I stumbled across a local co-op (middle MA area, serving New England)

[freemotion]

I will be getting some stuff and checking it out...it sounds like a fantastic resource for those who buy in bulk. I haven't bought wheat berries, oat groats, etc. in bulk yet as the price is outrageous with shipping to the East Coast, even through co-ops and places like WF (who never placed any orders for me anyways, in spite of several attempts!) The prices here are a FRACTION of what I've seen, as they buy in such bulk that their shipping on 50 lb of wheat berries is $5 per bag!

The lady is supposed to e-mail me a partial list of some things she needs to move, so if you are within driving range and want a copy, e-mail me today if possible.

She also told me that she tries to get people who live in the same area in touch with each other to make picking stuff up more efficient. She even has a group in Maine that sends a rental truck down to MA to pick up for the entire group!

E-mail me, not PM, so all the e-mails will be in the right place. Put your e-mail address in the body of the e-mail as it won't show up when you click on "email" on the forum. I seriously don't have time (sorry!) to copy/paste into PM's.

 

[~gd]

I will be getting some stuff and checking it out...it sounds like a fantastic resource for those who buy in bulk. I haven't bought wheat berries, oat groats, etc. in bulk yet as the price is outrageous with shipping to the East Coast, even through co-ops and places like WF (who never placed any orders for me anyways, in spite of several attempts!) The prices here are a FRACTION of what I've seen, as they buy in such bulk that their shipping on 50 lb of wheat berries is $5 per bag!

The lady is supposed to e-mail me a partial list of some things she needs to move, so if you are within driving range and want a copy, e-mail me today if possible.

She also told me that she tries to get people who live in the same area in touch with each other to make picking stuff up more efficient. She even has a group in Maine that sends a rental truck down to MA to pick up for the entire group!

E-mail me, not PM, so all the e-mails will be in the right place. Put your e-mail address in the body of the e-mail as it won't show up when you click on "email" on the forum. I seriously don't have time (sorry!) to copy/paste into PM's.

Ok I will admit it I don't know what a "wheat berry"is! Would anyone care to tell me? I know wheat groats=bulgar. Also it strikes me as moderately strange that New England would need to have either wheat or oat products shipped in, have they completely quit farming up there?

 

[valmom]

New England has, to a large extent, stopped farming wheat. UVM is trying to bring back the old heritage breeds of wheat that used to be grown here that are suited to mountain fields and New England weather. There is a bread company (not King Arthur, can't think of the name now- it was on VPR) that is trying to bring back wheat farming so their ingredients can be local.

We belong to our local coop, but their prices are pretty high. Their claim to fame is local and/or organic food, not price. :/

 

[~gd]

New England has, to a large extent, stopped farming wheat. UVM is trying to bring back the old heritage breeds of wheat that used to be grown here that are suited to mountain fields and New England weather. There is a bread company (not King Arthur, can't think of the name now- it was on VPR) that is trying to bring back wheat farming so their ingredients can be local.

We belong to our local coop, but their prices are pretty high. Their claim to fame is local and/or organic food, not price. :/

OK next I expect you to tell me that they gave up on the maplebush too. I guess it makes sense all the land that was suitable for grain farming is now filled with subdivisions? UVM = university of Vermont? M=? Still wonder about those "wheat berries" though.

 

[freemotion]

Wheat berries are hulled (proper term??) and ready to go into the grinder for flour. Some people cook them, too, but I don't...or haven't.

Bulgar is wheat that is cracked, cooked, and dried for quick cooking later, or simply rehydrating it later as in tabouleh salad.

Oat groats are similar. I don't know why wheat is called berries and oats are groats.

No big grain fields here, at least not in Southern New England. What little farming that is done here is farmstands, a few CSA's, lots of landscaping plants and landscaping trees, and tobacco...a bit of corn and lots of pumpkins. I asked a farmer if he ever or would ever consider planting oats or barley for me, and he said that he planted oats once as a rotation crop but couldn't get it harvested, as the tobacco needed attention and is a much higher income crop.

Oats, barley, and a little buckwheat are all grown further North in rural Northern Maine, rotated with potatoes.

A huge advantage of having wheat berries is that they keep very well for years if stored properly. Whole wheat flour does not keep well at all. Storebought flour is almost always rancid. I didn't know this until I took a little wheat and ground it in my VitaMix....it is amazingly good and can replace white flour in almost every recipe with only minor adjustments for texture...not for taste. The taste is so much better, a fuller, richer flavor with NONE of the bitterness usually associated with homemade whole wheat flour products.

As far as the sugarbush goes, it is still a good business, with many small processers tapping neighborhood trees around here. I've heard that in some areas, though, there is an insect that is destroying the sugarbush at an alarming rate and some farmers are getting out while they can. Haven't seen it in my area, though.

 

[Henrietta23]

There are probably twice as many active sugar bushes near me today than there were 5 years ago. If anything, it's expanding here.
My parents have belonged to various co-ops with various problems that caused them to implode. I'll email you to see what's up with this one!

 

[~gd]

No wonder I awas confused wheat berries is what the combines used to throw into the grain wagons in Western NY. We would test them for dryness to determine if they need to be dried down more to store on the farm. And the dryness was what determined the price if we took it to a mill or elevator since they would have to dry it down to use and didn't want to pay for extra useless moisture.

As for Bulgar I think that Arab merchant slipped me cracked uncooked wheat. No recipie I tried it in ever came out as it should, I ended up feeding it to the ducks and geese who seemed to really enjoy it.

Funny New England growing tobacco while here in North Carolina farmers are giving up the crop as fast as they can find anything to take its place! I know yours goes for cigar wrapper while ours went to cigarettes. Ours moved to Brazil. A lot of our ex-tobacco farmers fell into the trap of growing pork and chicken meat in Farm Factories. The increase in feed material prices will take a heavy toll as corn goes to gasohol and soy to biodiesel.
We have a old stone mill that will custom grind just about any flour or meal, makes wonderful baking flour! When he fresh grinds whole wheat he recommends storing it in the freezer or at least the refrigerator. The wheat here is mostly soft wheat makes great biscuits (The bread of the South). I have asked to be added to his German list to be notified when he runs Rye. I love Rye. He would like to get Durham wheat to produce flour and Semolina. The addition of a little durham flour to the soft wheat flour would make better bread and the semolina is good for pasta...Fresh pasta is a lot of work but in many ways is better than hard pasta when it comes to tate and texture. ~gd

 

[Wildsky]

I wish there was something like that where I live. THey do have like a farmers thing but it doesn't serve my area, where you can order from a particular farmer or other and pick it up at a central location or if you live in a bigger city like Omaha, they have folks volunteer to deliver on bikes.

 

[freemotion]

I never knew there was something like this near me! If not for that over-order of wheat berries, I still would be not-so-blissfully ignorant of its existance.

 

[Mainergal]

I'm curious - did you go to the co-op? I'm in Maine and it's frustrating when you see 50# bags of wheat berries for $13 and $45 to ship it! I grew a test patch of bolero white wheat this year successfully (the chickens didn't get all of it) But for the two small areas, the grand take was only about 3 cups of berries. I do plan to try a larger area next year, but I'd love to get some berries put away NOW.

Does anyone else know of anything in New England or Maine? My local choices are some very pricey "co-ops" with all organic stuff and as much as I'd love that, I'd do better with just getting flour price-wise.

I'm loving this forum!