Urban Grains

A warm greeting to all our Urban Grains CSA members and friends from Cedar Isle Farm! We hope you have enjoyed a winter and spring of great baking since we were last in touch.

After two uncertain growing seasons, we are pleased to report that this season is looking a lot more promising so far. We seeded both hard red spring wheat and soft white spring wheat in that lovely stretch of warm spring weather and the crops are growing well. So now we are able to offer CSA shares for sale to our existing and new members.

A good catch of hard red spring wheat

Wheat seedlings and Mt. Cheam

The share offer will be very similar to last year. If you would like to be part of our CSA, you register and pay for your share this spring and in the fall you will be able to pick up your share of the harvest from a central location in Vancouver.

Again, we will have two types of wheat available for members. The hard red spring wheat has a higher gluten content and can be used for making bread. We call this wheat “bread wheat” although it can be used in other baking as well. The soft white spring wheat has a lower gluten content and is less suitable for bread making, but has a lovely flavour and is great for pastry and pancakes, muffins, cookies — all your favourite baking recipes. This wheat is commonly called “pastry wheat”.

If you choose to purchase a 20kg share of wheat, it will be packaged in four 5kg bags. Again, you can select either bread wheat, pastry wheat or a combination of both. Also, you can have your wheat milled into whole grain flour or unmilled as kernels so that you can sprout it or mill it at home. Simply indicate on the registration form how you would like to receive your wheat and we’ll do our best to meet your request.

The cost of a share is $95 and to place your order, please download and print this registration form, fill it in and mail it, with your cheque, to:

Urban Grains CSA
Cedar Isle Farm
3270 Chaplin Road,
Agassiz, B.C.
V0M 1A2

Click here to download the registration form

We would like to invite all our 2013 shareholders to visit us at the farm this summer and see the crops in the ground. We’ll set a date for this farm visit as soon as the membership list is up and running but it will likely be in late July. We have so enjoyed seeing our members in the past and look forward to meeting you again this year.

With very best wishes from us all in Urban Grains,

Jim Grieshaber-Otto and Diane Exley at Cedar Isle Farm

We are thrilled to be growing grain again, and excited that the 2011 wheat-growing season is well underway. Despite an unusually cool, wet spring, this year’s wheat crop was planted on time and is developing well.

Now, we invite you to join the Urban Grains CSA, and receive a delicious share of local, freshly-milled, whole grain wheat flour.

Here’s how it works: Urban Grains CSA members pay up front to receive four 5kg bags of whole grain flour, milled at Anita’s Organic Grain & Flour Mill in Chilliwack from grain grown at Cedar Isle Farm in Agassiz. This 100-mile whole grain flour is milled from the entire wheat kernel. Unlike other flours, it contains all of the nutritious germ and all of the bran of the whole grain. This year, CSA members can expect to receive flour from hard red spring wheat (suitable for bread and other baking) and soft white spring wheat (for pastry, cookies and other baking). Members are also invited to view their grain growing in the field during the popular, children-friendly farm visit … on a date in August, soon to be announced. After the harvest, members pick up their share of flour at a central Vancouver location(s) that will be announced well in advance.

We hope you will join Urban Grains CSA to support locally-grown grain and benefit from the fresh, healthy flour from the 2011 harvest. But please don’t delay. Shares normally sell out quickly.

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To all of our members: thank you for your support – each and every one of you!

We are pleased to announce that the second and final weekend of Urban Grains distribution is now complete. Hopefully, many of you have already dived right in to baking and cooking with your bounty! Thank you for joining us this year, thank you for following along during the season, and thank you for putting in your time to pick up shares.

And while we’re at it, a big thanks to NOWBC for hosting us. And, of course, we really cannot give enough thanks to our ‘grower family’, Jim and Diane and their children, for joining us on Saturday afternoon and bringing us full circle on the grain experience – from seeding, to growing, to milling and, finally, to distribution.

Over the coming weeks we will be updating the blog with stories, recipes and “From the Farm” photos and updates – so stay tuned.

**For those of you we missed seeing this weekend, please check your email for information regarding your share and pick-up opportunities.

Thanks again!

Your Urban Grains Team

This is the exciting part, folks! Over the past weekend more than half of our 2010 shares were picked up by members at our east Vancouver distribution spot. We hope that some of you have already enjoyed a batch of rolls or pumpkin pie made with this year’s Urban Grains bounty.

The fun continues this coming weekend, which will be the final chance for members to pick up shares.

Final distribution times: Friday Oct. 15, 4-8pm and Saturday Oct. 16, 10-4pm. (Check our previous email announcement for location details.)

As always, contact us if needed at urbangrains@ffcf.bc.ca

The second batch of share offers just went out to 150 lucky folks! Thanks to all of last year’s members who are returning for 2010.

The first batch of 2010 share offers has been sent out – 2009 members, who have priority this year, should all have received an email today. The next batch will be sent a week from now, so stay patient.

