Re-Milling Regional Food Systems  
Focus: The Finger Lakes and Hudson Valley
  The Growing Impact of Specialty Grains

Also introducing our newest farm and farmer

Josh McMillan will soon be growing the grains that he also processes for his off-farm job at Midwest Organic Farmers Cooperative in Sibley, IL. We are  purchasing our 22nd farm, the 114 acre Mackinaw Farm for lease to this young farmer. The new grain farm is walking distance to the processing facility. 
Harold Wilken, organic farmer and legacy tenant at Iroquois Valley Farms, is shown with Don Lewis at the Wild Hive Farm Micro Mill in Clinton Corners, N.Y. Don markets to specialty bakers including Eataly in NY. Harold is vertically expanding to include the milling and processing of organic flour for the Chicago markets.  

As a corporate guideline, we do not look for specific farmland to purchase. We  develop relationships with farmers, mostly young and organic, that want to start or grow their sustainable farm business. We only move to purchase if we have a ready, willing and able farm tenant in hand.

Recently we took advantage of a winter break to visit specialty grain mills in the Finger Lakes and Hudson Valley of New York State. Harold Wilken, legacy farmer/manager of over 2000 acres of organic farmland, arranged the tour. Starting in Penn Yan at the top of Keuka Lake (see map below), we visited Klaas Martens of Lakeville Organic Grain. Klaas speaks nationally on small grains and diverse crop rotations. His family grows, processes and/or markets wheat, barley, spelt, emmer, einkorn, rye, oats and triticale, among other European varieties.    

After a short stop to nearby Climbing Bines Hop Farm and Brewery, we moved  south around Seneca Lake to Farmer Ground Flour in Trumansburg. Greg Mol (pictured below), co-manages the operation. We stopped by the farm of one of the founding partners, Thor Oechsner, as he was cleaning and bagging a rye grain order (see picture below) for shipment to a local brewery. Thor also publicly promotes small grains, and spoke later in the week at a Cornell Cooperative Extension (Ulster County) event billed as the 1st Annual Hudson Valley Value-Added Grains Systems School. Co-sponsoring the event was the Local Economies Project of the New World Foundation (LEP). LEP is managing the Hudson Valley Food Hub that is conducting grains research in addition to supporting agricultural projects and educational programs in the region.         
    
Even in the middle of winter, we found a vibrant community of farmers, millers, processors, bakers, brewers, educators,  chefs, financial advisors and investors that were busy building their local food system.        

Taking our research inside one evening, we took advantage of Ithaca's expanding culinary table and dined at Coltivare, a new restaurant showcasing the Tompkins Community College "Farm to Bistro" educational program. On the way we stopped at EcoVillage at Ithaca and picked up our dinner guest, Greg Pitts, who resides and offices in this ecologically minded community where residents support organic farming, permaculture and energy conservation. Greg works for Natural Investments, a leading investment advisory firm focused on building a new community of socially responsible investors.    
 
We ended the trip visiting the kitchen of Don Lewis and Wild Hive Farm near Clinton Corners. Don has been a fixture in the local foods community for many years (see picture above). Our home stoved oxtail stew was served with polenta, collards and bread from a local merchant in Hudson, Cafe Le Perche, that is supplied by Don's mill. We also tasted Wild Hive's popular Multi Grain breakfast cereal that includes soft winter wheat, oats, millet, rye, triticale, barley, spelt, corn grits, flax seed and vetch. If one wants a more comprehensive overview of the burgeoning specialty grains markets, watch for the June release of local author Amy Halloran's book "The Next Bread Basket" published by Chelsea Green. 

 
The organic rye shown above is from Thor Oeschner's farm at the southern end of Cayuga Lake (near Ithaca). Thor cleaned and bagged this grain in his farm shop for shipment to a local brewery.    
 
Millennial miller Greg Mol of Farmer Ground Flour and Harold Wilken from Danforth, Illinois are seen reviewing the Trumansburg, New York milling operation that processes organic and specialty grains.        

Connecting farm families, communities and investors since 2007. 

 

For more information please visit (www.iroquoisvalleyfarms.com).    


David Miller, Co-Founder and CEO
[email protected]   

 

Kevin Egolf, Managing Director of Business Operations

[email protected]  

 

Iroquois Valley Farms LLC
PO Box 267
Wilmette, Illinois 60091
847 736-0076
www.iroquoisvalleyfarms.com