Re: [FLPERMACULTURE] Local grain
On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:59:34 -0400, you wrote: >This is good information, and can be useful by way of illustration of how >far we have to go, and what is missing. > >How and where are these farm products marketed? If they are milled, where >is that happening, and are the products marketed locally? Some of my >friends have grain mills, but I don't think everyone having grain mills is >the way to address the need for milling, nor is everyone driving to the >producers the way to address distribution. I don't see why not, actually. We have a grain mill (electric); it cost $200, and it makes very good flour. Freshly ground whole-wheat flour makes the very best bread! And it doesn't get more freshly ground than grinding the wheat, then ten minutes later using it to make bread. People spend more than $200 for a Vita-Mix blender, or a Kitchen-Aid mixer or lots and lots of other kitchen equipment: why not a grain mill? If you have one, you can store wheat which, packaged correctly, keeps a long time. Certainly, one yearly trip to a local or regional grain farm would be sufficient. Wheat can also be bought online, already packed in 6-gallon buckets, or ordered through natural food stores. Grains in 50-lb bags or 6-gallon buckets are quite economical to ship, too; no refrigeration required. You can use a mill for other grains (corn, barley, rye, rice, etc.), of course, and you can also make cracked grains to use as hot cereal. Beans can be ground beans into bean flour to use for soups, sauces, in baking, or for other purposes. For those who want a non-electric mill, I am told that the Country Living Grain Mill is easy to use and does a fine job. I don't have experience with one myself, though. http://pathtofreedom.com/peddlerswagon/kitchen/helpers/countrylivinggrainmill.shtml Pat -- http://www.entire-of-itself.blogspot.com/ In Pennsylvania's Northern Tier, northeastern USA. 'Be the change that you want to see in the world' Mohandas Gandhi ___ fingerlakespermaculture@lists.mutualaid.org listserv RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information: http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/fingerlakespermaculture Support the list host by donating to: http://www.mutualaid.org
Re: [FLPERMACULTURE] Local grain
Joel and Sarah Gagnon wrote: > This is good information, and can be useful by way of illustration of > how far we have to go, and what is missing. There's a lot missing, and a lot of what information is available doesn't translate to easy access. Phase 2 of my eating local project will be about finding ways to share information on what local food is available and when. I'll be more comfortable with that when I'm up to speed myself. > How and where are these farm products marketed? If they are milled, > where is that happening, and are the products marketed locally? Some of > my friends have grain mills, but I don't think everyone having grain > mills is the way to address the need for milling, Yep - it's fun, but we bought it basically to fill a large gap in what looked possible. > nor is everyone > driving to the producers the way to address distribution. Yes. Right now eating local means a lot of driving around (unless, like Joel, you're eating largely from your own garden, or have similar resources nearby). Buying frozen or canned foods in quantities helps, as does buying dry goods in quantity, but it's not really easy. > The milling > should be local or at minimum regional, and the distribution via local > stores or cooperative buying clubs (which is how Greenstar got started). > The local mills will happen once more grain is produced in this area and > transportation costs rise enough to justify relocalization. Ditto with > the distribution. The local stores will reappear as the cost of driving > to centralized grocery stores increases and as the cost of goods in > those stores also rises because of transportation costs. I'm not holding > my breath waiting for the corner grocery to return, but I do expect a > gradual reduction in store size and a concomitant increase in local > goods in those stores. I've been thinking for a while about an idea - I'm not sure it's mine - for a store I call "Your local Marco Polo". Most of the store would be devoted to food from the surrounding area (with details on sources), while a small section would sell things like spices, the classic early trading goods. (People talk about a "Marco Polo" exception when they do local eating projects, hence the strange name.) If only I had the time and the cash to start that... I think it could work really well in Tompkins County, at least. I agree with Joel that the main driver for such things becoming common will be an increase in energy costs, especially driving costs. > So what do we do in the meantime? We should support local production > whenever we can, buying in bulk to minimize the environmental cost. > Greenstar needs to do even more to support local production, and Wegmans > and others can be leaned on to do the same. Perhaps local buying clubs > would be a good interim effort to procure and distribute bulk goods. The > driving force for most buying clubs is to save participants money. It > would be interesting to see if buying local is enough of an additional > factor to expand the effort. Community Councils and similar neighborhood > groups could conceivably facilitate local distribution. Many of these > groups already run community centers, and some of them already > distribute food to low-income people. Why not expand the distribution to > include everyone, with the free stuff going to those who really need it? All of that sounds good. Right now I'm looking for information on Heart to Hand, a cornfield in Freeville that I think helps fill the local church food cupboard. There's a lot that could be done to ease the distribution of these things, even in the absence of my crazy little store. Thanks, Simon ___ fingerlakespermaculture@lists.mutualaid.org listserv RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information: http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/fingerlakespermaculture Support the list host by donating to: http://www.mutualaid.org
