinds of wheat, and the foods the various kinds of what are used for, where in the US things are grown and more.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

My friend @farmfitmomma started a #iamgratefulfor trend earlier this week. I finally got my life together enough to do one! I’m grateful for a lot of things – but podcasts, coffee and some cab time is definitely a top one. #gratitude #farmlife #farm #coffee #coffeelover #podcastlife #podcast #femalefarmer #farmher #weekendvibes #weekendmood #iamgratefulfor

A post shared by Michelle Jones (@bigskyfarmher) on Apr 25, 2020 at 10:35am PDT

Getting to Know Michelle Jones

Michelle is a fourth generation farmer who farms with her husband and family in south central Montana near Billings. She and her husband Travis also work his family’s ranch and are busy raising their two ADORABLE sons. I mean, just look at them.

photo courtesy of Michelle Jones @BigSkyFarmHer

She shares photos of her part of the world regularly via her @BigSkyFarmHer profile on Instagram. You can spend a long time looking at her photography and if you love beautiful scenery, wildlife, and the world of , you may find you want to buy some of her pictures. Seriously, her shop has amazing photos.

Michelle has a deep passion for farming and took a unique path off farm for several years. But that time in supply chain management for Amazon and UPS both has more connections to the farm than one may think. Understanding the delivery to consumers, especially working on Amazon Fresh, provides a background that makes understanding various trade and policy topics easier.

And it also piques her curiosity about where wheat from her farm and others go and how it ultimately ends up on the table for people across the US and overseas.  With that she’s toured a lot of mills, checked out stores, restaurants and more here and abroad. She loves comparing notes with other farmers and crops too.

Where U.S. Wheat is Grown

Wheat is one of the most common crops in the U.S. and is grown in most of the states going from the border with Mexico up to the Canadian border. This map from US Wheat (I found it thanks to Michelle’s Wheat 101 post) helps you see whether wheat is grown near you and if so, what kind of wheat it is.

One of the biggest differentiators in wheat is simply based on the growing season. Winter wheat is planted in late fall and harvested late spring or early summer. Spring wheat is planted in spring and harvested in the fall. The other factors are for hard or soft and red or white. Finally there is durum — and I mentioned semolina in the interview cause that’s what my local chef Gerard Craft likes for the pastas he makes.

Different Kinds of Wheat, Lead to Different Foods

Getting the lowdown on six different kinds of wheat, is a bit confusing for sure and I love that Michelle gives me a break admitting some times farmers get it confused too. But the various individuals and companies who are focused on wheat-based foods get it. So we’ll walk through these using info from USwheat.org.

Hard Red Winter (HRW) Wheat

Hard Red Spring (HRS) Wheat

The aristocrat of wheat when it comes to “designer” wheat foods like hearth breads, rolls, croissants, bagels and pizza crust. Hard red spring is also a valued improver in flour blends.

Photo from Brian Scott @TheFarmersLife May 27, 2020

Soft Red Winter (SRW) Wheat

Soft red winter is a profitable choice for producing a wide range of confectionary products like cookies, crackers and cakes, and for blending for baguettes and other bread products.

Soft White (SW) Wheat

Low moisture wheat with excellent milling results, soft white provides a whiter and brighter product for Asian-style noodles and is ideal for exquisite cakes, pastries and other confectionary products.

Hard White

Hard white wheat receives enthusiastic reviews when used for Asian noodles, whole wheat or high extraction applications, pan breads or flat breads.

Durum

Hardest of all wheats, durum has a rich amber color and high gluten content. Hard amber durum (HAD) sets the “gold standard for premium pasta products, couscous and some Mediterranean breads.

Storing Grain On-Farm & Off

We talked briefly about how wheat and other grain crops are stored. Michelle’s family has enough grain bins on the farm to store their crop. That is becoming more common. Grain bins are the silver “silo type” of metal building shown in front of an elevator I used to have a view of often. It’s in Enid, Oklahoma.

You May Also Enjoy

We have a post of wheat-based recipes going up on the site today. Hope there are lots of ideas you will enjoy. And you may find it especially interesting my friend Jennifer and her son took wheat from their farm to grind flour and make bread.

