Winter Grain Bundle January 2023 (Gluten Free)

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The fall 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.

Our own processing facility and mill is dedicated to gluten free crops, so for those with celiac disease or other gluten-intolerances, we have put together this share option that excludes the crops with wheat products, or those that are processed in the same facility as wheat.

This year’s gluten free bundles include 13 different types of grains, seeds, flours, and oils, for a total of 52 pounds!  All shelf stable, and enough for your winter soup bowls and porridge pots.

 

Your January 2023 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 (6 lbs/2.7kg)
  • Organic Black Lentils (4 lbs/1.8kg)
  • 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) (I won’t know for sure until the corn is milled)
  • Organic Corn Flour (1 lb/450g)
  • Organic Corn Grits (1lb/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)

 

* The list is as close of an approximation as we can make it, but there is a chance that some quantities 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!

*** 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 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.  If you can tolerate slight cross-contamination, we suggest adding the millet and sunflower seeds as add-ons to your bundle.

 

Zero-waste grain bundles in 2020. Start saving containers to help us reduce single-use packaging!
Zero-waste pick-up in January 2019. Mason jars coming in handy once again!

 

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!

 

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.

 

 

 

 

What kind of oats would you like with your grain share?

Rolled, Steel Cut, Quick Cooking, Whole/Unmilled