In the first post of The Root's "Local Grain Economy" series we focused on the farmers. This week we are looking at the scientists whose research the farmers, bakers, and millers involved in reestablishing a local grain economy in Maine and Vermont, are acutely tuned into.
Ellen Mallory of the University of Maine and Heather Darby of the University of Vermont are the project directors of The Northern New England Local Bread Wheat Project, a USDA funded initiative intended to help local farmers increase the production and quality of organic bread wheat.
Northeastern wheat growers, such as Tate McPherson and Matt Porter, who are the primary producers of grains for the Somerset Grist Mill in Skowhegan, Maine recognize the importance of the project's results, determining which wheat varieties to grow based on Mallory's variety trials.
Mallory, a sustainable agriculture specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Service, has worked with grains (wheat, barley, oats, spelt) for most of her career as an agronomist including projects in Wisconsin, Washington, and Pennsylvania. This is the first project, in which Mallory's research is focused as much on the human consumption end (taste, cooking and baking) as the growing (crop yield).
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Portland Press Herald
