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Notes from a Farmer New bird sounds these last February days portend the obvious: we will be farming in a month! And as the moisture continues here in the Methow, we are hopeful for good soil conditions to farm in. But let’s continue on, as promised, with what adds quality to our grains here at Bluebird and go back to harvest.
Once we’ve grown out our grains to their full potential—a cycle that is always surprisingly short (60 days from emergence to finish)—then we need to allow our grains to ripen. Because quality grains must ripen, or “cure” on the stalk, most quality, hard grains are grown in a dry climate; Eastern Washington certainly is that. Generally, it takes 5 weeks of dry, hot weather before our grains are cured to harvest. In that time, the berries harden up and we harvest all our grains at less than 8% moisture. By so doing, we assure excellent “storability” of our grains, and never worry about molding, insects etc.
We haul our grains direct from the fields up to our various granaries here. Our primary granaries are wooden and our cleaning line is set up to pull grain just from these wooden granaries where all grain is kept at least two months prior to cleaning to get further “conditioned” by the wood.
Our cleaning line has a variety of machines and in the end; our grain is not only cleaned and sorted by size, but by weight as well. This way we can select or grade our whole grains and blend our grains for milling. Our “heaviest” emmer is what we sell as our primo farro for cooking.
We do not clean any of our grains very long before they are milled or sold. This way, we preserve the quality of their fresh state as long as possible until sold direct to our customers. The emmer itself needs to be hulled, then sized and cleaned and it is amazing how the husk of the emmer preserves the berries themselves. Once we “release” it from the hull a wonderful aroma takes over the storage barrels. The emmer farro then gets sacked or milled to order within a week.
The same is true for our other wheats and rye. We tally our orders on Friday so that on Saturday we know how much of each grain to clean and mill to be shipped the following week. Various screen sizes allow us to offer a few different “grinds” of flour and cracked grains that we mill on two different mills here at the granary. By cleaning and milling to order within a week’s time, we feel we’ve done our best to deliver the freshest product we can to our customers and thus done our job to preserve our grains’ integrity.
And so, quality comes in many ways here at Bluebird and this is why we feel it is important to be, as they say these days, “vertically integrated.” We hope the intimacy we have with our products is realized when you open our packages and cook/bake them up! Thank you all for enjoying our goods!
Happy Spring,
Farmer Sam
Bluebird News
Baking Class
Brooke just had the pleasure of baking and sharing our flour with students from the Art Institute of Seattle Artisan Baking Class. Teacher and chef Laura Feldman is at champ at promoting local ingredients- thank you, Laura! We baked four different batches of biscuits using our Hard White Wheat Flour- fine grind, Hard Red Wheat Flour- med grind, Emmer Flour- fine grind, and Soft White Cake flour- fine grind. Hard Red Wheat and Emmer biscuits were voted most flavorful while soft white wheat biscuits were most like a traditional biscuit. Hard White Biscuits got a little burned! Ooops.
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 Bluebird Grain Farms now has a page on Facebook. Keep up with the latest news and even catch a new recipe or two.
New Bluebird Staff
Bluebird welcomes two new folks! We’re happy to have Michelle Pearsons of Ballard as our new Seattle Market Manager. Michelle will be opening the Bluebird booths on the last weekend of April. We look forward to connecting with our market customers.
Welcome Kris Borgias as our new Granary Manager. Kris will be starting this month—just in time for spring planting!
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Recipe of the Month
 In this twist on the traditional Ukranian beet soup, farro wheatberries provide a hearty, chewy texture and nutty flavor. Low in calories and high in fiber, potassium, iron, and Vitamin C, beets nourish the bloodstream and purify the body. With the farro’s additional fiber and protein, the borscht is a savory, cleansing complement to a red meat dish or a satisfying main course on its own. For an iron-rich meal, serve with spinach salad and a crusty dark bread such as Bluebird’s Rye Bread with Yogurt and Caraway Seeds.
Customer Profile: Stewart Dietz of Stewart Dietz Catering
Stewart Dietz can’t claim to have cooking in her blood, but she is proof that nature can overcome nurture. “We were a Hamburger Helper family,” says Stew. “Dinner came from a box or a can.” Food was a life-sustaining element of her childhood, not a source of creativity or particular pleasure.
“For me cooking wasn’t a hobby,” laughs Stew, “it was a survival skill.” The gift of a Snoopy hot dog cooker enabled Stew to begin cooking her own after-school snacks. She’d race home, pop a nitrate-filled wiener in the cooker, put a bun in the steamer, and sit back and wait for her home-cooked meal. Ah, bliss!
