“One Dinner” with Palouse Heritage and the Inland Northwest Food Network

Founder Teri McKenzie of the Inland Northwest Food Network is passionate about health and heritage! Since establishing the organization five years ago in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area, she has spearheaded dozens of events across the region to promote local agrarian economies through farm-to-table dinners, seed swaps, and cooking classes. Her friendship with my brother and Palouse Colony Farm co-founder, Don Scheuerman, led to a wonderful evening last month at Spokane’s acclaimed Ruin’s Restaurant for the Inland Northwest Food Network's monthly "One Dinner" featuring Palouse Heritage. We arrived right on time but were lucky to find a seat so were grateful we had made reservations. All the folks at our table were “Ruin’s Regulars” from the city who enjoyed hearing Don talk about life on the farm and the nutritional benefits of heritage grains.

Chef Tony Brown crafted an incredible menu of eight small plates paired with specialty drinks, which more than enough for the hearty appetites present around our table. Among my favorites were the farro risotto with white miso and crumbled cheese, Shaun Thompson-Duffy’s Culture Breads made with our Palouse Heritage Crimson Turkey wheat flour, and those incredible pulled pork sliders! My wife, Lois, raved about the braised beef and barley with sweet potato, and we both loved the rye bread pudding Tony devised with huckleberry curd and custard. Should have asked for that recipe! Since my German paternal grandmother made the most delicious rye bread while Norwegian maternal Grandma Peterson made every dessert possible out of huckleberries she loved to gather, I suppose I come by passion for Tony’s bread pudding naturally. Topping off our wondrous evening was Bellwether Brewing’s Smoked Palouse ESB made with our Scots Bere heritage barley malt.  

Something else we found interesting at our tables were colorful handouts listing “15 Reasons to Eat Locally Grown Grain.” Here are a few of the entries:

Local grains taste better. Farmers grow a diverse variety of wheat and other grains, and these products travel a more direct path from the field to your pantry. Without the conventional additives, local grains have more interesting flavor profiles and taste better.

Supporting local grains rebuild regional food systems and the regional economy. In addition to the on-farm jobs they support, local grains require processing, storage, and distribution. This means more regional-scale infrastructure and jobs in these facilities. It also paves the way to create other regional food infrastructure for products like meat, pickled and processed goods, and more.

Nothing makes truly “artisan” bread like truly artisan grains. Bakers using regional grains are constantly innovating to celebrate the diverse flavors and characteristics of local grains, creating a richer array of products.

You can cook it, bake it, and brew it.

Because the “staff of life” should be local too.

Bread is agriculture! And so is beer, cake, and granola.

The Purple Egyptian Barley Project

Beer and bread. Two staples of history's menu. It is said that agriculture was founded just for the making of these two nutritious vittles. Every corner of the planet had their own ways of doing things, their own flavor profiles. From technique to weather to soil composition, everything that distinguished a given region or artisan from another imparted specific flavor profiles. That is the art and science and terroir. Think of it as "territorial flavors."

Here at Palouse Heritage, we specialize in raising landrace grains (landrace grains being original natural varieties that have been planted and cultivated in such a way that they have naturally and fully adapted to local geography). Enter Purple Egyptian Barley. This is an ancient grain used extensively in the greater Egyptian area thousands of years ago. It was brought to the Inland Northwest and it has since fully adapted to life here, expressing Northwest terroir as a true landrace grain. Palouse Pint, Spokane's only malting facility, has malted a portion of this incredible grain.

From left to right:  the baker (Shaun of Culture Breads), the malter (Joel of Palouse Pint), and the farmer (our own Don Scheuerman)

As a joint effort between Palouse Heritage, maltster Joel of Palouse Pint, Shaun of Culture Breads, and Tom of Bellwether Brewery, together we bring you Spokane's introduction to this NW landrace Purple Egyptian Barley.

The brewer (Tom of Bellwether Brewery)

Every Thursday beginning February 23 through the first week of April, we will bring you a new small batch of a Purple Egyptian variety Bellwether beer and Culture Breads bread. If you come every week there are prizes in store, including a commemorative pint glass and the chance to vote for your favorite beer of the series. The winning beer will be brewed at full capacity and released during Craft Beer Week in May.

Break bread and raise a glass with us each Thursday for the next 7 weeks. Location is Bellwether Brewery at 2019 N Monroe St, Spokane, WA.

Meet the farmer (our own Don Scheuerman), the maltster, the brewer, and the baker. Learn why landrace grains are so important to local economy and how it brings the best terroir to your plate and pint. Hope you can make it. 

Cheers!