Take a look at these photos that Jim sent along from plowing at the beginning of the month. Springtime is so fine!

Plowing a new field, to be planted with hard red spring wheat

Sod turning

The field after turning

Spring chickees, 5 days old.

Snap the duck’s nest, full of eggs

Today we are delighted to be able to share  the details of this year’s CSA with you. Shares are being offered to mailing list subscribers according to the order in which they signed up, and last year’s members will be given first priority. Please note that sales are not open to the general public at this time but we are keeping a waiting list. To sign up, email us at urbangrains@ffcf.bc.ca.

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New for 2010:

• Option to receive half or all of your grain whole and unmilled!
• New grains in the mix!
• More shares added!

The Details

This year there will be a total of 300 shares – 225 individual shares, and 75 shares for commercial customers (bakeries and restaurants). We are very excited to be adding the option to receive half of or your entire share as whole, un-milled grain. The option to receive all 20 kg as milled flour is still available as well.

All of the grain will be grown in Agassiz, B.C. by Jim, Diane and the kids at the beautiful Cedar Isle Farm. Roughly 100 acres in size, the farm has been organically managed for years, and is currently undergoing organic certification.

Another exciting piece of news is that Jim and Diane will be growing a few new grains this year. Along with the winter wheat, hard red spring wheat and Triticale (a non-GMO cross between wheat and rye) that we had last year, they will also be growing rye and soft white spring wheat. Everyone will receive the same grains in their share, but for now the amounts and varieties that make up your 20 kg are to be determined, based on how each planting fares throughout the season.

Processing/Distribution

After the grain has been harvested in the late summer/early fall, it will be cleaned on-site at Cedar Isle Farm, where some of it will be bagged as whole grain. The portion destined to turn into flour will be shipped to Anita’s Mill in Chilliwack for milling and bagging. It will then continue on to Vancouver for pick up by members.

We have heard your feedback that the UBC Farm was not an ideal distribution location, so we will be moving the pick up point to a more central location in Vancouver, still to be determined. Pick up times will once again be spread over two weekends in the mid-fall.

Pricing

Each 20kg share will cost $85, plus an additional $10 development fee which will go towards building grain growing infrastructure and capacity within B.C., bringing the total to $95 per share. A full $1/lb of every purchase will be paid directly to Jim and Diane, the growers. A per-pound rate like that is practically unheard of in the grain industry, and we are proud to be able to pay them a rate that makes grain growing a viable source of income.

Half shares are not available at this time. If you are unsure of your ability to fully use 20 kg of milled flour (remember, 10 kg is typically the largest size one finds in a grocery store), or if cost is prohibitive, we recommend that you split the share with another friend or family.

Also Included

Included in your CSA membership will be the opportunity to visit Cedar Isle Farm in Agassiz during the summer to meet Jim, Diane and the kids and see the grain in person. You’ll also be able to track the progress of the CSA throughout the year via periodic updates on the blog.

The CSA model & risk

CSA stands for community supported agriculture. Urban Grains uses this model because we believe it is ideal for fostering a strong consumer/producer relationship. It supports the farmer up front with capital to grow the crop, guarantees a market and helps to cultivate a local, sustainable food system.  Grain production in B.C. has fallen dramatically in the past half-century and we believe the CSA model is a way to make grain farming a viable option.

It is important to be aware that the CSA model has an inherent 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 possible that because of uncooperative weather shares will not measure a full 20 kg following a sub-par harvest. We are happy to report that last year our members received their full 20kg share, but with each year comes renewed risk.

In the event of catastrophic crop failure which left us unable to deliver shares to our members, members will be reimbursed 50% of the share cost. Jim and Diane at Cedar Isle Farm are very appreciative of the support of the Urban Grains customers, but have been clear that they could not keep full payment if they were unable to deliver the shares. The 50% that Urban Grains retains will cover administrative costs and the time already put in at the farm.

Please bear in mind that such a situation is unlikely, and that we will do everything we can to make sure you receive your grain and/or flour at the end of the season.

How to become a member

Shares are being offered to our mailing list subscribers according to the order in which they signed up, and last year’s members will be given first priority. Only those who receive a share offer via email will be eligible to become members for 2010. Your official share offer will contain detailed instructions on how to register for a membership. We will announce the start of share offers here on the blog. Last year the majority of our CSA memberships were sold within three weeks, with a few additions made later in the season.

We wish we could offer a membership to everyone who is interested but  we are still a small operation and demand is greater than what we can supply. Please note that sales are not open to the general public at this time, but we are maintaining a waiting list. To sign up, email us at urbangrains@ffcf.bc.ca.

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Thank you again for your interest in the CSA and local grain – your tremendous support is what makes Urban Grains possible.

Urban Grains is a collaboration with Farm Folk / City Folk

These are exciting times around Urban Grains headquarters, as we finalize details for the 2010 season. Look for news here in the next few days, including the announcement of the first share offers!