Homegrown Whole Grains

Learn to grow, harvest, store, grind, and cook nine popular whole grains. Sara Pitzer provides complete instructions for growing your own wheat, corn, barley, millet, oats, rice, rye, spelt, and quinoa, as well as recipes for using these grains in tasty dishes. Cultivating these crops is surprisingly easy, and it takes less space than you might imagine — with just 1,000 square feet of growing space in your backyard, you can grow enough wheat to supply ingredients for 50 loaves of delicious fresh bread.

This practical guide explores the food security and community sufficiency benefits of growing local grain—and shows you how easy it is to get started. If we want to reduce our environmental impact, build resiliency in our community, and improve food security, it's up to us to make it happen. Uprisings shows how communities across North America can take action by reviving local grain production. Environmental journalist Sarah Simpson profiles of ten unique community models demonstrating how local grain production is already making a difference. She then shares step-by-step instructions for small-scale grain production that will turn any community into a hotbed of revolution. Learn about: How locally grown wheat, barley, and other grains can impact a community How to start a community grain project from scratch How to plant, grow, harvest, thresh, winnow, and store your grain How to use whole and sprouted grains in your kitchen

First published in 1977, this book—from one of America’s most famous and prolific agricultural writers—became an almost instant classic among homestead gardeners and small farmers. Now fully updated and available once more, Small-Scale Grain Raising offers a entirely new generation of readers the best introduction to a wide range of both common and lesser-known specialty grains and related field crops, from corn, wheat, and rye to buckwheat, millet, rice, spelt, flax, and even beans and sunflowers. More and more Americans are seeking out locally grown foods, yet one of the real stumbling blocks to their efforts has been finding local sources for grains, which are grown mainly on large, distant corporate farms. At the same time, commodity prices for grains—and the products made from them—have skyrocketed due to rising energy costs and increased demand. In this book, Gene Logsdon proves that anyone who has access to a large garden or small farm can (and should) think outside the agribusiness box and learn to grow healthy whole grains or beans—the base of our culinary food pyramid—alongside their fruits and vegetables. Starting from the simple but revolutionary concept of the garden “pancake patch,” Logsdon opens up our eyes to a whole world of plants that we wrongly assume only the agricultural “big boys” can grow. He succinctly covers all the basics, from planting and dealing with pests, weeds, and diseases to harvesting, processing, storing, and using whole grains. There are even a few recipes sprinkled throughout, along with more than a little wit and wisdom. Never has there been a better time, or a more receptive audience, for this book. Localvores, serious home gardeners, CSA farmers, and whole-foods advocates—in fact, all people who value fresh, high-quality foods—will find a field full of information and ideas in this once and future classic.

The Organic Grain Grower is an invaluable resource for both home-scale and commercial producers interested in expanding their resiliency and drop diversity through growing their own grains. Longtime farmer and organic pioneer Jack Lazor covers how to grow and store wheat, barley, oats, corn, dry beans, soybeans, oilseeds, grasses, nutrient-dense forages, and lesser-known cereals. In addition, Lazor argues the importance of integrating grains on the organic farm (not to mention within the local food system) for reasons of biodiversity and whole-farm management. The Organic Grain Grower provides information on wide-ranging topics, from nutrient density and building soil fertility to machinery and grinding grains for livestock rations.--COVER.

Bravo for tomatoes, beans and kale. But what’s next for the ardent home gardener? Wheats, including farro, spelt and kamut, are surprisingly easy and very rewarding backyard crops. They can be planted as early as the ground can be worked in spring and harvested mid-summer to make room for fall crops. These ancient food sources can be milled for flour, sprouted or eaten as whole grains to retain their natural amino acids, fibre, vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids and probiotics, among other benefits. In addition to wheat, there are also heirloom cultivars of barley and oats that offer an abundant way for gardeners to harvest fibre, protein and carbohydrates. Buckwheat makes an excellent grain substitute and attracts many beneficial insects. Seeds like soybeans, flax, amaranth, quinoa and Styrian pumpkin are very high in protein and there are many beautiful types that are easy to grow. Expert gardener Dan Jason provides gardening advice and recommends varieties that are adapted to Canadian conditions. Once the harvest is in, it’s time to celebrate with Michele Genest’s fifty vibrant vegetarian recipes featuring the garden’s bounty. Ranging from the simple (Pumpkin Seed Butter Cookies) to the sophisticated (Beet and Triticale Gnocchi with Kale Pesto), the recipes in this exciting garden-to-kitchen volume will inspire readers to expand their horizons when it comes to growing and cooking grains and seeds.

