What a delight it was to welcome Urban Grain members to Cedar Isle Farm on August 21st. We’d like to thank everyone who journeyed out to Agassiz and shared their enthusiasm for local grain. Here are a few of Yoshi’s photos to remember the day. Stay tuned for news of the harvest soon!

After a cool, wet spring, the wheat is now maturing fast.

Members hand-threshed some heritage wheat, and viewed one of the cleaning machines separate the wheat from the chaff.

During the hay ride, members checked the different varieties of wheat.

Jeff was the lucky winner of a spectacular basket of specialty flours kindly donated by Anita’s Organic Mill, where Urban Grains CSA flour is milled.

A local bear and cub made a special guest appearance during the tour.

Thanks to Yoshi Sugiyama for all the photos!

Greetings Urban Grains CSA Members!

We have a new date for the Urban Grains CSA Farm Visit and Grain Tour… Sunday, August 21st. Again, we apologize for having to postpone this event, and really hope you can attend on the 21st.  Looking forward to seeing you!

We cordially invite you to join us for a visit to Cedar Isle Farm, hosted by Jim, Diane and their children. The main attractions are, of course, the grain plantings that are working hard this year to outgrow the weeds and mature as quickly as possible. You’ll have a chance to see the fields before the grain is harvested.

After a tour of the farm, we’ll sit down for a picnic lunch (please bring your own) and enjoy the scenery.

Driving out to Cedar Isle takes about an hour and a half if you’re coming from Vancouver centre, so please budget your morning accordingly.

When: Sunday August 21st - meet at the farm at 10:30am

Where: Cedar Isle Farm in Agassiz, B.C. (directions will be emailed to you when you RSVP)

What to bring: A picnic meal for you and your guests, water if it’s hot, a blanket for sitting on and reasonable shoes for field-walking, hat for sun etc.

How to get there: Group transportation will not be provided, but we strongly encourage car-pooling as much as possible to lessen the environmental impact of the trip, and to make sure everyone can find a space to park. We have set up a blog post for the purpose of matching up folks who need rides with drivers who have space in their car. In case you’re hesitant to provide personal information, the post is password protected, so it will only be visible to the Urban Grains community. Details are provided in an email sent to all members.

Please RSVP if you’ll be joining in and tell us how many people will be in your party. (Feel free to bring your families along, or the person who’s splitting your share, but please refrain from bringing too many guests. We will be a large enough group descending on the farm!)
We look forward to seeing you there!

- The Urban Grains Team

The Farm Visit and Grain Tour - originally scheduled for this Saturday, August 6^th - has been postponed due to a family health issue.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience the change causes and greatly appreciate your understanding.

We’re looking forward to seeing you and really hope that you can make it on a new date, which will be announced soon.

Thank you, and best wishes from

Jim, Diane and the family and the Urban Grains CSA team.

Green, green, green. This is what Cedar Isle looks like now.

We are thrilled to be growing grain again, and excited that the 2011 wheat-growing season is well underway. Despite an unusually cool, wet spring, this year’s wheat crop was planted on time and is developing well.

Now, we invite you to join the Urban Grains CSA, and receive a delicious share of local, freshly-milled, whole grain wheat flour.

Here’s how it works: Urban Grains CSA members pay up front to receive four 5kg bags of whole grain flour, milled at Anita’s Organic Grain & Flour Mill in Chilliwack from grain grown at Cedar Isle Farm in Agassiz. This 100-mile whole grain flour is milled from the entire wheat kernel. Unlike other flours, it contains all of the nutritious germ and all of the bran of the whole grain. This year, CSA members can expect to receive flour from hard red spring wheat (suitable for bread and other baking) and soft white spring wheat (for pastry, cookies and other baking). Members are also invited to view their grain growing in the field during the popular, children-friendly farm visit … on a date in August, soon to be announced. After the harvest, members pick up their share of flour at a central Vancouver location(s) that will be announced well in advance.

We hope you will join Urban Grains CSA to support locally-grown grain and benefit from the fresh, healthy flour from the 2011 harvest. But please don’t delay. Shares normally sell out quickly.

On the registration form (download form here) you will see further details and instructions for payment. Urban Grains CSA shares are $95.00 per share. There are three options for payment - (1) cheque or money order, made out to ; or (2) direct deposit to our Vancity bank account (branch #31; account 151951; Independent Business Account) from any Vancity branch in your neighbourhood (see form for confirmation details) or (3) direct transfer from your Vancity account to ours.

Choose whichever is easiest for you. If you choose to make your payment via Vancity - online or in a branch - please be sure to note your name with the transaction and attach the details to your registration form. This helps us to match your registration payment to our deposit records.

Then simply forward your completed registration form (download form here) with payment or receipt/confirmation to “Urban Grains CSA, Cedar Isle Farm”, at the address noted on the form. Shares will be available until we fill all 250 of this season’s spots. We will send a confirmation email to alert you that your registration has reached us.

We hope you will become a member of Urban Grains CSA.

Here’s to another great Urban Grains CSA season! Stay tuned to our website as we share news of the season at the farm and upcoming events.