Michelle and her family also grow barley which you may remember was featured on the show a few months ago.

Not only did we do an interview with a barley farmer and the companion interview with a Nashville brewery called Tennessee Brew Works. Like a lot of restaurants and microbreweries, they have had a really tough time recently…. if you are in the area, pick up some beer from them, order something, etc.

Don’t Miss Any of the Grounded Posts!

We are regularly posting content here and the podcast has a new episode every other week. With all that coming together you don’t want to miss out. There are a couple of key ways to stay up to date:

Subscribe to the Grounded by the Farm email list — There is a subscribe option in the sidebar that you should be able to access and you may see a pop-up.

Subscribe in your favorite podcast app — We make it easy! We are (hopefully) everywhere you listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and lots more!

The post What kind of wheat do you use to make bread? to make pasta? appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

The latest episode of Grounded by the Farm speaks to something many of us are facing this week whether we are at home in big cities or rural areas — we are focused on having enough food at home. Buying, storing, and cooking more meals. 

The last time I was at home cooking this much was when I lived in the Mississippi Delta, an area I frequently called the middle of nowhere. I personally am looking at food differently. Although I have many grocery stores and restaurants within a mile or two, I am planning for my meals, thinking about what I need to have in the house for a week or two instead of going out to the grocery store every few days or stopping by restaurants so much more often.

My friend Val Wagner who lives in North Dakota came to mind as she lives well away from a grocery and has a big family. I knew she’d have a lot of tips to share.

Meet Val Wagner & Her Family 

The Wagners farm in the small town of Monango, North Dakota. That’s in the southeastern part of the state — an hour or so from the big towns of Jamestown, ND and Aberdeen, SD. It’s Val, who also has a job in a law office in Ellendale, ND, husband Mark who is full-time on the farm and their four boys — Ian, Scott, Evan and Eli. On the top end, Ian is graduating from high school this year and Eli is the youngest at 11.

Val explains their operation saying: “We have red Angus cattle, they are Simmental – red Angus cross. And then we also grow corn and soybean, and wheat, and then alfalfa or grass for our cows to eat, you know, most of what we grow are all things that we can consume here on the farm ourselves or eat ourselves. And then if, if we don’t need it, then our cows do. So that’s kind of we try to make sure we’re our own ecosystem if we have to be.”

Not Everyone Visits North Dakota 

Val & I met via Twitter and various agriculture meetings. At some point, I did a quiz on Facebook where you say which states you’d been to, I’d made all but four to five, Val took it as a personal challenge that I had not been to North Dakota. She wanted to make it clear that I didn’t know what I was missing.

Next thing I knew I was up on the prairie both for work with her sweet corn patch donated to Feeding America for food bank use. And soon I was taking a Dakota vacation seeing the sights in North Dakota and learning things like how to work cows. And it was so beautiful, when my niece asked about getting experience working on a farm, she ended up in the beautiful rolling prairie working cows, driving tractors and more.

I agree with the way Val sums up her home state…. “I also knew that there was so much more here than most people even ever imagined just because we do you know, North Dakota kind of gets the bad rap of being kind of a flatland of, of nothingness. And we do have some typography. I mean, not a whole lot, but, but we also have just a lot of really cool things to experience. And, you know, the people here are the best.”

Val laughs that the difference between North Dakota and other parts of the country always is striking to her boys. “When I’ve taken my boys to other states, one of the things that have always amazed them is they just assumed trees grow in rows. Because the trees in North Dakota have all been planted. So anytime we’ve gone to somewhere like where I was born in Wisconsin, the boys are just amazed that these trees are just all over the place, and how did they ever see anything or do anything when all these trees are just all over? And it’s like, that’s how they occur naturally. We don’t have that. And so it’s sometimes it’s hard for people to understand that when we talk about wide open spaces. This is what they mean. We are wide open spaces.”

Growing Sweet Corn 

The Wagners planted a few cars of sweet corn one year as part of a program with my day job. The company donated seed and farmers played it forward by donating the sweet corn in ways that benefitted their communities. Val and Mark chose to have a big picking party and donate the corn to the state’s Feeding America program.

