Starting back in 2023, where we left off…. Harvest for 2023 was delayed by heavy rains, leaving farmer Steve with an opportunistic schedule for the heritage grains plot, especially as they had so many other paddocks to harvest first. Harvest of the heritage plot was finally completed on the 19th December, 2023 around the wet weather. Steve and Tan were very excited by the harvest yields but a lot of cleaning was still required to know the exact amounts. After four years of building up seed, the yields were large enough Steve could use his own equipment, hurrah! In the past a lot of the equipment was borrowed as it suited small quantities better. Despite the increase in yields over the seasons, even the Yecora which yielded the best of the four, was still half the yield of modern wheat varieties demonstrating one of the reasons why these grains aren’t seen around more often.
With harvesting done in December 2023, January 2024 was kicked off with cleaning grains, a busy time for all those on the farm. Yields for the heritage grains from December 2023 are summarised below as well as in the following table with a view on each mixes progression from 2020. From 40g of Yecora Steve and Tan now have 7 tonne!
December 2023 harvest:
Yecora – 7 tonne
Purple Straw – 5 tonne
Heritage Mix – 1 tonne
Dark Purple Mix – 120kg
FEBRUARY for us also turned in to a busy time for cleaning up as the bushfires swept through Pomonal. The 20 ft wall of fire that swept through our village ended as quickly as it started but the aftermath of clean up and regeneration will continue for years to come. The fire spread across our property too and came within a metre of our bakery and a few metres from our house (pictured below with trike in the foreground). We lost the trampoline, some fencing and a lot of vegetation. Fortunately and thankfully all our structures and buildings were saved. We left Pomonal the day the fire came through and stayed in Ballarat for a few days until we were told it was safe to come home.
Back to baking… MARCH saw us baking Yecora and Purple Straw loaves for markets, the first opportunity we’ve had to share with our customers the fruition and TASTES of the heritage trial plots! This was very exciting for us as it marked the culmination of four years of watching Steve and Tan building seed stock and the start of sharing the grains with the wider market. Nick chose to highlight the two grains by baking the Yecora in a free form loaf and the purple straw as a tin loaf because the flour and dough didn’t feel as strong as the dough the Yecora made. Both were made using just the single, freshly milled flour, water, salt and our wheat starter so that we could taste the flavours of the grain and hopefully any differences would be highlighted. Some customers from the market remarked that they were interested in trying something new and enjoyed the story of the grains, someone even said it reminded them of the Triticale bread they used to make. Based on flavor, texture and keeping quality (proper brown bread here!) we decided that it was the Yecora tin loaf for the win!
The purple straw loaf was considerably less grassy in flavor than the first trial loaf we made (see our Bread trials 2024 post for detail on our first loaves). Perhaps the grain was cleaner than what Nick had done or the flavor mellowed? Maybe our expectations had just changed, who knows really.
After alternating between Yecora and Purple Straw as our market special, Nick sprouted some black barley and folded that through the Yecora dough for a market special in September. The strong wheat flavour from the whole grain flour paired well with the sweetness of the barley, further brought out by the sprouting. Definitely a good bread flour to play with in our minds, either on it’s own or blending with other flours or additives. And definitely enough interest from our customers for us to pursue it.
In the launch of the new grains two of the bigger partnerships for Steve and Tan were Sovereign Foods, 100% Australian grown pantry produce and bulk foods distributor, and Elly’s Everyday. Elly shares her wholegrain sourdough bread making enthusiasm on her YouTube channels and has become a highly followed personality. Elly works with the Sovereign Foods team to help customers have a positive experience using new grains. Elly does the experiments and takes the guess work out of baking after using her home mill to grind fresh flour. So a good advocate for creating excitement about these new grains from Steve and Tan.
APRIL was another milestone as Steve and Tan said goodbye to wingman Noel. A trusted sidekick for Steve for the past twelve years, with a set of skills the farm will sorely miss. Good luck to Noel and family, sounds like retirement for Noel will still be busy!
Replanting of all four groups of seed stock was done in JUNE 2024. Steve and Tan decided to replant all four mixes again. To paraphrase Tan… “The heritage mix had a unique flavor so worth replanting to build stock. Autumn and Winter in 2024 had been considerably dry and in comparison to Spring 2023 the lines will have new challenges. So far (July 2024) the Yecora and Purple Straw are thriving, the heritage mix is doing better than last year but the dark purple is lacking in vigour.
AUGUST was again another big month with Steven and Tan taking two weeks off the farm! Longest holiday… like ever. And we were busy with our second little apprentice being born.
And the momentous occasions kept on rolling this year as we decided to adopt Steve and Tan’s little mill! We bought the Osttiroller mill in the hopes of carrying on the work they’ve started with the heritage grains from a bakers point of view as we can continue to keep their flour in our breads by milling it ourselves. Plus the added bonus of lowering our food miles and being able to buy grain directly from farmers we already know. Hopefully we can find more farmers who are as hospitable as these two and who are also willing to sell us grain directly.
Our next post will surely be about the trials and hopefully tribulations of using a mill in our micro bakery. There are a few new avenues to explore with the mill too, being great for our small but growing business that was looking for the next step in our baking adventures.
All photo credit from this post goes to Tan, with the exception of the bushfire and mill photos.