Celebrating the Soul of Cleveland summarizes a life in Cleveland, a city whose very identity provides sustenance and support to all who welcome it into their heart. The project started with a simple discussion. The premise of this book and for the projects described in it is: Evolution. Community Arts Leader Nina Gibans loves our collective "aha" moments, when we "get it" and roll along - excited - together. Using images, stories, poems, interviews, reflections, and reminiscences Nina weaves together a new gestalt, a whole that is often present long before the pieces are put into place. A lifetime of experiences, encounters, discussions, are the parts of this, a multi-tasking of the mind, combined until they find the parts make sense and there is a city - a community. "Here is to all of the men, women, and children who have stuck with me through my life of joyous adventures and to the support of a loving caring husband and friendly critic whose bloodstream ran in the same direction as mine." - Nina Gibans

Homegrown Kitchen is a complete guide to eating well for those who love to cook fresh food. Beginning with a comprehensive section on the kitchen essentials, including sourdough bread, home preserving and fermentation, the book is then divided into breakfast, lunch and main meal chapters, followed by a chapter on indulgent sweet treats. Inspired by her large garden, Nicola Galloway creates food in rhythm with the changing seasons, with fresh homegrown and local produce forming the base of her recipes. With a young family, her food focus is on simple and delicious family-friendly recipes using pantry staples that are packed with nutrients. Nicola also has a particular interest in healthful traditional cooking techniques, such as sourdough bread and fermentation, and simplifying them so they can fit into our busy modern lives.

Based on the James Beard Award–winning blog The One-Block Diet, this all-in-one home gardening, do-it-yourself guide and cookbook shows you how to transform a backyard or garden into a self-sufficient locavore’s paradise. When Margo True and her fellow staffers at Northern California–based Sunset magazine walked around the grounds of their Menlo Park office, they saw more than just a lawn and some gardens. Instead, they saw a fresh, bountiful food source, the makings for intrepid edible projects, and a series of seasonal feasts—all just waiting to happen. The One-Block Feast is the story of how True and her team took an inspired idea and transformed it into an ambitious commitment: to create four feasts over the course of a year, using only what could be grown or raised in their backyard-sized plot. She candidly shares the group’s many successes and often humorous setbacks as they try their hands at chicken farming, cheese making, olive pressing, home brewing, bee keeping, winemaking, and more. Grouped into gardening, project, and recipe guides for each season, The One-Block Feast is a complete resource for planning an eco-friendly kitchen garden; making your own pantry staples for year-round cooking and gifts; raising bees, chickens, and even a cow; and creating made-from-scratch meals from ingredients you’ve grown yourself. Chapters are organized by season, each featuring a planting plan and crop-by-crop instructions, an account of how that season’s projects played out for the Sunset team, and a multicourse dinner menu composed of imaginative, appealing, and ultra-resourceful vegetarian recipes, such as: Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Chard and Sage Brown Butter • Egg and Gouda Crepes • Whole Wheat Pizzas with Roasted Vegetables and Homemade Cheeses • Fresh Corn Soup with Zucchini Blossoms • Braised Winter Greens with Preserved Lemons and Red Chile • Summer Lemongrass Custards • Honey Ice Cream Generously illustrated and easy to follow, this ultimate resource for today’s urban homesteader will inspire you to take “eating local” to a whole new level.