Island Grains' 2010 Grain CSA
Island Grains is proud to offer the first grain CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) opportunity on Vancouver Island. Registration is now open: check out the details as follows:
Our 2010 Grain Crops
Red Fife (popular heritage variety)
Hard White Spring Wheat (good yields in 2009 from this modern variety sourced from Saskatchewan organic farmers)
Hard Red Spring Wheat (a modern variety successfully grown by Tom Henry in Metchosin)
Rye (for nutritious breads or in whole grain salads)
We are still increasing our seed stock of our favourite hull-less and awnless barley variety: we should have enough seed to fall-plant for our 2011 Island Grains project. As for oats, our hull-less oats proved disappointing in yield and ease of threshing in 2009, so we will not be growing any oats for the 2010 CSA shares. We'll continue to trial small batches, with the hope of finding quality seed.
Cost: $195/share
This cost includes a share in the harvest equivalent to 875 square feet (an estimated 40lbs), a planting/growing workshop, a whole-grains cooking workshop, participation in our 2nd Annual Harvest Party and ThreshFest, and help arranging milling. You will also have access to come check on the growing grain throughout the summer. Please note that a family/couple/friends are welcome to purchase a single share for $195, and can still all participate in the workshops. For example: a couple can purchase a single share, both come to all the workshops, and take home their single share of the harvest (approx. 40lbs). If you would like two shares in the harvest (approx. 80lbs), then you would purchase two shares ($195 x 2 shares = $390).
Timeline and Workshop & Event Dates
Sowing: Some of the grains were sown last fall. We will sow the spring wheat whenever there's a window between early March and mid-April.
Sowing and growing workshop: mid to late April (TBD based on weather)
Cooking with whole grains: early June
First Threshing: late July (TBD based on weather)
Second Threshing: late August (TBD based on weather)
Important Notes (aka Disclaimers)
YIELD
Island Grains participants will not have individual plots in 2010, but will receive a share of the communal grain that is harvested and threshed from the total area sown for the Island Grains project at Makaria Farm. We expect that each share will be around 40lbs, based on typical organic yields. However, we cannot guarantee a certain amount of grain. If the harvest is poor due to weather or pests, you could receive less than 40lbs. Of course, if the weather and growing are great, you could receive in excess of 40lbs.
VARIETIES
Your share will include varying amounts of the wheats and rye grown. If the wheat does well and the rye poorly, you may end up with more wheat and less rye, or vice versa.
THE WORK
In the case that we cannot obtain an operational threshing machine, participants are ultimately responsible for threshing their share of the harvest, given how long it would take us to thresh everyone's grain by hand. While we will have one official Harvest Party and ThreshFest, there may be two threshing days, given the differing maturity dates for the various grains. We will provide as much notice as we can, to ensure all participants can attend at least one of the harvests.
OUR COMMITMENT
As the host farm of the Island Grains project, our commitment is to grow, water, weed and cut the grain, in addition to hosting the workshops. Unfortunately, many factors are beyond a farmer's control, including weather: let's hope for a long, hot summer and a huge harvest!