Bluebird Grain Farms

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Happy New Year! We are excited to dive into another year of growing and processing our organic whole grains. There’s always something new to be learned in farming, and we’re looking forward to applying our knowledge gleaned from the 2016 growing season. This is an especially important year for all of us to push forward on our work of environmental stewardship, improving our local food system, and growing our communities, so let’s go out and get some work done!

We are excited to introduce our new team member Kevin Olsonawski!  Kevin has moved to the Methow Valley from Colorado and will be overseeing our grain cleaning and milling operations.  Here’s a note from Kevin: “After growing up on a wheat farm in the Red River Valley of northern Minnesota, I studied geology, moved out west, and immediately fell in love with the mountains and the recreation they have to offer. For 8 years, I tramped around the hills of the Great Basin in northern Nevada, looking for gold in the summers and working as a professional ski patroller in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Lake Tahoe in the winters. I then found a job guiding skiers in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado and was hired by the State of Colorado in water resources to pass time in the summers working with ranchers and their water rights. After finding an open position at Bluebird Grain Farms, I saw it as a great opportunity to do something I could feel passionate about while being closer to family that lives here in the Methow Valley. I am now very grateful to be part of an operation that is passionate about providing good, quality, healthy food in a great community that is as friendly and welcoming as anywhere I have ever been.” We’re looking forward to skiing some North Cascades powder with you Kevin!

Many of you have asked us for advice on what the best home-sized counter top mill is, but we’ve never trialed one we felt really good about until now….we’re excited to announce a partnership with Royal Lee Organics to offer their Lee Household Mill!   We ran a trial on this mill and were very impressed with its durability and grind quality. It’s also the only one we’ve used that works well with our heritage wheat and rye as well as our emmer and Einka farro.  Now you can mill flour in small batches as you need it- it doesn’t get fresher than that!  We’ve always prided ourselves on offering the freshest flour on the market (milled to order weekly), but we wanted an option for our customers who wanted to take things one step further. Using freshly milled flour makes a huge difference in the flavor of bread and other baked goods, so if you’re a committed home baker we urge you to give this product a try! You can watch a video on how it works here.

Thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word about Bluebird through our Refer a Friend program. A trusted referral is the best compliment a business can recieve from its customers. We have had some technical difficulties with the server side of the program, so please let Brad (brad@bluebirdgrainfarms.com) know if you are experiencing any problems with referral coupons or have other feedback on the program.

News from the Staff: Brad, our Marketing and Outreach Coordinator, is the lucky new father of Aurora Wolff Halm! Aurora was born on Nov. 28 at 7 lbs 10 oz and 20 inches long (she’s already 2 months old!).  Sheah, our CSA Coordinator, was married this past fall to her partner Jay at Falls Creek Falls in Winthrop, WA  Looks like an awesome ceremony!  Congrats Brad and Sheah!