Our “National Hymn,” America the Beautiful, opens with the image of endless skies over fields of ripe golden grain that reach to purple mountains on the horizon. Poet Katharine Lee Bates would probably be appalled to realize that she was eulogizing one of the worst examples of mono-cropping in existence – second only to the carpeting of Iowa with corn.
Read more: Local Grains: Taking Back Our Wheat
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Our healthy living correspondent, Ina Denburg, is in the middle of her Winter Solstice preparations, continuing a family tradition that has been in place for nearly 25 years. Combining elements from Hanukkah, Christmas, and earth-based Solstice celebrations, Ina and her family will celebrate for three nights. 
Despite minor setbacks, we’ve made a lot of strides in the last month. I joined Missoula’s community food co-op and have been shopping there pretty regularly. We haven’t bought bread in a grocery store for several months now, making it at home instead. 
For those of us who don’t have a lovely brick oven in the backyard, we can still make wonderful bread in our own ovens. And it’s “no-knead” so it’s easy! Many thanks to Jack Jenkins for this recipe! 
Jack Jenkin’s secret for wild yeast levain (pronounced le-van, like the vehicle, with the accent on the last syllable). 
We’re speaking with Jack Jenkins, Country Living Grain Mills, who manufacturers and markets grain mills that are hand-powered, bike-powered, horse-powered, wind-powered, water-powered, and even machine-powered! And he sells them around the world. Jack tells us how to tame wild yeast so we can use it to make bread. Listen to how he does it. 
We headed off on our Montana “drive-about” looking for heritage grains, small grains, and grain alternatives; and we found some of the nicest people raising some of the most interesting crops! 
Sam Lucy, grain farmer and land conservationist in the Methow Valley of north central Washington, is a one-man search and rescue team for farmland. He has spent the last 15 years seeking out and reclaiming fallow farmland and bringing it back to viable production or transitioning it into native grasses and other plants. 
Bluebird Grain Farms’ emmer gets two thumbs up from GoodFood World! Emmer is a sweet tasty grain that is high protein and low gluten, which makes it edible for some people who don’t tolerate commercial wheat gluten very well. |
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GoodFood Hero: Bob Quinn, Montana Grain Farmer
GoodFood World has named Bob Quinn, Kamut International, as a GoodFood Hero in recognition of his work with ancient grains, organic production, and improving the quality of the food we eat. He is now on a quest to develop a successful organic system for the northern Great Plains, working to develop a model for growing small orchards and dry land vegetables in wheat country.
Read more: GoodFood Hero: Bob Quinn, Montana Grain Farmer