“We actually plant generally between two to three patches of sweet corn, about one acre to a half acre in size, so about the half the size of a football field or maybe a little bigger. That’s a lot sweet corn… especially if you think about each one of those patches or that side so we’re talking two or three maybe possibly even four football fields of sweet corn. That’s a lot of sweet corn. The last two years Ian – my oldest – and Scott his, his little big brother. They’ve been using the sweet corn, they deliver it to the people in town and whoever’s looking for some and they’ll give my donation for it. And so we’ve provided sweet corn for probably a multi County area here for the last couple years. So that’s really hoping, hoping that this year we get to get the corn in again. And usually it hasn’t been a problem. But we’ve, again been dealing with moisture issues. So we’ll have to see how that that’ll go,” she explains.

This was years ago — the son standing next to Val is the 6’8″ basketball player towering over her in the family photo above. LOL

How do you store sweet corn & other food long-term?  

Picturing acres of sweet corn, even if a lot is given to friends and others, there has to be a lot left for the family. I had to ask how she tucks that away.

Val explains, “if I were to count, I believe we’ve got six or seven deep freezes that we that we have. But of course we raise not only do we raise beef but in the summer during the fair season, my boys raised for each pig so they have their animals. We’re also a hunting family. So we do hunting, when the weather allows and and timing allows. So we have a lot of space to store own food.

“We have a garden that we raised what we can when we can. I enjoy canning and I enjoy preserving food and eating our own food. Not necessarily just out of necessity because we know the closest Walmart to me is about an hour away so it’s not like it’s a drive I take every day. What’s the way our schedules are? I don’t have time to go and with having for growing boys. You know, like I said, Ian’s gonna be 18 Scott is 16 — just had a birthday. Yeah, just forget these things after a while. It was Scott, almost 6′ 8″, 2 hundred and 40 pounds. It takes a lot to fill up those long legs of his. So Evan is 13 and Eli is going to be 11. They put away a lot of food and especially now without having school. We go through enormous amount of food every day.”

She says she freezes a lot of sweet corn (my friend Leah has a great post on how to freeze sweet corn easily!) And she throws it into a lot of different things whether it be chili or a hot dish  / casserole “here there whatever.”

Do you also put tomatoes up and stuff like that? What else? I ask.

“Salsa, tomato juice, bloody Mary mix, you know. Right winter gets cold. So just a whole bunch of different things whatever kind of tickles my fancy at the time the boys like pickles. I’m not I’m not very good at the cucumber thing. I don’t know. Yeah those never turn out real well,” Val admits.

Having Freezers Ready 

Although I don’t have a big deep freezer, the last couple of weeks have led me to think about how I use the freezer space I do have. And I have to admit I haven’t done so well about organizing, but I’m trying to do better. I have a FoodSaver to vacuum seals things which let’s me keep it longer than store packaging and I write on them with a Sharpie.

Val laughs saying she “I probably wouldn’t need five or six freezers if I was better at the organizing. We do we stock them pretty good. We usually raise our animals, like one or two that we know we’re going to put on our own freezer. But then sometimes you might have one that injures itself, you know breaks a leg or something, especially where we’re located that when it’s icy outside like that you have those things. And so you have to be to be ready for it. Because I mean, if all the sudden you’re getting 500 pounds of meat. You can’t be like, well, I’ll just put it in the car overnight and hope it stays frozen. And you don’t have that luxury.” 

We talked with Marybeth Feutz about that decision about whether the cow may be able to heal but Val helped us understand the practical side of if the cow won’t make it.

Getting Meat Processing Done 

Val says they don’t do any slaughter or butchering themselves explaining “We take it all to there’s a butcher shop about 30 miles from here that we’ve worked with for many years that that does a great job for us. We take the animal in they they take care of everything for us. We just tell them what it is. We want how we want the cuts to look much as what like you would do going to your local butcher. Except we know exactly where that animal came from. And we know that what we took in is what we’re getting back. And so yeah, it just makes it a little easier for us, I think to be prepared for it. Because we do know what we’re going to have to have room for. And so that cost maybe for us, it’s not as much as buying it directly from the store, but it’s still a larger upfront cost because you’re paying for the processing of a whole animal, not just the cuts you are looking for.”

