Candace Krebs
The Ag Journal
When Todd Olander and his wife, Emily, opened the doors of their new malt house in August 2016, they expected the product to fly out the door.
Instead, it took several months of pounding the pavement to sell the first 2,000 pounds as the couple attempted to convince craft brewers across the northern Front Range to give them a try.
“We thought we’d made a big mistake,” Olander recalled recently.
But after they hired a full-time salesman with a background in brewing, the tide turned.
“In 2017, we were able to pay our bills, so that was a success for us,” Olander said.
Candace Krebs
The Ag Journal
The American affinity for fine, white flour and soft, bland bread has led to deficiencies of fiber and other nutritional compounds, something heritage grain advocates are hoping to fix by bringing more diversity to everything from crop mixes to bread dough.
Greater appreciation of traditional grains and milling techniques could provide a healthy source of nutrition while creating unique opportunities for rural and cultural development, according to an international panel of experts who appeared during a free public forum hosted by the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Grain School in April.
The online event was co-hosted with the Bread Lab at Washington State University, which prioritizes nutrition and flavor in its plant breeding program.
Grain School returns to UCCS in April event uccs.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from uccs.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Candace Krebs
The Ag Journal
Seeds of heirloom corn and other food crops are a collective inheritance that should be carefully stewarded with special regard for the ancient ancestors who did the wise work to bring them into being, according to a leader in the seed saving movement.
Rowen White is the founder of the Indigenous Seed Keeping Network. She lives and works on a 10-acre farm in northern California that serves as a living seed bank with more than 400 varieties of heirloom crops.
White talked about the importance of reciprocity and accountability, at a time when so much of seed development has been privatized, during a recent grain forum hosted by the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in collaboration with the Colorado Grain Chain and Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.
Colorado Grain Chain Project Award supports expanding markets for Colorado grain growers uccs.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from uccs.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.