The Grain Reaper: Pedersen Farms
Rick Pedersen of Pedersen Farms grows heritage grains and processes them using this antique fanning mill. (Photo by James Farrell
)
Rick Pedersen is a very patient man.
Case in point: Horton rye, an extra-spicy
heirloom rye that he cultivated from a small envelope of seeds from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for a project with
New York Distilling Co. in Brooklyn. Co-owners Allen Katz and Tom Potter approached Pedersen, seeking an heirloom rye with New York ties for their rye whiskey. From that first contact to mashing took seven years, as the few seeds they started with had to be planted, harvested, and repopulated over and over to obtain enough grain to mash and distill.
High hopes for New York-developed malting barley
EMPIRE MALTING BARLEY: Malting barley variety trials are seen, including varieties developed by the lab of Mark Sorrells, at one of the university’s test plots in Batavia, N.Y. Sorrells is one of the lead researchers for CU-31. CU-31, a spring malting barley, was developed in four years and will be grown for commercial seed in 2021.
Francis Domoy has grown what’s considered to be New York’s first climate-adapted grain. But it’s not corn or soybeans. It’s malting barley.
“The variety has demonstrated great uniformity, plump kernels, stiffness and large head size,” says Domoy, who grew the variety CU-31 in his Rochester fields this year for seed.
December 17, 2020
The first variety of spring malting barley bred by Cornell to succeed in New York’s wet climate and support the state’s $5.4 billion craft beer industry just got a new name: Excelsior Gold.
Formerly called CU-31, the barley got its name as a result of a contest co-hosted this fall by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.
Richard Ball, commissioner of Ag and Markets, announced Excelsior Gold to more than 100 attendees from across the craft beverage supply chain at this year’s virtual Empire State Barley and Malt Summit, Dec. 16.