Applegater Summer 2023
Grains of change: Farmers
are reviving ancient and heritage
grains in the Rogue Valley
BY ANN NGUYEN
The weekend before the spring equinox,
local farmers, millers, and bakers gathered
to break bread and celebrate the results of
four years of hard work to revive, scale up,
and grow rare and almost extinct heritage
and ancient grains from all over the world.
The gathering took place at Fry Family
Farm in Medford, where farmers showcased
bread made from the heritage grains they
grew. Plates heaped with samples of fresh-
milled sourdough-cultured breads were
displayed next to individual bags of grains
with names of each variety: Termoki wheat,
Ladhaki wheat, Georgian Winter wheat,
Rouge de Bordeaux wheat, Uli Hache rye,
and so on. There were also cookies made
with rye, sorghum, Tibetan purple barley,
and amaranth, and cornbread from two
maize varieties.
As we sampled the breads, a team of
bakers led by Jeremiah Thorndike Church
(Boreal Heat), pulled out more freshly
baked loaves from a wood-fired oven.
It’s not often that I get to sample ancient
grains, some more than 10,000 years old,
grown right here in the Rogue Valley.
The Rogue Valley Grains Project
(RVGP) began four years ago when Chris
Hardy, of Hardy Seeds, received more than
100 varieties of rare seeds in a partnership
with the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance
and began to grow them in Ashland, along
with seeds from his own collection. Some
varieties had thousands of years’ ancestry.
Emmer was domesticated as far back as
6300 BCE, with widespread cultivation in
ancient Egypt around 5500 BCE. Hourani
wheat was stored by King Herod 2,000
years ago.
While preserving cultural heritage is
itself a meaningful endeavor, the larger
goal of RVGP is to grow its own climate-
adapted grains. Heritage grains are known
for their ability to increase soil carbon
and other organic matter, which increase
on-farm resilience and the soil’s capacity
for holding water and nutrients. Heritage
grains are also known for having greater
nutrient density than modern varieties of
conventional and organic grains.
Chris enlisted a dozen growers from
around the Rogue Valley, including Fry
Family Farm, Shanti Acres, Eagle Mill
Farm, Dunn Ranch, Feral Farm, and
Wandering Fields, to grow the seeds and
record the results. The trials for the first
year were conducted at Hardy Seeds.
Performance factors included climate
adaptability, dry farming, disease and
pest resistance, shattering, storage, and
yield. Grower participants returned 15-20
percent of their yield back to the RVGP
seed library.
Ben Yohai, of Wandering Fields, in
the Applegate, shared his trial results:
“We trialed three barley varieties (Tibetan
black, Himalayan, and Rinpoche), three
wheat varieties (Alaska, Banatka, and
Red Fife), and Spokane oats. They all
performed well with minimal lodging. No
irrigation was supplied with the exception
of a couple of rounds of overhead in the
late spring. Unfortunately, the ground
squirrels harvested more than I did, so we
primarily had the Tibetan Black barley
and the Spokane oats yield an appreciable
amount. I would trial them again with the
intention of seeding at higher density and
trapping for squirrels.”
Scott McGuire, a grower in Wimer,
spoke enthusiastically about Rouge
de Bordeaux wheat. Although he did
own locally grown organic
heritage wheat.
The project has been an
intensive collaborative effort
that takes many hands.
The Organic Seed Alliance
in Washington, along with
Redwood Seeds in California,
provided threshing equipment;
Niedermeyer Farms supplied a
grain combine; and Fry Family
Baked goods ready for sampling by seeds of the type of Farm purchased a grain cleaner.
grains used in their preparation. Photo: Ann Nguyen. The project still lacks facilities
for drying large quantities of
not irrigate the crops last year, they grains and storing the seeds.
As the group gathered to hear Chris’s
performed well.
When asked to share his top five favorite update on the project, the hope and
varieties, Chris replied, “Toulouse emmer, excitement were palpable. What if we grew
which I love because it’s nutrient dense our own locally adapted grains? What if
and is a hull-less variety, which is extremely we milled it here and produced our own
rare. Black and tan einkorn, ditto.Termoki distinct Rogue Valley bread? Looking
wheat, for its regenerative potential for around at the folks in attendance—farmers
the soil and delicious versatility in the and gardeners, commercial bakers, millers,
kitchen (especially pancakes!). Guatemalan food co-op owners, and local families from
amaranth for its nutrition and drought all over the valley—all the ingredients
tolerance, and the Rogue red quinoa we seem to be in place. RVGP has also been
have been growing and selecting for more in contact with growers and millers in
than 15 years, which is extremely tolerant nearby Scott Valley in California and the
Umpqua Valley.
of heat and can be dry farmed.”
Interested in taking part in this
The trial results have been promising
enough that Fry Family Farm is scaling grassroots movement to grow nutritious,
up from the two acres they planted drought-tolerant, soil-building heritage
in fall 2021 to 100 acres of Rouge de grains in the Rogue Valley? You can
Bordeaux wheat, Ukrainka wheat, and reach Chris Hardy directly at cmhardy@
Tibetan purple barley this fall. Fry hopes gmail.com.
to soon provide the valley with our Ann Nguyen • anguyen1130@gmail.com
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