Urban Grains is officially open for business!
April 22nd, 2009 by Martin
After many months of hard work, planning and coordination, I’m delighted to announce that Urban Grains, Vancouver’s first community supported agriculture program for grain, is now underway. (Edit: The timing of this announcement feels rather serendipitous. Shortly after writing this post we were contacted by Jim, our grain farmer, to let us know that he had just today finished planting the last of the wheat.)
URBAN GRAINS: THE DETAILS
There will be exactly 200 shares, each consisting of approximately 20 kg of whole wheat flour, milled from three types of wheat: winter wheat, Triticale and hard red spring. All of the grain will be grown locally by one farmer, Jim Grieshaber-Otto, and his family at Cedar Isle Farm in Agassiz, B.C. Roughly 100 acres in size, the farm has been organically managed for years, but Jim is currently in the process of seeking organic certification, meaning the official status of the grain will technically be “transitional organic.” (While we believe the CSA model, which fosters a direct relationship between producers and consumers, renders the issue of certification moot, Jim said that this year’s program gave him the “kick in the pants” that he needed to finally seek certification.)
Processsing/Distribution
After the grain has been harvested in the late summer/early fall, it will be cleaned on-site at Jim’s farm and then shipped to Anita’s Mill in Chilliwack for milling and bagging. It will then continue on to Vancouver where it will be dropped off at a central, convenient location (still to be determined) for pick-up by CSA members.
Cost
Each share will cost $80 ($1.80/lb), plus an additional $10 to raise money for purchasing cleaning equipment for the CSA, bringing the total to $90 per share. A full $1/lb of every purchase will be paid directly to Jim, the grower. A per-pound rate like that is practically unheard of in the grain industry. Given that this program is a pilot project supplying a product that is nearly impossible to find in Vancouver at the retail level, we think that this price is quite fair.
We’ve even done some comparison shopping: bulk, organic, non-local whole wheat is currently selling for roughly $1.99 per lb or $88.44 for 20 kg. If you’re purchasing different kinds of wheat in smaller, bagged sizes like we are providing, you can easily pay more than $120. That means that for the price of a share in Urban Grains members get organic, local flour, for about $1.50 more than you would pay at the store for bulk, AND they are supporting regional grain growing by the inclusion of the equipment fee. We are very proud to be offering such competitive prices.
For anyone who cannot afford the $90 or is unsure of their ability to fully use 20 kg of milled flour (remember, 10 kg is typically the largest size one finds in a grocery store), we highly recommend they split the share with another friend or family.
Also Included
Included in the CSA package will be a certificate indicating the member’s involvement in Vancouver’s first grain CSA, the opportunity to visit Cedar Isle Farm in Agassiz during the summer to meet Jim and see the grain in person (additional, reasonable costs will apply for transportation), as well as on-going updates from us at Urban Grains regarding the progress of the CSA throughout the year on this blog.
THE CSA MODEL
CSA stands for community supported agriculture. We selected this model because we believe it is ideal for fostering a strong consumer/producer relationship — something severely lacking in conventional agricultural systems — and for supporting local agriculture. This is especially true in regards to local grain – production in B.C. has fallen dramatically in the past half-century and our support is needed to make grain farming a viable option.
It is important to be aware that the CSA model has a degree of risk built into it. As a customer paying the share cost before a finished product is delivered, an investment is being made in the entire process. It is quite possible that because of uncooperative weather shares will not measure a full 20 kg following a sub-par harvest. For example, in Creston, BC’s 2008 grain CSA the recipients expected to receive 100 lbs of grain, but ended up receiving 81 lbs. This risk is inherent to the model – by accepting this condition you are sharing in the uncertainty that farmers face every day as they watch the skies.
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NOTE: As we made clear at the outset, CSA shares are being offered to mailing list subscribers on a first come first serve basis according to the order in which they signed up. Sales are not open to the public at this time, so please do not contact us to sign up if you have not received an email with a specific offer to buy.
It’s been a great deal of work to make this all happen, so we are obviously very proud to finally announce the launch of the program. Thank you for your interest in the CSA and local grain — your tremendous support has been truly inspiring.
- 9 Comments »
- Posted in Announcement
April 24th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
The intermixing of Kg and lbs might be confusing for some.
Instead of penalizing the first shareholders with a $10 hit why not make it a $10 refundable onetime share purchase/member fee. Or make it so that repeat shareholders get a $10 discount in future years and first time shareholders pay a one-time registration fee or similar. New members whos membership lapse must repay – thus generating some income to put towards thresher machine maintenance costs and admin costs.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Thanks for the feedback, GG. Working with both kilograms and pounds was difficult for us, too, at times.