How about we finish off this gorgeous weekend with some sweets? Urban Grains member Meg Whetung has kindly shared two cookie recipes with us. Both came to her via Molly Wizenberg’s blog, Orangette, a delectable little corner of the internet written from Seattle, Washington (where you can also find more background on these recipes).

Meg has used Urban Grains flour in both of these recipes, which call for whole grain flours, with great results. If you’re trying either of them out, why not send us a note or photos to share your results!

Whole Wheat Sablés with Cacao Nibs

From Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies

2 cups (9 oz.) whole wheat pastry flour, OR 1 cup (4.5 oz.) all-purpose flour plus 1 scant cup (4 oz.) whole
wheat flour
14 Tbsp. (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (3 ½ oz.) sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup (about 1 ¼ oz.) roasted cacao nibs

If using the two flours, combine them in a bowl, and mix with a whisk or fork.

In a medium bowl, with a large spoon or an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar, salt, and
vanilla until smooth and creamy but not fluffy, about 1 minute (with the mixer). Scrape down the sides
of the bowl with a spatula, and add the nibs. Beat briefly to incorporate. Add the flour, and mix until
just incorporated. Scrap the dough into a mass and, if necessary, knead it a little with your hands to
make sure that the flour is completely incorporated. Form the dough into a 12-by-2-inch log. Wrap and
refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets
with parchment paper.

Use a sharp knife to cut the cold dough log into ¼-inch-thick slices. Place the cookies at least 1 ½ inches
apart on the prepared sheet pans.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the cookies are light golden brown at the edges, rotating the pans
from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies for a minute
on the pans, then transfer them (with or without their parchment) to a rack to cool completely. Repeat
with remaining dough.

These cookies are good on the first day, but they’re best with a little age, after at least a day or two.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a month.

Yield: about 48 cookies

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce

3 cups whole wheat flour (see note above)
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes (see note above)
1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into ¼- and ½-inch pieces, or bittersweet chips

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets
with parchment. (If you have no parchment, you can butter the sheets.)

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, and whisk to blend.

Put the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer
on low speed, mix just until the butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides
of the bowl with a spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the
vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the bowl, and blend on low speed until the flour is just incorporated.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the chocolate, and mix on low speed until evenly
combined. (If you have no stand mixer, you can do all of this with handheld electric beaters and/or a
large, sturdy spoon.) Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and then use your hands to turn
and gently massage the dough, making sure all the flour is absorbed.

Scoop mounds of dough about 3 tablespoons in size onto the baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches
between each cookie. (I was able to fit about 8 cookies on each sheet, staggering them in three rows.)

Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are evenly
browned. Transfer the cookies, still on parchment, to a rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

These cookies are very good while still warm from the oven, but I find that you can taste the wheat
more - in a good way - once they’ve cooled.

Yield: about 20 cookies

Jim and Diane have shared some progress photos over the past few months, and it’s inspiring to see the fields taking shape and starting to green up…

A new season starts with plowing.

Last year’s grass and clover is turned over by the plow.

Jim reports that he sometimes puts the tractor on automatic pilot and grabs a snack.

After smoothing out the plowed ground, the wheat seeds are planted.

Originally seeded on May 4, this is how one field looked about a week and a half later, on May 16. The variety growing here is “Superb”, new at Cedar Isle.

CDC Go is growing in this field, and in the above photo you can also see how Jim generally seeds in two passes, so that the rows cross each other diagonally. This helps minimize the spacing between plants, which reduces the suitable spaces available for weeds.

The soft wheat in the field above was seeded in early April, when Jim finally had some sunny days to work with.

Straw, baled after last year’s grain harvest, is ready for delivery to a Vancouver community garden. The organic straw will be used to mulch between rows of vegetables.

Newly hatched chicks are a sure sign of spring!

Happy Spring! The 2011 Urban Grains season has begun, and we are thrilled to be growing grain again and back in touch with our shareholders.

As you read this, the tiny wheat seedlings you see pictured below are storing up energy from the (much-awaited!) sun, packing it away and growing, growing, growing.

Sign-ups for this year’s membership have also begun. Here’s where we are at in the process of offering shares:

- If you were a shareholder last year… 2010 shareholders were first in line for this year’s shares, and completed applications have been flowing in. Thank you to all of you who have re-joined for 2011! If you haven’t sent your application yet, please do so right away, as shares are now being offered to people on last year’s waiting list, and will soon be opened to the general public. We wouldn’t want any disappointed existing members.

- If you are on the waiting list… Congratulations! Shares are now open for you, and we’d like to welcome you to Urban Grains. Please complete the application form that will be emailed to you and send it back to the farm as soon as possible.

- Are you considering joining Urban Grains for the first time? Thank you for your interest – we’d love to have you! After people on last year’s waiting list have had an opportunity to join, any remaining 2011 Urban Grains shares will be offered to you and other new prospective members. Please email to indicate your interest urbangrains@gmail.com and we’ll put you on the 2011 waiting list and get back to you soon.

Thanks to everyone who has registered for this coming season’s harvest - we are already looking forward to the fall, and the bounty we’ll share.

Here’s to another great season,
The Urban Grains Team