Making Local Food Whole
In Pursuit of Locally Grown , Sustainable and Heirloom Grains
By Allison Tjaden
My local food journey started by ogling fresh fruits and newto-me vegetables at nearby farmers markets , container gardening , and reading Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver . What started as a quest to cook for myself turned into a professional , deeply personal , and lifelong journey to explore the intersections between food , agriculture , environment , and health . But , for many years , my exploration of food and farming included fruits , vegetables , dairy , seafood , and meats . I was missing essential ingredients : grains ! ( and pulses , but that is another story ).
While the bedrock of agriculture , civilization , and nutrition , grains did not catch my attention until years into my food journey . For me , it started again with a good book , Dan Barber ’ s The Third Plate : Field Notes on the Future of Food , which sparked a shift in asking not just where the bread I purchased was baked , but what type of wheat , how and where it was grown . These questions brought me to travel the country
over the last seven years to learn more about alternative foodways for sustainable and heirloom grains and explore how this movement extends to the mid-Atlantic region , Maryland and the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve .
The first visit on my grain journey was to Anson Mills in Columbia , South Carolina , to meet Glenn Roberts and learn about Carolina Gold Rice . There I began to understand more about the difference between heirloom grains and their modern counterparts . Heirloom varieties are passed from one generation to the next through open-pollination offering unique characteristics important to their heritage . Many heirlooms have been saved over hundreds of years for their flavor and environmental adaptability .
My next visit was to Washington State University Breadlab in Skagit Valley between Seattle and Vancouver , BC , during a family vacation . We had the pleasure to tour with Dr . Steve Jones , the founder
and director of Breadlab . At the time , I felt like I was dragging my father , sister , and now-husband with me on a totally-Allison-foodgeeky-research tour , but standing in the research plots and discussing Dr . Jones ’ projects in wheat breeding marked a change for our entire family . Breadlab inspired both my father and I to buy organic , whole grains and begin to learn to mill at home and bake wholewheat sourdough bread . This process continues to this day and sets an important rhythm to our daily lives .
Since my family was so deeply inspired by Dan Barber , my grain journey also included two of the most incredible meals of my life at his Blue Hill restaurants in New York City and at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills , New York . I also learned more about the local grain movement treading The New Bread Basket by Amy Halloran which follows the ongoing regional grain revival in New York and throughout New England .
My passion for grains contin-