The reason that both are used is that we tried to present the membership details in the most relatable way – to us that meant telling you how much flour you’ll be getting in kilos, because you’re likely used to seeing 2, 5 and 10kg bags in the store, but to present the cost breakdown in dollars per pound because if you buy in bulk, you probably know that number best.
You’re right that this can be a tad confusing, though. You should see our excel sheets!
As for the equipment fee – we feel that most of our members are going to be supportive of it, and the sign-up rate so far seems to confirm this. If we had incorporated that $10 fee component into the total price and simply told you that the cost of a share was $90, I doubt that anyone would have questioned it. As is, we’re trying to share our experiences as we develop the Urban Grains idea, so that others will be able to replicate this in the future. We want members to be able to look at the share price and know that $10 of their money is going to purchasing important equipment for farmers in the region.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
I just just received your membership application .
I do not want 20 kg of ground wheat but I would be very interested
In joining if I could get 20 kg (or more) of whole grain.
Wheat, when ground has a very short shelf life before it starts to oxidize and go rancid.
I have a grain grinder and if I do not use any ground grains within 4 hours I put it in my compost.
I must say all of the emails I have received up until the last one talked about grain (not flour)
I think you have made a big mistake with this sudden change.
Grain grinders are not that expensive. I have had one since 1974. I have always bought
organic wheat by the bag grown in Saskatchewan or Alberta .
I would like to have a B.C. source for grains but not flour.
I buy hard wheat for bread( i make all my own bread) soft wheat for pitas and sprouting,
oats for breakfast cereal and kamut and rye for bread.
A 20 kg bag of organic wheat now costs me $84.00. Last year it cost $30.00.
In 1974 it cost less than $20.00. Soft wheat costs the same.
A membership with you would actually cost me more than I can now buy organic
wheat from Saskatchewan.
My bread recipe starts with
GRIND 2 CUPS OF WHEAT
blend 1/2 cup of flax seeds in 2 1/2 cups of water.
mix together,add 1 tsp of yeast and 1 tbs of honey.
wait 24 hours
GRIND 2 MORE CUPS OF WHEAT
add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tbs of olive oil.
mix in sufficient freshly ground wheat flour to make dough.
Kneed briefly.
Let rise.
bake 1 1/4 hours at 350.
I have fine tuned this recipe over the last 20+ years and it makes an excellent bread.
I think you should invest in a quality grain grinder(like a VITA-MIX).
You are not doing anybody a favour by selling them 20 kg of rancid whole wheat flour.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Thanks for your feedback, Kirby.
Unfortunately this year we are not able to offer whole grains for sale. This is something we definitely hope to do in the future, but we made a decision to keep things simple this year for the pilot project and will be milling everyone’s share professionally.
We understand the 20kg of flour is a lot for many people – that’s why we’ve suggested splitting shares if you’re intimidated by the amount. We have spoken to a number of people about the spoilage issue and have heard various opinions on the subject. I invite you to check out the post I will put up soon on this topic.
On the topic of cost: you are certainly correct that an Urban Grains membership costs more than buying bulk flour from Saskatchewan. We don’t pretend otherwise – what we’re trying to do is give people a good reason to be spending that money. Access to products coming out of your home region from farmers paid a good wage – that can sometimes be costlier. I have actually been pleasantly surprised to find that we are able to offer prices only a few dollars higher than prairie-grown flour; I expected it to be a more dramatic difference.
Again, thanks for the comment, we’re happy to take it all into consideration.
Ayla
May 17th, 2009 at 11:49 am
If you’re maintaining a list of people who would be willing/interested in buying whole grain instead of milled flour, please add me to that list.
Thanks!
Kara
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Please add me to that Whole Grain list too! I’m also still interested in starting out with flour next year if that’s all that’s available.
Thanks,
Aimée
December 26th, 2015 at 4:12 am
Over this last year I’ve finally fierugd out my sensitivity to wheat is the cause of my aching joints and have stopped it. My next experiment is to have it once a month to see if that can be managed by my body. Next test period is Christmas. Eventually i may decide it’s not worth it ever because it hurts like arthritis and this Aug it was so bad, when I leaned on my palm to do a turkish getup, it was fire along all my individual bones in my hand and there are a lot! Crazy how foods can affect us and I have to say, I never noticed a lot of the sensitivities until I ate clean for awhile. A blessing and a curse . I’m sure it was because not eating clean created so much havoc and noise in my body I couldn’t isolate the cause. Plus getting older, I’m sure the body gets less forgiving.
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