The University of Illinois Extension in McLean County is working on a number of local foods projects, including the Grand Prairie Grain Guild. (Carrie Muehling/WJBC)
By Carrie Muehling
BLOOMINGTON – Farmers who grow grain are entering into the local food movement.
A strong local food movement around the country has traditionally focused on fruits and vegetables, available at farmers markets and community supported agriculture programs. The Grand Prairie Grain Guild offers an opportunity for area farmers to grow grain and mill it locally for use by bakers and chefs.
“The idea is that we mill grain and turn it into flour and distribute it out through this network. And then we have a Facebook group for the Guild where we share information. We take a given variety of wheat and grind it into flour and see if it makes a good loaf of bread, or if it is better suited to pasta or pizza or some other use,” said Bill Davison, Local Food Systems Educator with the University of Illinois Extension in McLean County.
Davison said of all the things he is working on, this brand new project has had the most interest from farmers who believe it has tremendous potential. Davison believes low commodity prices could begin to put more pressure on traditional farmers and they may be looking for alternatives.
“One of the really nice things about this project is that it applies to someone with five acres of land or 2,000. They all can be a part of it. It allows them to diversify their marketing, get more control over their marketing, and potentially get higher prices,” said Davison.
While the project is currently small scale, using an eight-foot table top mill, Davison said there is interest in investing in a large scale mill and gaining access to the Chicago market. Davison said while the farmers are vital, one of the biggest needs right now is end users and also people who would be able to build infrastructure and provide transportation for the products at different stages of the process. The group communicates primarily using social media and Facebook.
Normal Seed Library
Davison also recently introduced the Normal Seed Library, which is housed in an old card catalog at the Normal Public Library. The seed library is a community resource for sharing seeds. It currently includes wildflowers, vegetables, roots and tubers and should become more comprehensive over time.
Davison will host a meeting Jan. 22 from 6-8 p.m. at the library to talk about winter planting and share some more seeds.
Normal Food Forest
Another long term project getting its start in 2015 is the Normal Food Forest at 1 Normal Plaza. A partnership with the Town of Normal, the one acre site will eventually be an urban orchard with multiple layers including fruit and nut trees, grapes and berries for community harvest. Volunteers will plant the first plants and trees in March and they plan to get the community involved. Signage will help people to know when what is growing is ripe and ready for harvest. About 70 volunteers are signed up to tend the forest, including Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists. Davison said there will not be much to harvest the first year, but berries and grapes should be available next year. It will likely take three to five years before fruit trees are producing.
Carrie Muehling can be reached at [email protected].