A few of our friends actually sell like quarters or halves. Friends at Spring Valley farms around Memphis does that.. they call it freezer beef. Since not many people are going to eat a quarter or a half a cow at once, the put most in the freezer.

Val says people have choices on how to have the animal cut so they get the kinds of cuts they want. “Some people don’t prefer a beef roast, but they want more steaks cut, or maybe they want it all turned into hamburger or whatever it may be. So for those people who who do more of the local, selling directly to, to the people in their communities, you have to be a little more particular about how you set that up. Because kind of like when you have a pig, everybody would like a pig to be 100% bacon, but that’s not possible.”

Focus on Herd Health 

The Wagners have what is called a closed herd. All of the cattle they have on their farm were born there. They sell calves after 11 months or so and will have another round of calving. My niece was there this year for the most intense period of calving and learned a lot!

“We can be very selective as far as bloodlines and, and things like that. Because when you have a closed herd, you want to make sure you don’t have any issues with genetics and, and things being too closely related. So we keep very close records on, you know, what cow was born from, you know, the sire and for the male and the female, the mom and the dad for them and all of that, but it’s super important for us for our cows to be healthy because that we’re looking at the future of our farm. So what we do today, what we’re raising today, we’re hoping is the herd for our boys,” she says.

Val’s always talked about having her farm ready for her boys if any of them want to farm for the next generation.

“Right now it’s looking like at least two are interested in coming back to farm,” she says. “And so we want to do whatever we can to make sure that we’ve set them up in a place that there’s blessed with as many opportunities as we, as Mark and I have been. And so one of the ways we do that, when you’re looking at that herd health is making sure that we are following, you know, our veterinarian’s advice, proper techniques, making sure that we’re checking on them all the time, or we’re very involved in their care. You know, everything is very hands on for us. And so it makes it a lot of work. When you’re looking at your future everyday like that and seen it through the eyes of these boys who are excited and interested in doing that. It doesn’t make it seem like work at all.”

The cattle are moved around a range of pastures 15 miles or so from the house much of the year, but for calving, they want the cows close to the house and barn like Marybeth. She explains:

“in January, everything’s right near the farm here near our house. Usually we start calving about the second week of February. So everything is here until usually around the end of May is when we move things out to pasture. The pasture is about 17 miles from here. So we haul everything out. We used to trail them out and trail and back home, but it takes a lot of work to get them to go that far.

“We have a couple hundred acres of grass that they can eat on warm season and cool season grasses. So that means that the grasses ripen at different times so that there’s a whole bunch of variety of them. For them to eat out there and we have water tanks that they can drink from and we rotate them around so that the grass can recover and different things like that. But our hope is to not have to bring them back home until September, October, depending on what you have to deal with Mother Nature there. So it all kind of depends on what she decides to happen that year. But we leave much pasture for as long as we can bring them back home, graze them on some of the stocks that we’ve harvested if unlike this year, there wasn’t a whole lot of grazing being done because we weren’t done with harvest until late.”

2019 Was a Bad Weather Year  

Farmers throughout the plains and many other areas of the US had especially tough times with the weather. Val explains the rain was historic saying:

“It was flooding that was so severe, we had a wettest spring, summer fall on record ever. We couldn’t we had people who couldn’t remember it ever being like this, where generally we may have a wet spring but then you end up with it. dry patch in the summer where everything dries out pretty well. And it gets pretty hot real quickly. And then you may end up with some moisture again in the fall but we never, there was never really a break. I think the longest we went with maybe four or five days without rain. Yeah. And it wasn’t just like a nice slow rain. It was like this. The the deluge, just tons of rain and a lot of destruction, a lot of washout. We had roads that needed repairing places he couldn’t get to because everything was just so wet. Yeah, I remember graduation last year. We had people who couldn’t get to different graduation receptions because they didn’t have four wheel drive vehicles.”

