Videos & Press Coverage
The local grain movement has piqued the interest of a number of major news outlets — a testament to the need and importance of a new economy for wheat. Here’s a sampling of some of the most intriguing pieces. For our larger archive of Community Grains’s press, visit this page.
Videos
Michael Pollan at the 2014 Community Grains Conference
Food thinker and journalist Michael Pollan tells the story of how he became a fan of whole wheat, naturally-leavened bread.
PBS’s Lexicon of Sustainability: Wheat or White
A great educational video on the healthful beauty of whole wheat.
Articles
Think You Know Wheat? Think Again.
By Javier Cabral. The flavor, texture, and overall complexity of heirloom wheat flours are staggering compared to conventional ones. Why aren’t we eating more local varieties? Read more.
The Latest Crop In the Local Food Movement? Wheat.
By Kristan Lawson. Until very recently, small farms have tended to avoid planting wheat because it’s not very profitable per acre. Commercially, wheat is grown in such vast quantities that it’s usually sold not by the pound but by the ton. For centuries, society has considered wheat a faceless “commodity” like iron ore or cotton, every sack anonymous and interchangeable.
But that’s all about to change. By Kristan Lawson. Read More.
A Long Way From Wonder Bread
By Sophie Egan. “Once you have a chocolate-chip cookie with whole-wheat flour, you never go back,” said Sherry Yard, a former executive pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck, who also bakes with Community Grains flour. She notes its “layers of flavors” and “beautiful richness.” Read more.
There Will Be Bread
By Anna Roth. Even you may find yourself wondering if things have perhaps gone a bit too far if we’re now talking about artisanal flour. It’s made from wheat, after all, that most basic, boring, foundational of foods. That’s a fair point. But you might also consider the fact that grain was there at the beginning — not just of agriculture, but of civilization itself. Read more.
Stay in the Loop
A Long Way From Wonder Bread – Sophie Egan, New York Times
Ponsford’s Place is part of a new movement in whole grains. Led by groups like the Oakland-based organization Community Grains, the grains are grown locally, and consist of varieties unlike most of the flour available today. The California-grown grains are milled without ever separating the germ, the embryo of a grain kernel, and the bran, the protective outer layer...
What if Everything You Knew About Grains Was Wrong? – Twilight Greenaway, Civil Eats
First it was produce. Then the local food movement expanded to take on meat. Now it’s all about grains. Nothing proves this point more than the packed room I found myself in last Sunday morning. At the point in the week when most people are unfurling their copy of the New York Times, or making their second leisurely café au lait, I filed in to the back of the dining area at Oliveto, a high-end Italian restaurant in Oakland, to join around 100 people gathered to discuss local grains...
Whole-Wheat Pasta That You Can Cook Perfectly – by Tina Ujlaki, Food & Wine
I finally found the magic al dente window in the hard red winter wheat linguine from the San Francisco Bay Area company Community Grains. I don’t know whether it is the wheat itself (California grown and milled), the fact that the whole grain is...