Today I finally wrote a column I have wanted to write for six months. The words finally percolated up into my keyboard and now I am writing about . . . the magical organic Sonora wheat berries I bought at the Painted Hills Festival in Mitchell last September.
The festival features vendors who make, grow or raise local products. I wandered around and stopped in front of a table piled high with Ziploc bags filled with five pounds each of wheat berries and whole wheat flour. I struck up a conversation with John Campbell, the person who grew it. I learned he was a retired farmer and had grown half an acre of the wheat on his property in Prineville using old-fashioned farming methods.
I was so pleased to have a bag of locally grown grain to grind up in my flour mill. When I milled it, the first thing I noticed was its color. Although the flour was whole wheat, the berries produced a fine, fluffy white flour. Waffles were the first thing I tried. The batter behaved differently than the waffles I made with ordinary all-purpose flour. When I stirred the batter, it was spongy and stretchy and moved as if it was charged with electricity. The waffles were delicious and had a crisp, crunchy crust and a tender center. Then I made pancakes and the same thing happened; the centers were soft and the exteriors crunchy. The flour made a lighter baked good than those made with standard whole wheat flour. All the baked goods had a rich and nutty flavor. Touché! I had found the best of both worlds in this flour; the nutrition and substance of whole wheat and the lightness of refined flour.
I was curious about the folks who grew this wheat in their backyard. John’s girlfriend, Dee, gave me her card at the festival so I rang her up. We agreed to meet at the Madras Truck Stop Café and I planned to pepper them with questions.
We met a couple of Fridays ago and hearing about how John grew the wheat captivated me. The variety is naturally drought resistant. He said the soil was very dry last year, yet the wheat still produced a plump berry in spite of it. Sonora is an old wheat variety and isn’t “new and improved”.
I’m out of space so stay tuned for next week’s episode. Then I will tell you more about our chat and give you a recipe, too. And tell you how to buy some of this summer’s upcoming harvest. You can also meet up with John at the Painted Hills Festival in September.