Thinking about Empty Grocery Shelves 

For so many of us, having millions of acres go unfarmed feels like the type of thing that could cause food shortages but it didn’t. And here we are later looking at shelves in grocery stores that may feel like there’s a food shortage.

As someone susceptible to respiratory issues, I haven’t been shopping in almost a month. I have these lovely people from services like Instacart, who shop for me and dear friends call me on the regular to say, “Hey, we’re going out today and Do you need something?” But sometimes you can’t find flour, sugar, rice, tortillas, chicken, ground beef, etc… food is still coming off of farms, whether it’s yours or somebody else’s, and it’s getting in the system, but it may be channeled off right now for cafeterias and food service or restaurants. So to me, I wonder how much of it is it’s just in the wrong places, but a lot of people are really nervous.

Val says it just doesn’t make sense. “That’s one thing I have to say, living on the farm. I guess my biggest frustration with with the shortages that we’re seeing is that I know that you know, it is that delivery of food, that must be the issue because it’s not the availability. We’re still raising, you know, cattle from beef, there shouldn’t be a shortage. We still have crops that are waiting to be sold that are in storage. You know, we have all of these things. There’s nothing that shouldn’t be available to us because it’s, it’s all readily here. So I work in the town of Ellendale, 15 miles south of us here. Again, a very rural community that coronavirus issues just kind of ramping up here in North Dakota, we’re really kind of far behind when it comes to curve that they talked about and everything else.

“The crazy thing is that even our shelves, the toilet paper is gone, the food is gone. And I can guarantee you that we have no more people in our community than we did before. Right, you now have this ramped up all of these people who who now are fearing that there’s going to be a shortage so they’re creating a shortage.”

Planning Further Out, Eating at Home More 

I think a lot of us have not been planners when it comes to our food. And we have not figured out what should you always have on hand at home so that you can tide yourself over if a big storm came. It’s just like snow every time the freakin snow storms hit right. Everybody goes out, and they buy the same things. And I think this is a little bit like that. People weren’t sure. And suddenly they have children home from school. I mean, suddenly you have four boys home from school all day every day.

Val also plans for her pantry regularly. “We plan the same way as far as making sure that our pantry has the non perishables is the important thing, because you can only plan so far ahead with your milk and things like that, because it does, it has a shelf life. But your things like your, chips and even your bread, things like that you can either put in your freezer or put in the fridge, just to make sure that you have enough to get you through. It goes a long way just to make sure that you know where we live, you’re not always guaranteed you’re going to have a trip to town. And so we make sure that you have enough to get you through a week or two that you can be comfortable and not be missing out on anything. But the big thing is, is that making sure that not only do you have some of those, the staples, but for me, the key is to make sure you have a few things that you’ve put away. That makes the day a little brighter, you know, and it doesn’t have to necessarily be just, maybe it’s some hot chocolate or maybe it’s a popcorn or something.”

Val may not realize how much I love popcorn. I have jars of Ella & Ollie popcorn nearby and bought some great flavored popcorn as I traveled. I have kept hold of one bag but will eat it this week thanks to best by dates! My mom recently made and happily ate a full pan of brownies and I keep a few things like frozen pizza around for days when I just don’t want to cook. 

For me, rice, tortillas and dried beans are critical pantry staples. I also buy those kinds of sausages that I can keep on hand for probably months if I wanted to so long as I haven’t opened the packaging, they’re already smoked and all that kind of stuff. So they really have a nice long shelf life, much less if I froze them. And a pot of red beans and rice always hits the spot for me! 

Val says her “go tos are always mac and cheese. Because my boys are connoisseurs of mac and cheese; noodles, a variety of different noodles. Because it’s amazing just changing the shape of the noodle. You may make this same dish, but if it’s a different shape of noodle, the boys will swear it tastes different.  I just change which noodle I use and it’s a completely different dish, pasta sauce, different varieties of whatever it may be. I always have a ton of pasta sauce. I have a ton of beans on hand as well. So I can always throw together a batch of chili or whatever it may be. Chips. We do a lot of chips because I may make some different dips or different things like that to tide them over. You know right now, you know, at school, they’re used to eating here at seven o’clock when they get up their breakfast. Then at school, they eat at 1120 and then they eat after school and then they have supper. Well, now they eat from 8am to 8pm. And then they have a bedtime snack before they go to bed. So it’s the amount of food that they consume right now. It’s it’s just, I can’t even.” 

