Join the locally-grown grain revolution — Wildsight Creston

Purchase your 2009 share of locally-grown grain and legumes

Making local grain farming viable — to help protect our food security

The Creston Grain CSA (community-supported agriculture) project is into its second year and Brenda Bruns is happy about it. Bruns, a Wildsight Creston Valley director, helped start unique agricultural initiative early 2008. Three local farmers grew grain crops for 200 regional shareholders. Before that, locally-grown grain was not available to buy in the Creston Valley.

This year, the farmers will again grow thousands of pounds of grain — grain for baking, grain for eating — grain for 600 regional shareholders.

What’s better about local grain?

“This is an alternative to our current, unsustainable agricultural system,” said Bruns. “We are all ‘eaters’ — but it’s not often we have the chance to thank our farmers for producing the food, for growing this food for us.” 

“Thanks” is more than just a word in this case. Because farmers have to compete with cheap food imported from around the world — which creates a huge carbon footprint — most of them can’t afford to devote precious land resources to building up a grain-growing tradition. And where the lowest price rules, food security suffers, says Bruns. 

“It’s vital that each community has dependable access to a local, sustainable and nourishing food supply,” Bruns said. “Places that cannot feed their populations are at the mercy of whoever does.”

The benefits of this community grain project add up to more than just food security, however. Bruns said people throughout the Creston Valley and the West Kootenay had a good time learning about milling grain, baking from scratch and trying new recipes. And the benefits extend into a lower carbon footprint. A lot of last year’s crop was shipped to shareholders in Nelson on sail boats, for example.

Still time to buy a share for this year’s crop

There is still time to buy a share for this season’s crop. 

“It’s the perfect time to buy in,” said Bruns, who noted that farmers are paid half of the share money before the season starts, and half of it after the harvest is in.

The three farming families, the Gailius’, the Huscrofts and the Lawrences, will grow six grains and one legume: hard spring wheat, hard winter wheat, spelt, khorasan (kamut), oats, red fife wheat and green lentils. Shareholders who pay $125 can expect up to 100 pounds of the first five (20 pounds each), and can add on 20 pounds of lentils or red fife wheat for $25 more.  

“True to a CSA model, where consumers bear the crop risk, farmers are paid regardless of crop yield,” said Bruns. “This is important when we’re asking our farmers to tackle the task of growing naturally-grown crops for us.”

Bruns said a crop yield can be lower than anticipated due to a number of reasons —unexpected climate, weather, pest, or weed challenges. These are all part an parcel of starting a new venture, and what the farmers learn from year to year will add to their expertise and the long-term viability of their grain operations.  

“Our 200 shareholders were grateful for the hard work and learning our farmers did to make this food possible for us,” Bruns said. 

This year, the farmers will over-plant, to increase the likelihood that targets will be met.  

What’s happening now?

“The farmers are already planning for the growing season, buying seed, and planting time will soon be here,” Bruns said. 

“It is crucial that we know as soon as possible how many people are committed to the second year of this project. Until we receive payment, we can’t be sure of each shareholder’s commitment to the CSA.” She noted that buyer commitment helps farmers plan how they will use their land, because, for growers implementing organic farming methods, preparing the land is a long-term process, involving crop rotations, nitrogen-fixing crops, alternative tilling methods and more.

“These crops are local-naturally-grown,” Bruns said, “which people are calling the ‘new organic,’ because the mutual faith and concern in farmers and eaters meeting face-to-face makes rigorous and expensive organic certification less important.” 

How did this grain revolution start?

Back in 2007, Bruns began a quest to eat only locally-produced food. She was inspired by the book The 100-Mile Diet – A Year of Local Eating. Bruns took the challenge to eat only items in which all ingredients were produced within 100 miles. This meant she avoided salt, sugar, coffee and tea. “Mint in hot water and local honey,” became a favourite hot beverage. 

But Bruns was surprised it was so challenging to eat locally year round, especially in the lush, productive Creston Valley. What she really ended up missing, besides salt, were two things: fat — “I craved it!” — and grain, “I ate a lot of potatoes for starch.”

Already slim, she lost some weight — but remained committed to the diet, knowing that to make it work she would have to ask local farmers to provide local grain, local flax (for fat) and whatever else they might be already thinking about producing. 

Instead of giving up, Bruns teamed up with her good friend Matt Lowe of the West Kootenay EcoSociety, who suggested they commission a farmer to grow grain for local people to eat. The two then approached farmers with their pitch to grow grain crops, and a modified CSA model was adopted.

 The timing was perfect, because in 2008 the Creston Valley experienced a small surge in locally-produced foodstuffs.  Lister’s Kootenay Alpine Cheese produced its first wheels of cheese from its own grass-fed cattle, Tarzwell farms opened a beef abattoir, and the Creston Food Action Coalition brought local food producers, agricultural agencies and concerned citizens together into a network working to create awareness of how we can better feed ourselves under the motto Let's Grow, Let's Eat, Let's Share. Check out their local Farm Fresh Guide.

The Creston Grain CSA was born. They had no trouble selling out the 200 shares. Now, Bruns and her team are banking on being able to sell 600 shares, and hoping that more people from the East Kootenay are inspired to join.

“It would be good to have more people from Cranbrook and further east become shareholders,” she said. “I’m sure there will the opportunity for them to carpool to share the cost of getting the grain. And Cranbrook is within 100 miles of Creston, as are Invermere, Fernie, Kimberley …”

Bruns said that purchasers of shares gain a more intimate relationship with their food and their community by knowing “where the food is grown and by whom.”

Cut off date for orders: April 26

Order today — and start digging out those recipes for homemade bread…