 These days Stew’s tastes—and sensibilities—run to fresh, organic foods, but that Snoopy cooker (as well as her roasty-toasty miniature baking oven with ready-bake cakes) launched Stew’s sense of confidence with preparing foods for her own and others’ enjoyment. In boarding school Stew’s entrepreneurial spirit emerged and she began baking treats in the dorm kitchen, then selling the goodies throughout the girls’ dorm. As the students sat down to their nightly studies, Stew passed through the dorm with trays of fresh-baked sweets, earning pocket change as well as the appreciation of her classmates.
The baking bug bit Stew and never really let go. When she moved to the Methow Valley in 1994, she worked as a waitress at the Mazama Country Inn. Inspired by her completion of an artisan bread baking program and her discovery that there were no fresh baked goods available for guests at the Inn, Stew started coming in before her shifts to bake muffins, scones, and cakes. She then moved next door and started a bakery at the Mazama Store, eliminating the store’s dependence on down-valley bakeries for fresh breads and pastries.
Stew’s background in professional cooking is eclectic. She worked at a high-end restaurant in Texas, cooking traditional Southwestern cuisine. Roasting meats on a mesquite grill and hand-shaping tortillas gave Stew an appreciation for fresh ingredients prepared in an authentic manner. Later she worked at Seattle’s Raison d’etre, which reinforced her ideas about the value of fresh foods prepared deliberately.
Raison d’etre was very stimulating and inspiring for Stew. Chef Stacey Coleman and his wife made everything from scratch, with the utmost attention to detail. “I was in awe,” Stew says, “they were in control of the quality of each aspect of their menu, from hand-picking each mushroom from the mushroom vendor to making their own Kahlua-bourbon sauce.”
Every chef and caterer she has worked with, says Stew, has treated food preparation with a similar integrity and commitment to quality and authenticity. Stew learned to make every component of a meal, from sauces to sweets, from scratch. “It’s very demanding to cook this way,” notes Stew, “because you are building dishes out of individual ingredients, herbs, and spices. You’re toasting nuts, picking fresh herbs, kneading each loaf of bread.” The result of such dedication to quality, says Stew, is undeniably remarkable food.
Today, Stew brings this same approach to quality and authenticity to her own catering business. Clients are increasingly interested in local and seasonal ingredients, which makes it easier for Stew to prepare lovely and delicious dishes, while also saving the clients money. “If they want a tomato salad for a May wedding,” says Stew, “I tell them it’s possible. But the tomatoes will be shipped from California and they will be light pink and firm. But if they’ll consider an asparagus salad instead, we can get fresh-picked asparagus right here the day before the wedding, the presentation will be more pleasing, the flavor will be incredible, and it will cost less than the tomatoes.”
Having access to Bluebird Grain Farms products, says Stew, makes her job even easier and more interesting. “I love whole grain farro,” says Stew, echoing what many chefs tell us. “It’s incredibly versatile and it’s so fun to eat, with that chewy texture and nutty flavor. And I love that it’s grown right here, in an organic and sustainable way by a small family farm. My clients value that, too.”
Stew met Brooke and Sam when she first moved to the Methow Valley and she later catered their wedding, initiating what none of them knew at the time would develop into a professional relationship based on fresh, organic grains and flours. Had Bluebird Grain Farms been in business at the time of Brooke and Sam’s wedding, Stew very likely would have served a cold summer salad made of farro. Now such salads are popular at the weddings and other events she caters.
 Stew also loves to use emmer flour combined with other flours in her baking. Stew’s family loves the muffins, fresh breads, and pizza Stew develops for them using Bluebird flours. A great believer in trial-and-error experimentation, Stew has recently created an emmer flour pasta that is both tasty and nutritious. And it’s pretty clear that with such yummy—and healthy—foods around the house, Stew’s two young children will never need their own Snoopy hot dog cooker.
For more information visit Stewart Dietz Catering.
Methow Valley Vacation Packages
Last chance to win an AMAZING PACKAGE for two nights stay at Sun Mountain Lodge and 3 day Rendezvous HUT Trip, and a dinner for two at Arrowleaf Bistro of Winthrop. Ticket will be drawn this coming Saturday, March 13th. Great odds. Your ticket purchase supports the Methow Valley Community School Scholarship Fund. Call the office 509.996.4447 to purchase (and tell them that we sent you!)
See the official poster, and fill out an entry form today. |