Caring for Special Dietary Needs

The Wagners also have additional layers of interesting food issues at their house. Val explains that their youngest Eli, who will soon be 11, has a metabolic issue called OTC.

“Eli has a metabolic condition where his body doesn’t break down protein the way everybody else’s does,” she explains. “And so he has to follow a pretty strict diet of limiting protein and and as we all know, protein is a major building block of all life. And so there’s protein and literally just about everything except for junk food, like, which for him is a win win, because then he can eat all the junk food in the world that he wants to and it’s a free food for him. But it has to limit things like milk and cheese and bread and pastas, and of course, any sort of meat. Having to have things on hand for both both ends of the spectrum makes it very interesting because you know, I’ll have to say, Eli, you can only have like a half a serving of lasagna. Ian, you can eat the last chocolate chip cookie because that’s for Eli. Like, it’s just, all backwards.” 

Everyone is busy. Val works a job in town at a law office and all of the sons play sports. This time of year they have been running hard and had little time at home.

“I think with that, this whole corona virus and the shelter in place and all of these things that was the hardest part was weird just on the back end of basketball season. In fact, our state basketball tournament was postponed due to to everything going on around the country. And so we had been traveling non-stop for the last five weeks and hadn’t been home probably two nights in a row that whole time. We were just getting to the point where I was going to need to do a great big shopping trip to replenish everything. When all of this happened, and it was kind of like, you go in and you realize somebody already beat me to it, there’s nothing left here. And it was crazy because trying to find all of these different things to restock my shelves and it made me really realize that I can’t let it get to that point again, even if I have to, you know, as I’m leaving town, whatever, make sure that I I am stocked up because it it is difficult when you have a larger family to make sure that you get what you need.”

May Need To Consider New Normal 

I think a lot of people felt that this last week or two, especially because they didn’t know how much they would need at home with everybody at home. We never had to had to do this before. And I think now we ought to start looking, at least from my perspective, is how can we and I would say both from people like me off of the farm and people like Val on the farm, help instill a little bit more resiliency in our homes. Some farms are offering direct which I love. I ordered a box of a dozen avocados from my friend Mimi’s farm in California and I saw some more doing direct sales online and some farmers’ markets are open.

And I think more of the food system should be looking at their shifts or pivots. I hope grocery stores and others in the food system are also thinking about this, right? So granted, today a supplier is packaging things and sending it into this channel maybe food service or restaurants. I think a lot should be looking at how do we be more flexible.

I think now I at least feel like I need to slow down. Take some deep breaths. Stop any panic buying, right? It is hard when we all have so much change and you see empty shelves but we need to think less impulse and more resilient.

Supporting Local Businesses

Val says “We don’t have a lack of ability to get these items. Like there’s not we’re creating our own shortage, there isn’t a shortage. Yeah, we just have to be patient. As you know, a grocery store like mine. There’s only so much space that they have, they can’t have.” 

Other grocery stores are an hour away from Val and when I lived in Mississippi it was just over an hour roundtrip. “Generally, I save those may do those shopping trips once or twice a year, I do a lot as much as I can locally just because price-wise it’s comparable when you’re talking about the amount of time you save and things like that. And I prefer to have that option nearby. And when you go through the amount of food we go through, I mean, I don’t ever intend to have milk cows and we go through a lot of milk. So I need to have it, you know, as local as possible as far as being able to pick it up. I understand the panic having somebody in my household that I have to protect, I get that as well. But especially these items that have, you know, a limited shelf life, things like that. It just, it kind of makes me scratch my head a little bit. But there are ways that that you can, you know, mitigate that and when as far as making sure that you have accessibility to to local farms.” 

