Winter Grain Bundle January 2022 (Gluten Free)

Our winter round-up of Manitoba organic grains and pulses is underway!  Harvest is finished, and although it was a challenging year on so many levels, with late frosts, severe drought, and plants that thought it was spring in September, there is still amazing food that was grown in this beautiful province of ours.

 

Grains, flours, flakes, oils and seeds will be coming from all corners of Manitoba.  In addition to some of the usual suspects (oats, lentils, flax, oils, etc) we’ve also got a few new items to try out.  I am so excited to introduce you to popcorn from Ploughshares Farm!

 

Similar to last year, we will sadly not be able to run as a “zero-waste” bulk food option, so all products will be pre-packaged (in compostable paper bags or glass) and ready for a quick pick-up in Winnipeg in January 2022.  We are still holding out hope that we’ll be able to meet with some of the farmers and share some time together on the pick-up day, but we probably won’t make a call until we’re a bit closer to the date, knowing that restrictions can come and go with little notice. We might need to use packaging, but we can still reduce the carbon imprint of our food miles, eat more plant-based meals, reduce food waste, forward the discussion about local food security and sustainability, and share home-cooked meals with our loved ones.  There’s not just one way to have a positive impact on the world around us!

 

 

Your January 2022 Gluten Free Grain Bundle will include (approximately) 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 (7 lbs/3.2kg)
• Organic Black “Beluga” Lentils (3 lbs/1.3kg)
• 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 (8 lbs/3.6 kg) (if we can find any other beans, like black, navy, chickpeas, etc., the 8lb weight will be split between the 2 types)
• Organic Cornmeal (3 lbs/1.3kg)
• Organic Quinoa Flour (2 lbs/900g)
• Organic Popcorn (2lbs/900g)
• Organic Wild Rice (1lb/450g)
• Organic Buckwheat flour (3lbs/1.3kg)
• Organic Cold-pressed Sunflower Oil (1L)
• Organic Camelina Oil (1L)

 

For those with allergies or other gluten intolerances, we have put together a gluten-free grain share.  Although our own processing facility and mill is dedicated to gluten free crops, our regular CSA bundle includes some wheat and flour products that are cleaned and milled off-site by other organic farmers (Dan and Fran Derucyk of Top of the Hill Farm, Tamarack Farms, and Benjamin Unrau).  But for those with celiac disease or other gluten-intolerances, we have put together this share option that excludes these crops, and tops you up with extra buckwheat flour/oats/cornmeal/wild rice in it’s place to help out with your GF baking.

 

Because of the high occurrence of wheat contamination in oats specifically (the grains are very similar in size and colour, and are often grown in succession with each other), our naked oats are grown and milled following a very thorough gluten-free protocol that encompasses everything from our choice of seed, field selection and crop rotations, harvest and transport equipment, and dedicated milling equipment.  In addition to these protocols, all lots are tested with an R5 Eliza Gluten test after harvest and after milling (further details are available here.  Other products in the CSA are not produced under the same rigorous gluten-free standards (there are only a small handful of entirely gluten-free and organic farms in all of Manitoba) and so some of the products have been grown on farms that also grow wheat, but because of their size/shape/colour differences, they have a very very very low chance of contamination in the final product.  The millet and sunflowers seeds in the regular grain bundles have also been excluded from this bundle because they were processed/cleaned by Deruyck’s Top of the Hill Farm, who also mill wheat products with the same equipment.  The chance of gluten contamination is low, but it is still a risk, and so those items have been excluded as well.

 

* The list is an approximation because the process of rounding up grain and milling it for the CSA is not an exact science.  It’s a totally different way of doing food.  It’s letting the harvest, the sun and the rain dictate quantities.  We will do everything we can to ensure that you get fair value for your purchase but if you have very precise and calculated quantities that you need for your pantry, this might not be the best fit for you.

 

 

 

 

Pick up will be in mid-January (Saturday, January 22nd seems like a likely bet) in Winnipeg and in Brandon, with social distancing in mind.  Details will be sent out by email a few weeks in advance, and we will be asking people to pre-book a time slot to come pick up their share.

 

For those who are not able to make it to our pick-up day, the option of having your share boxed up and delivered to your home (Winnipeg, Stonewall or Brandon addresses) is also available.  Select “home delivery” at checkout for a $20 fee.

 

Extra portions of most items, as well as some additional local food offerings like fresh veggie bundles, dried mushrooms, and dried herbs, are also available as add-ons, and will be available to pre-order and pick up with your grain bundle in January.  In lieu of the “gigantic share” of years past, for any order over $400, a 5% discount will automatically be applied to your cart.  It’s not a huge discount, but we set our pricing awfully close to our break-even point!

 

If you have questions about the pick-up day, substitutions, or COVID-19 protocols, please visit our FAQ page here (or, of course, shoot us an email!)  We have also added a Sliding Scale Pricing Model this year, and there’s more information about that concept here.