![]() ![]() In 2009, they finally planted wheat specifically for human consumption. For several years, Nash and Sam planted barley, rye and vetch for animal feed and cover crops. It increases soil fertility in a very economical way, provides a dry cycle crop to rotate with the organic vegetables for pest and weed control, and it stores nutrition in the dry berries for people and animals over relatively long periods of time. Grain is grown at Nash’s for several important reasons, outside of its importance as a marketable product. That work, plus their own study and experiments, convinced Nash and Sam that the farm could produce high quality grain in enough volume to be reliable and profitable. Every year for three years, Nash and Sam planted as many as 20 different red and white wheat varieties on tiny plots looking for the ones that could resist disease and yield high protein for baking. The objective was to determine the relationship between external factors (climate, soil, variety) and value-added traits (nutritional content, yield, disease resistance, baking quality). Kevin Murphy and Stephen Jones from Washington State University were preparing to run organic wheat trials in four locations in Western Washington and asked Nash’s farm to participate. They finally bought some soft white wheat seed from Gene and planted their first wheat crop. Over the next few years, Sam and Nash experimented with small crops of other kinds of grain, such as triticale and oats. Soon after, barley was planted for chicken and pig feed. Nash had decided to incorporate cover cropping into the farm’s soil-nutrient program, so their first grain crop was rye/vetch. In the early 2000s, Nash and Sam McCullough located an old Massey-Harris grain combine in Dungeness and Sam got it running again. In recent years, only a few local farmers, like Gene Adolphsen, have been growing grain, but it is still a reliable crop for the Sequim Valley. Today the rail line is gone and the grain elevator is a silent witness to a time when Sequim actually produced and exported cash crops. It was built to store wheat, barley, dried peas and oats for area farmers and to load them directly into the rail cars for export to the Seattle market and beyond. For a small town like Sequim, that was a big investment in infrastructure. The grain elevator on the west end of town was built in the early 1940s, next to a railroad line. * It provides organic feed for hogs, cattle and poultry.īetween 18, Western Washington was a significant wheat region. * It increases product diversity for the farm and provides organic, freshly milled flour. * Disease and pest cycles found in green, lush vegetables are broken when the same soil is planted in grain, which has a dry harvest cycle. * The straw adds stable organic matter to the soil and increases fertility. After the "wheat frontier" had passed through an area, more diversified farms generally took its place.Īt Nash's, grain has been incorporated into our crop rotations in an effort to follow a more sustainable model of agriculture. This would lead to nutrient depletion in the soil. Quite often, grain was planted without rotating to other crops. In cooler regions, wheat was often the crop of choice when lands were newly settled, leading to a "wheat frontier" that moved westward over the course of years. In the 18th century, farms spread westward from the American colonies along with settlers. It also has long been an important component in crop rotations worldwide, and farmers throughout the ages have planted grain to enhance the fertility of their fields, as well as feed themselves. Once harvested, it can remain viable and nutritious for several years, if it kept dry, cool, and free of pests. Grain is the most efficient way that humans have found to store food energy. Sustainability on the North Olympic Peninsula How Buying Local Builds a Stronger Local Communityīuying Local Builds a Sustainable Community.Declining Nutrients in Conventional Agriculture.Organic Farming: Better for the Environment ![]() Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC) ![]()
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