Val says a lot of farmers like her have freezers and are willing to share when times are hard. And I think we are seeing that with neighbors and friends here in cities too. And some offer beef locally. “When we do that, when we offer any of our beef to neighbors or friends, whatever, maybe we just drop it off at the butcher shop. They take it from there. Yeah, it’s I want to make sure that they have that direct communication with the butcher so they get what they they’re looking for, as far as cuts and all of that goes. And so there are a lot of places where you can do that. And again, there are a lot of places where, you know, what, what we get is all USDA inspected it, you know, passes all certifications and all things like that. It’s all in a licensed facility.” 

What if you want to buy local meat?

I know people with cattle all around St. Louis on different sides of it right? I usually get beef through the grocery store and that’s fine with me I have occasionally gotten it directly from friends. But I imagine some people are trying to decide differently about food and their homes, this is a great time to think about that. Do you want to get some beef locally and just have more on hand? The risk is, is if the freezer goes out, you suddenly have to eat a lot of beef, or you have to get a new one really fast. I think a lot of people are going to be thinking about those and I think the more farmers who are are willing to think about well, somebody wanted to buy one from me, it’s okay.

The question is, farmers have to have them fed out . So not everybody has steers that are raised and ready for the market.  If you, you talk to a farmer in your area or heck, if people really want to know, here’s how to get it, they can just leave a note on the Grounded by the Farm contact form. Help me understand where you are. And I’ll try and find a few farmers in that area. You know, I know a lot of farmers.

Val explains they don’t market that way much because they need to have business they can count on, but they are glad to work with people.  “We don’t do the majority of our marketing that way. Because, one, it’s a very, you know, hot and cold up and down. And someplace where we know, when they’re ready to go to market, they’re ready to go to market. And so I need, we need to make sure we have that stability. And then the other thing is that, when somebody does want to have a beef or a quarter of beef, that doesn’t mean that there’s one ready today, you know, so maybe that’s great. We’ll have one ready for you in June, so that you can have those conversations so that you can plan around it.

“It takes time to make sure that that meat is ready so that it’s the taste and texture and everything is, is, you know, we’re all about food experiences. And as a farmer, I just want to make sure that whatever you get from our farm truly leaves a good taste in your mouth for a farm like that. You know, I want to make sure that you get done eating that night and you have a smile on your face and your stomach is full and and you are grateful to have that experience. So you know, it takes time to get it to that point. So we want to make sure that everything is is done right and that you don’t cut any corners just to make sure that you hit a certain timeframe.”

Find Val Wagner Online 

You can find me online Wag’n Tales (wagfarms.com) is is the blog that I use Right, and I’m getting back into it again. You can find me at @wagfarms on Twitter, Val Wagner or Wag’n Tales on Facebook. I enjoy talking to anybody about agriculture and what we do here. And what’s the future of agriculture may look like? I’m looking forward to seeing the world that my boys leave for the next generation as well.

The post Having Enough Food for a Farm Family Takes Time & Effort appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

He never thought he’d be a beer farmer but Brandon Whitt says Batey Farms welcomed the new spin on the centuries old farm. He says the motto is “preserving the past and embracing the future” and the two really come together at the Nashville area farm. That’s how he ended up providing malted barley to a local brewery.

Murfreesboro, TN is among the top five, fastest growing counties in the country and this eight generation farm is trying to remain viable. They have seen change and honoring the past is a big part of it.

Growing Malted Barley

Batey Farms does a lot of small grain work — focusing on malt quality barley as wheat production is well-established. Still working on rye to get quality where they want it but the barley has really been coming along. He says wheat has been grown in the area for decades and so has the knowledge farmers have.

In the past Batey Farms grew cotton, had a dairy, etc. and it remains diverse but has evolved. Whereas the small grains used to go to the dairy, small grains were fed to the dairy cows (used as a forage crop). Now those small grains go to various customers.

Locals Love Batey Farms

Brandon discusses how farmers like him try to stay on top of what people in their area want while also bringing a knowledge of the local environment. Being able to keep your crops moving into the market is important.

What really drives Brandon is seeing customers with smiles on their faces. It is a true working farm but also has areas of agri-tourism like a retail shop for pork products, a u-pick berry patch and more. It is so picturesque it even has that grain silo made into a gazebo that rocks Pinterest feeds. His father-in-law John L Batey says farmers are always repurposing things.

