Ben Lester (Courtesy photo)

Those committed to eating locally may have been stymied about where to find grains and flours that weren’t trucked in from somewhere in the Midwest. But now, due to increasing consumer demand, grains are produced by a growing number of farmers throughout New England, among them, Ben Lester of Shutesbury.

Lester, a member of the Northeast Organic Farmers’ Association (NOFA), owns Wheatberry Farm and Bakery and is the organizer of the Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA, which has been in operation since 2009. His Shutesbury farm is one of four that make up the CSA, which provides whole grains throughout Pioneer Valley, across the state, and even into Connecticut and Rhode Island. Lester will be a presenter at this year’s NOFA summer conference to be held Aug. 12 to 14 at UMass-Amherst. His presentation on growing grains will be tailored to the needs of the audience, he says, whether they want to learn about cultivating fields with draft animals or growing a small crop of grains for home use.

A CSA is a “community-supported agriculture” farming model where consumers buy “shares” of a harvest and also share in the farmer’s operating risk, risk which is minimized through diversified planting. Lester says that consumer interest in the grain CSA has grown since the operation started. Last year, he says, the CSA distributed 10,000 pounds of grains to its members, who numbered 120. This year the goal is to distribute 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of grain to 250 customers. According to Lester, about half the CSA’s customers own grain mills, but for those who don’t, there is the option of grinding grains at Lester’s Wheatberry Bakery in Amherst.

The grain distribution typically takes place once a year, in December, when members pick up their shares at a designated location in or around Amherst. Lester says the CSA is just starting to sell shares for this year’s crop. A full share in the grain CSA costs $375 for about 100 pounds of unmilled grains, including heritage wheat, dry beans, heritage dent corn, rye, and spelt. Half shares are also available for $225. Lester says that whole grains stored in cool, dry conditions “will store indefinitely,” and notes that the baking quality of wheat actually improves over time.

Lester says that, just as interest in the grain CSA has grown, so has interest in “growing your own,” as seen in the increasing number of home gardeners who have been in attendance at NOFA’s twice-yearly conferences. And people’s interest hasn’t been limited to growing fruits and vegetables. Some are eager to learn about growing grains. But is growing grain for home use feasible? According to Lester, it is. He says that grains grown in a 50-by-50-foot plot could provide a family with enough flour for a year. A plot that size would likely have to be hand-harvested and hand-threshed, he acknowledges, but estimates that it would involve about only 10 hours of work. For those interested in grinding their own flour for baking, Lester says there are “all sorts of grain mills” on the market, from hand grinders to electric models. He says the hand models are good for milling up to 2 cups of flour at a time, but for larger quantities he recommends investment in an electric grain mill. For those who would rather not grow their own, there are plenty of shares left for this year’s grain crop from the Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA.

Ben Lester will be teaching the workshop “Animal-Powered Community Grains” Sunday, Aug. 14, at the NOFA Summer Conference, at UMass Amherst. To register, go to www.nofasummerconference.org.  For more information about local grains, visit www.localgrain.org.