Re: [FLPERMACULTURE] Local grain
This is good information, and can be useful by way of illustration of how far we have to go, and what is missing. How and where are these farm products marketed? If they are milled, where is that happening, and are the products marketed locally? Some of my friends have grain mills, but I don't think everyone having grain mills is the way to address the need for milling, nor is everyone driving to the producers the way to address distribution. The milling should be local or at minimum regional, and the distribution via local stores or cooperative buying clubs (which is how Greenstar got started). The local mills will happen once more grain is produced in this area and transportation costs rise enough to justify relocalization. Ditto with the distribution. The local stores will reappear as the cost of driving to centralized grocery stores increases and as the cost of goods in those stores also rises because of transportation costs. I'm not holding my breath waiting for the corner grocery to return, but I do expect a gradual reduction in store size and a concomitant increase in local goods in those stores. So what do we do in the meantime? We should support local production whenever we can, buying in bulk to minimize the environmental cost. Greenstar needs to do even more to support local production, and Wegmans and others can be leaned on to do the same. Perhaps local buying clubs would be a good interim effort to procure and distribute bulk goods. The driving force for most buying clubs is to save participants money. It would be interesting to see if buying local is enough of an additional factor to expand the effort. Community Councils and similar neighborhood groups could conceivably facilitate local distribution. Many of these groups already run community centers, and some of them already distribute food to low-income people. Why not expand the distribution to include everyone, with the free stuff going to those who really need it? Joel At 01:52 PM 8/26/07 -0400, you wrote: Meyer farm in ovid grows organic wheat, as well as soy and black beans. Tony Potenza in tburg grows a variety of organic grains. We've got one or teo people in schuyler who are growing buckwheat. On 25 Aug 2007 at 10:32, Simon St.Laurent wrote: > Jeff Schreiber wrote: > > But what about those grains, Joel? They throw a wrench > > into the whole eat local debate. No urban area, > > regardless of how many urban gardens it has, will ever > > have the space to grow enough local grains to meet its > > needs. What to do? > > I'm not sure I see the crisis in that, except perhaps for the few > people > who really want to insist on a hundred-mile limit. > > Grains are fairly unique in their ability to travel and be stored. > The > Erie Canal made it possible for New York City to grow rapidly, first > letting them get grains from upstate (Rochester-Buffalo especially) > and > then the midwest. > > Unlike produce or many forms of meat, they don't need much special > handling. Boxcars can carry bags of grain, though the industry > prefers > to ship bulk. There's no refrigeration needed, just clean dry > storage, > and shippers certainly could return to the Erie Canal if energy > costs > limited trucks and rail. > > Christian Peters gave a great presentation at Cornell last year on > New > York State foodsheds, looking at whether New York State could feed > its > cities. The big problem - unsurprisingly - was New York City, > though I > suspect even that could be substantially eased by including New > Jersey > and Connecticut in the mapping. Upstate cities had little trouble > finding appropriate food from their surrounding areas. > > I was delighted to find wheat that's actually grown in the Town of > Dryden, but I'm not really expecting that 30 acre plot to feed the > 13,000 people here. It works well for my experiment now, but > everything > about grains suggest that they're the food least in need of > localization > to create sustainable systems. > > If we could make everything else local or at least regional, and > still > have grain moving from place to place, we'd be way ahead of the > current > situation. (Except, perhaps, in the places that currently export > food.) > > >>From what I can tell from the literature, > > permaculturalists have attempted to wrestle with this > > specific problem for awhile now. Some, such as Mark > > Shepherd of Wisconsin, have developed large, complex > > agroforestry systems of fruit and nut trees designed > > to be an attractive replacement to the rural "corn > > and bean" farms of today. Others, like Dave Jacke, > > have focused more on small, suburban plots. > > In my reading, I haven't found much sign of permaculturalists being > opposed to grain per se and looking for alternatives. Instead, I see > them worrying about the problem of monoculture. > > You certainly can grow grains within a permaculture system - the > corn in > the three sisters is a pretty classi
