Urban Grains

Happy September! The sky is clearer, nights are cooler, and stars are brighter. We’re welcoming the change of season here at Cedar Isle Farm, and making the most of a good stretch of sunny days.
In non-grain news, the mama cat has had a second batch of kittens (free to good homes) and the ducks have done their best to eat every slug on the farm. The sparrows have eaten well, the swallows have hatched more young than we can count, and we hear the young barn owls from time to time instead of every night.
Meanwhile, all of the grains have been harvested and the fields are in the midst of being ploughed and seeded: plans for the coming year have been drawn up and we even passed, with flying colours, our annual inspection from BCARA (our organic certifier). It’s been a great season for the farm, and we’re looking forward to sharing our stories and crops with you!

Harvest Update
Despite weedy patches in some of the fields and a few lodged (fallen over) crops, the warm and dry weather in August allowed us to harvest some mighty-fine grain. Everything has been cleaned to remove weed seeds and has been nicely dried. Most of it is  waiting patiently, though with some anticipation (as are we, to be honest), to be sent to Anita’s Organic Mill for milling and packaging. The distribution date will be announced soon!

Hull-less Oats
Our farm grew a new crop this season: hull-less oats. This variety of oats was developed in Canada and marketed as “Rice of Prairies” due to a culinary character similar to rice (more information about the oats in this article from Georgia Straight).  You can look forward to hearing more about these oats in the future… for now, let us just say: they’re delicious! 🙂

Want to bake, but no time?
Allow us to introduce you to Anne, one of our Vancouver-based CSA members, who’s starting a micro-bakery.

Hi! I’m Anne, baker and owner of Companion BakeHouse, a community supported MicroBakery in North Burnaby.  Recently I started using Cedar Isle Farm wheat and rye in my breads and my customers and I are loving it. My bread is Real Bread – it contains no processing aids, dough improvers, artificial flavours or other chemical additives.  I use a starter culture, so I don’t even use commercial yeast. This is the bread you’d be making for yourself and your family if you had the time to do so.  Some of my customers call it “better than bakery quality” bread.
I am hoping to help support Cedar Isle Farm by selling bread made with their grains.  If you appreciate the flavour and nutrients that are produced when locally grown ingredients are combined with traditional slow dough development methods, and if you’d like to develop a relationship with your baker in the same way you’ve developed a relationship with your farmer, then contact me at www.facebook.com/companionbakehouse