Thinking about making the most of things and extending the lives of things, shifting the farm is different. Batey produces pork products which were being considered for the kitchen but as he toured the brewery, seeing all those bags of grain… Brandon also wanted to see if that could be supplied locally.

Brandon pointed out that moving to new crops is investing and taking risks, risks that need to be taken to build into the future. Getting wheat into the Southern Wit blonde beer was the first step. Malted barley meant more changes on his farm and in the area so it took longer.

What Barley Looks Like

Barley looks a bit like wheat or beautiful grass. The stem that produces the grain in barley can be a two-row barley or a six-row barley. We have a photo of two row barley on the website as well as this snippet in the video we shared. The difference in size of grain matters when you start talking about beer production and getting into the scientific of sugar production and details of chemistry of malting.

Malting involves letting the crop grow through it’s green stage to begin drying down for harvest. Looking at freshly harvested barley seed, you have complex sugars in it. And those sugars are bonded and tied up in the seed. It would take a lot of enzymes to break that down. Instead, we  let the seed rest for two months and then run it through a malting facility.The seed is soaked in water, raising the moisture back up to 45-50% after making sure it had been dry for harvest. In this steeping tank with water for 48 hours or so, the water is drained and seed is laid out so it starts to grow. The root sprout emerges and you will then dry it back down, like roasting it in the oven. What that process does is convert complex sugars to simple sugars which is useful in making beer, spirits (Tennessee whiskey), etc. That malted barley is what is used in the range of alcohol products.

The Seasonality of Barley

Growing barley is a winter crop for Brandon — that means it is planted in late September – October. It is planted after you harvest soybeans or something. That seed germinates and gets started before winter makes it dormant (stop growing) for a few months. The crop stays 4-5 inches tall all winter. Then around Valentine’s Day fertilizer provides the nutrients to wake it up and it starts growing. In late March they check again with fertilizer to insure they get a big seed as the malting process will take it from a moist grain to a dried product — like drying grapes to raisins. So bigger seeds make a difference.

Quality comes first for Brandon as he looks at harvest. He wants as many quality bushels as he can get. Last year he had to harvest around some low areas where water flooding delayed the crop, there were potential fungus issues, etc so they need to use care in choosing what to harvest.

Barley is used extensively in beer production — it’s the number 1 ingredients. Tennessee has a long history of distilled products, but there it is used for energy, not flavor. Barley in distilled products doesn’t add to the flavor but acts as an enzyme to help break down corn, rye and other grains. In beer it provides the flavor profile. Traditional Tennessee style products use malted barley.

Looking beyond Beer for Growth

Brandon says they are looking at the potential to introduce their grains to food products like the Pillsbury products made nearby. In that, malted barley is used in pastries to provide a bonding agent.

He discusses the issues facing dairy farms, perhaps grains like this can help. And people like Christian like knowing they can help their neighbors. The complexities of local, loving it for a range of reasons and yet also liking some of the diversity of foods that have come to plates over the past few decades.

Selling pork products locally is great, but Brandon also appreciates the role that major companies like Tyson have. As a farmer who works across direct, commodities and more. You will have trouble getting locally grown popcorn in some regions of the US. (shout out to the Ella & Ollie popcorn episode!)

The Batey Farms retail store is open two days a week. In summer, there are strawberries, blackberries and blueberries to pick as well as fields of sunflowers. You really should check it out if you get to the Nashville area! 

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Interview with Christian Spears (episode 107 issued at the same time as a bonus episode)

Video from inside the brewery & on the farm

Popcorn episode (Grounded by the Farm #102)

Finding Batey Farms online:

• Instagram BateyFarms1807
• Facebook BateyFarms
• Website BateyFarms.com

Suscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss anything! 

• Apple podcast — Grounded by the Farm 
• Spotify for Grounded by the Farm 
• Google podcast link to Grounded by the Farm 
• Libysn is where we host so we can also be found there 

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The post Ever met a beer farmer? That malted barley has to start somewhere! appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.