Here and There Grain Project

The Project

Why buy local dry goods?

Engage in a re-emerging market that promotes climate-resilient farming practices
Directly support local agricliture
Incorporate more nutrient-dense whole foods into your diet
They taste great!

What we do

A community oriented agriculture project with a vision, Here and There Grain Project is many things—a peri-urban farm, a seed cleaning facility, and a mill for locally grown staple crops (primarily grains) on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

As farmers and millers, we pour our attention into each rotation. In the fields, we rotate crops with a keen awareness of our impacts on soil health—what we take from the land, we must give back. In the mill room, we rotate milling stones; every pass integrates the natural oils and mineral content into our flour, producing nutrient-dense whole flours.

With each harvest, farmers in this corner of Massachusetts are filling the bellies of friends and neighbors, making our communities more resilient and healthier, reducing our carbon footprint, and reconnecting folks with the land. It’s a stark contrast to the factory farms with their singular goal of productivity, a mission that has caused massive soil degradation and fertilizer dependency globally.

This toll that the factory framework has taken is felt by the local farmer and by the land. As we look for ways to make our farming practices more sustainable, we are called to remember that this land that we grow on is not ours. We share these fields with the life beneath our feet and growing above our heads, and even on our busiest days we must make time to fill our role in this reciprocal relationship, to make time for giving back, here and there.

This project is just getting started and wouldn’t be possible without the unblinking support of farmers and friends. For every rye field, every unseized carriage bolt, and apple cider straight from the press, thank you.

Why winter grains?

Winter rye and winter wheat can grow for 295 days, making them one of the longest annual crops. During this time they cover our soil, photosynthesizing in the shoulder seasons, their roots becoming the chip leaders at the microbial poker table in the rhizosphere. For the vegetable farmer, after periods of cultivation and productivity, it becomes important to rest their fields. Winter grains enable farmers to fallow their fields without entirely foregoing a marketable food offering.

In the late summer or fall, after a vegetable crop is harvested we plant wheat or rye. In the early spring, these hearty grasses with their firm hold on life can be grazed to promote tillering, giving our ruminant friends an opportunity to deposit some organic fertility on our fields. We often seed a nitrogen-fixing legume like clover near the final frost date, our winter grains act as a nursery for the clover and when the grain is harvested off as a mid-summer cash crop, the clover is ready to take off and nourish, aerate and protect the soil through another winter, readying the field to return to vegetable production the following summer.

Collaborating Farmers:

Alprilla Farm, Essex, MA -

Sophie and Noah have farmed an “archipelago” of fields off of John Wise Ave since 2009 with their oxen, Cedar and Clay, their dog Ailah, a practical understanding of their landscape and a respect for its ecosystems. Their plan was always to do what was best for the land and their energy went into making sure that each part of their farming business interacted with one another—raising beef cattle, making hay, growing produce for a winter vegetable CSA, and small-scale grain raising—all parts of their operation were intended to create a whole farm organism. In 2021 they made the challenging decision to move from their location in Essex up to Warner, NH, the town where Sophie grew up, to pursue a long-term vision that they outlined in their August 2021 letter to their community - link.

While thinning fields of carrots in the thick summer sun and clay soil of Alprilla Farm, Noah, Sophie and Andrew exchanged stories of bread making, grain production and the challenges unique to our region; these conversations often punctuated with, "what a good question!" or, "how does that work?" provoked an interest in crop planning and soil management stategies for Andrew that evolved into a project, the Here and There Grain Project. As far as generously lent time and equipment goes, Noah and Sophies are some of the best; and in the 2022 season, while Noah and Sophie were busy building the infrastructure at their new location, Andrew was the boots on the ground working the Alprilla fields with grains growing quickly, taking over the grain drying and milling, assisting Noah with the seeding and harvesting.

The grains grown at Alprilla Farm in the 2022 season benefited from the moisture-holding ability of their dense clay soils in what was an extremely dry summer in Essex, Massachusetts. The rye and wheat flours produced are some of the freshest, continuing to serve the North Shore a delicious, nourishing whole grain.

Iron Ox Farm, Hamilton, MA -

Alex and Stacey have cultivated fields in Gloucester, Topfield, and now finally in Hamilton at the former site of Green Meadows Farm via a 99-year lease with Essex County Greenbelt. The farm is quickly becoming a food hub and community resource as they host pop-up markets for local makers, artists and farmers and welcome fellow food organizations to share space; the land is now home to Solid Ground Gardens, Nourishing the North Shore, Hilltop Farm Honey, Little Gem Farm Dinners and Here and There Grain Project.

Alex and Stacy have a sensible approach to land stewardship as their farmlands are often covered in mulch, sheep, diverse cover crops, flowers, and the care-taking hands of the many volunteers and dedicated farm crew members. As Here and There Grain Project looked at getting some rye seeded for the 2022-23 winter growing season, Alex was plotting a course towards grain raising at Iron Ox and the partnership took shape. When an opportunity to purchase a 1950’s Allis Chalmers All Crop combine came up, Alex and Andrew decided to go for it—a versatile tow-behind combine, the All Crop fits the scale well though a few applications of elbow grease will be required before the steel meets the field.

Our Grains

'Expedition' Hard Red Wheat -

A wheat variety known for its winter hardiness, high test weight and excellent milling and baking qualities, Expedition saw its second successful growing season at Alprilla Farm this year. We will remember this summer for its extended drought, but the spring in Essex saw cool temps and above average rainfall that left this wheat with a pretty low protein. We love it in pie crust, biscuits, pancakes, etc. We have made a whole wheat slow rise sourdough with just this flour—it has exceptional flavor!—though you’ll find it with lower protein than a true bread wheat, it is not a high riser unless you mix in some white flour.

Rye -

Rye, the new (or is it old) AP flour. Breads, crackers, gingerbread cookies, porridge, batters, cakes—the versatility and pairings are really fun to experiment with! Grown primarily in the northern hemisphere, rye is an important staple crop in Europe and Asia. Aside from making excellent whiskey here in the US, we’re increasingly focused on its production for its potential to build soil, tolerate extreme weather, and generally support farmers’ triple-bottom line.

This rye variety is unnamed but tasty as could be! Harvested under the light of a full moon in July.

'Sangaste' Rye flour -

We’re thrilled to offer some Iron Ox Farm grown 2023 rye flour. It is no small feat for a diversified vegetable farm to incorporate cereal grain production into their crop rotation. Sangaste rye is a stunner. Standing 8-10ft tall, this rye has been cultivated since 1875 in Estonia. It is currently the oldest cultivated variety of rye, bred by the “Count of Rye” to capture regional landrace traits for winter hardiness, spike length, and kernel size. Sangaste is not among the top varieties for grain yield, but it’s known for its culinary quality. We are still learning how its flavor compares to other rye varieties, but our friends tell us it's "golden".

We have decided to blend the 2023 ‘Sangaste’ rye with the 2022 Alprilla-grown rye this year because as the millers, blending grains gives us an opportunity to elevate a desired trait—flavor, texture, or locale for example—of a grain that we want to mill with, but are in short supply of.

'Danko' Rye flour -

Danko rye is of Polish origin, developed in the 1970’s for the primary purpose of milling flour that features prominently in European style baking. It grows dense seed heads on shorter stalks that we appreciate in the field for its uniformity and resistence to lodging. Our Danko rye flour has a bit lower falling numbers than our unnamed rye variety, which sourdough rye bread bakers might find interesting to experiment with.