Winter Grain Bundle January 2023

The fall of 2022 is racing to a close, and the year’s harvest is complete.  We’re so excited to share with you a selection of what organic farmers have grown in this amazing province of ours.  Each seed and grain is a tiny piece of sunlight energy, transformed by plants into something that will nourish our bodies, and we love seeing food build a stronger community of farmers and eaters.

Grain bundle pick ups will be in late January (Saturday, January 28th) in Winnipeg.  Details will be sent out by email a few weeks in advance with times/location/etc.  This year, we are more than excited to be able to gather together and celebrate as we explore ways to minimize our environmental impact.  We will be returning to our ‘zero-waste’ model, where you have the opportunity to bring your own containers to collect your grains without the excess packaging so rampant in our industrial food distribution system.  We are still ironing out the details, but we also anticipate that the pick-up day will offer some opportunities to gather, to learn, to meet others, and to share our ideas for creating a more sustainable and human-scale food system.

This year’s bundles include 18 different types of grains, seeds, flours, and oils, for a total of 90 pounds of organically grown lovingly milled grains!  All shelf stable, and enough for your winter soup pots, porridge pots, and baking.

 

Your January 2023 grain bundle will include the following Manitoba grown products:

• Organic Naked Oats (10 lbs/4.5kg – your choice of rolled, steel cut, quick cooking, or whole/unmilled oats – check out the link if you’re not sure which type is best for you)

• Organic French Green Lentils (6 lbs/2.2kg)
• Organic Black Lentils (4 lbs/2.2kg)
• Organic Yellow Peas (5 lbs/2.2kg)
• Organic Wild Rice/Oat Rice Blend (4 lbs/1.8kg)
• Organic Flax (3 lbs/1.36kg)
• Organic Pinto Beans (5 lbs/2.2 kg)
• Organic Navy Beans (3 lbs/1.3kg)
• Organic Cornmeal (2-3 lbs/1.3kg) (we are right down to the wire with our quantity of corn, so we won’t know the final quantity until i’ve run it all through the mill)
• Organic Corn flour (1lb/450g)
• Organic Corn grits (1 lb/450g)
• Organic Wild Rice (1lb/450g)
• Organic Hemp Seeds (1lb/450g)
• Organic Buckwheat flour (3lbs/1.3kg)
• Organic Whole Buckwheat groats (1lb/450g)
• Organic Camelina Oil (1L)
• Organic Millet (3lbs/1.36kg)*** (not 100% gluten safe, see link here for our gluten-free share option)
• Organic Sunflower Seeds (1lb/450g) *** (not 100% gluten safe)
• Organic Spelt Flakes (3lbs/1.3kg)  ***(contain wheat/gluten)
• Organic Einkhorn Flour (6 lbs/2.7kg) *** (contains wheat/gluten)
• Organic Stoneground Emmer Flour (6 lbs/2.7kg) *** (contains wheat/gluten)
• Organic Red Fife Flour (18lbs/8kg) *** (contains wheat/gluten)

 

*** Although our facility and mill are dedicated to gluten free crops, there’s some pretty cool wheat-like crops growing here in Manitoba, and we didn’t want to leave them out!  Milled off-site by other organic farmers (Dan and Fran Derucyk of Top of the Hill Farm, Benjamin Unrau, and Tamarack Farms) the emmer/einkhorn/red fife/spelt are pretty fun ways to keep the sourdough bubbling! But for those with celiac disease or other gluten-intolerances, we have put together a smaller bundle that excludes these crops.  There are also a few items are 99.9% gluten free, but have a slight chance of contamination (millet & sunflower seeds).  These items are also left out of the GF shares.  Full details of the gluten free share is here.  If your allergen needs are somewhere in between, feel free to choose the gluten free bundle, but add the sunflower seeds, millet as add-ons.  For those following a whole-foods plant-based diet, please leave a note in your order that you would like to leave out the oil and receive an extra portion of either oats, french lentils, or pinto beans with your order, and I can make that substitution for you.

 

* The list is as close of an approximation as we can make it, but there is a chance that some quantity will juggle around before the final pick-up.  Some of the products are milled and ready, but others are still being cleaned, milled and prepared.  Our grain CSA is about letting the harvest, the sun and the rain dictate the details.  We will do everything we can to ensure that you get good value for your purchase, and skipping out a lot of transportation, brokerage, packaging, and distribution costs makes a lot of products more cost efficient than a trip to the grocery store, but it’s certainly not predictable or the same year to year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those who don’t use a lot of grains/pulses, we suggest finding a friend to split a bundle with (our “Winter Grain CSA” facebook group usually has a few requests for grain-bundle-buddies, so join our community and connect with someone there!), and for those with larger families or who do lots of home cooking, there are extra portions of each item available as add-ons, and we also offer a small discount for purchasing multiple bundles.  I get a lot of questions about how long this quantity of food will last.  It’s an impossible question to answer!  I know families who share a bundle with another family to use it all, and I also know single folks who have purchased multiple bundles, with extras on the side!  It really depends on your own cooking style.  In our North American food culture, we are more likely to zip to the store several times a week to purchase what we need, and our long-term food use can be really difficult to quantify.  But in addition to all the advantages of local/organic, purchasing in bulk is also a great way to reduce your overall food budget.

 

 

If you know that you’ll be using lots of certain items, there are extra portions of most grains available as add-ons.  As well, there are some additional local food offerings like fresh veggie bundles, dried mushrooms, and dried herbs that are also available as add-ons.  In lieu of the “gigantic share” of years past, if your order is $500 or more,  a 5% discount will automatically be applied to your cart.  It’s not a huge discount because we set our pricing awfully close to our break-even point, but we love seeing people taking such amazing steps to eat locally all year round!

 

I’ll post a list of recommended types of containers and sizes to help make the zero-waste pick-up run smoothly, but the flour products will all be pre-packaged in paper bags to help minimize gluten contamination at the pick-up day.  Oat add-ons of 20lbs will also be pre-packaged, although if you have a large pail to store them in, we’ll happily empty our bags into your pails.  And we’ll always have extra paper bags on hand just in case your containers aren’t fitting everything.  You won’t have to leave with your pockets stuffed full of lentils 🙂

 

For those who are not able to make it to our pick-up day, we suggest trying to find a friend who can pick up for you, but failing that, we can also accommodate a small number of home deliveries.  For our home delivery option, all products will be pre-packaged and your share will be boxed up and delivered to your home (Winnipeg, Stonewall, Steinbach, Kenora or Brandon addresses).  Select “Winter Grain Bundle Home Delivery” at the checkout for a $30 fee.  Veggie bundles, mushrooms, and herbs are not available with the home delivery option.

 

If you have questions about the pick-up day, substitutions, allergens, pricing, etc, please visit our FAQ page here (or, of course, shoot us an email!)  We are also super excited to be able to offer a Sliding Scale Pricing Model for those facing financial hardship, and there’s more information about that concept here.

Look forward to seeing you in January as we create a better food system together.