Home grown

Earlier this month, HearthBread BakeHouse in Spokane turned out its first loaves of bread made from wheat grown in Eastern Washington and Idaho. It was a significant moment for Northwest farmers Karl Kupers, Fred Fleming and about 10 others who are embracing a new system that holds the dual promise of protecting the land and opening new markets for farm products.
Two years ago, these dozen farmers founded a Reardan, Wash., business called Columbia Plateau Producers to grow and market wheat that could be used in baked goods destined for tables right here at home.
While it may sound conventional, it isn’t.
Almost all of the wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest, from the rolling Palouse to the dry flats of northern Douglas County, goes to foreign mills.
Rather than a bread basket, Eastern Washington could be known as a cookie jar. The soft white wheats grown in this area are low in protein, making them ideal for making pastries, cakes, cookies and flatbreads.
Kupers and Fleming wanted to try something different, something that could be used for foods here in the Northwest.
With the help of wheat breeders at Washington State University, the farmers are now growing a wheat variety called hard red spring. It has more protein, which translates into a better bread flour.
The wheat is milled at the ADM plant in Spokane into an all-purpose flour they’ve named Shepherd’s Grain.
Shepherd’s Grain is part of a growing trend that touches consumers and farmers — people want to know where their food comes from, Kupers said. That desire creates marketing opportunities for restaurants and food producers, and it also has advantages for farmers, he said. The farmers involved in Columbia Plateau Producers get about $1.50 more per bushel for their hard red wheat than for the crops they export.
Frank Pigott, president of HearthBread, said the bakery is marketing bread made from the Shepherd’s Grain flour under a special label, which is available at Spokane groceries that sell HearthBread products.
“What we have here is an opportunity to offer something that is locally grown and good for our customers,” Pigott said. “We think it’s very exciting.”
HearthBread will use the flour to make three ‘artisan’ loaf breads, along with hoagie rolls and hamburger buns.
Besides its local origin, another selling point for Shepherd’s Grain is the way it’s grown.
Farmers are often criticized for employing growing practices that use chemicals, lead to erosion or damage wildlife habitat.
To fight the rap, Kupers, Fleming and the other farmers involved in Columbia Plateau Producers practice no-till farming, where growers use machines called drills that jab seeds into the soil rather that dragging a tiller across the field.
Their wheat fields also meet the standards of the nonprofit Food Alliance, whose stamp of approval assures customers that farmers follow sustainable agriculture practices to reduce or eliminate pesticides, conserve soil and water, protect wildlife habitat and provide safe working conditions.
The Food Alliance label, especially, resonates in urban areas.
In Portland, for example, Hot Lips Pizza now uses Shepherd’s Grain in its pizza dough, helping to fulfill a pledge to use as many regional ingredients as possible.
Owner David Yudkin said it’s a way for him to distinguish his four pizzerias from the competition.
“Getting to know these guys and what they’re all about has been a great experience for us,” Yudkin said of the Shepherd’s Grain farmers.
Fleming is a big man — sometimes ducking to enter a doorway — who has a farmer’s handshake that’s firm and honest, not intimidating.
Yet that’s not what Yudkin, a self-described 5 feet 4 inches tall, finds most striking.
“I’ll tell you something. When these farmers walk into my restaurant … I know I’m going to have a fascinating conversation and learn something about farming,” he said.
While many people involved with agriculture grouse that people in the city don’t know or appreciate where their food comes from, don’t make that claim around Yudkin.
The fastest-growing segment of his customer base is people who want to support sustainable agriculture, he said.
“There’s just this incredible satisfaction from knowing that we’re not just selling a really good slice of pizza, but the idea that the food is grown in a way that’s fair to the farmer and good for the environment.”
Yudkin said he hopes to visit a couple of the farms this summer during harvest. The idea is to shoot photos and make a video that Hot Lips can use in its advertising.
“We think that’s something our customers would like to see,” he said.
On a wheat field south of Reardan, Fleming admired the coming wheat crop.
He grows other crops and other varieties of wheat on his farm, but it’s clear the hard red wheat is something he considers special.
Fleming talks quickly and at length about his fields, proudly pointing out that recent heavy rains didn’t wash away soils or cut deep channels in his fields.
He credits no-till farming, the backbone of the Shepherd’s Grain business that enables the farmers to earn approval from the Food Alliance and fill niche markets.
Kupers believes in the business model of trying to find local markets for local produce, which until now has been largely absent in the Inland Northwest wheat industry. So much so that he has quit actively farming his own land near Harrington, Wash., to devote more time to the never-ending, time-eating job of marketing. This year, Columbia Plateau Producers could sell 25,000 bushels of wheat through Shepherd’s Grain.
Kuper’s work is beginning to pay dividends, as more bakeries use Shepherd’s Grain and Spokane restaurants begin to experiment with the flour.
For example, at Luna, one of Spokane’s most well-known fine-dining restaurants, pastry chef Vicki Hoffman bakes breads fit for an advertisement: Baguettes with crusts the color of caramel and beautifully braided challah, a Jewish celebration bread.
Hoffman said the restaurant plans to stay with Shepard’s Grain flour, even though it’s about 65 cents more per bag than regular flour.
“I find it gives us a lighter texture and a better crust,” she said. “Why should we change again?”
Fleming and Kupers asked Luna to consider Shepherd’s Grain because of the restaurant’s reputation for using locally grown foods.
Both the farmers and the restaurant have been delighted with the response, Kupers said, admiring some of Hoffman’s bread set atop his pickup during a recent interview.
Said Hoffman, “What interested us most was that here we could bake breads using the wheat from a local farmer.”
In a typical week, Luna uses 14 bags of Shepherd’s Grain flour, each weighing 50 pounds. It’s an all-purpose flour that’s used in everything from the baguettes and challah to the walnut bread sliced for Sunday French toast to desert tarts.
Persuading Luna to use their flour was a marketing win, the farmers say.
“This is an example of what we as farmers can do,” Kupers said.