Palouse Colony Farm Officially Recognized as Washington State Historic Site!

We’re pleased to report that our Palouse Colony Farm was placed on the Washington State Historic Preservation Office Register for the original barn and outbuildings and the property’s role in Pacific Northwest history as an important “clearing house” for German immigrants from Russia arriving in to region from 1880s to the 1910s. State Preservation Officer Mike Houser made the presentation at the October, 2016 meeting of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. 

Richard and wife Lois (right) at the State Historic Preservation Meeting, Tacoma

The barn (c. 1895) is the oldest building at the farm, which also includes the house and blacksmith shop, which was established by a German immigrant families from Russia’s Volga River region who arrived in the Washington’s Endicott-St. John area in 1882 and established the colony in 1889. The location became a thriving settlement that provisioned families coming from the Old Country to settle in the region, and according to historian Richard Sallet, some 100,000 first- and second-generation Germans from Russia followed to live in Pacific Northwest by 1920. Colony founder parents described the Palouse as a “Land of Milk and Honey” to their children who tended the colony’s dairy herd and raided bee hives along the river. The newcomers used farming methods of medieval origin—long, narrow Langstreifen fields (akin to English furlongs) in three-crop rotations (Dreifelderwirtschaft), a shared “commons” (Almenden) for grazing and gardens, and harvests with sickle and scythe.

In recent years we have reestablished the farm to grow landrace grains using the same Old World farming methods used by the farm's original founders. 

Palouse Colony Farm and Heritage Grain Plots (Turkey Red wheat, Scots Bere barley)

A Special Visit from America's Pancake Queen

Recent days have witnessed a number of special events related to Palouse Colony Farm and regional heritage. New York culinary writer Amy Halloran, author of The New Bread Basket: Redefining Our Daily Loaf (Chelsea Green, 2015), was our guest at the farm last month. Popularly known as “America’s Pancake Queen,” Amy says she has wanted to devote her life to the fine art of pancake-making since grade school, and has a picture of the note she wrote to her fourth grade teacher to prove it.

Amy Halloran & Friends with “Founding Farmer” Pancakes, Endicott Food Center

Amy has worked with us since last year to document authentic recipes of breads and pancakes from America’s colonial and pioneer era, and formulated an authentic “thirded” blend of heritage English White Lammas wheat, Yellow Dent corn, and Scots Bere barley flours based on recipes used by “Founding Farmers” George and Mary Washington at Mt. Vernon. Amy hosted a group of Palouse Colony Farm friends for a pancake breakfast at Jenny Meyer’s Endicott Food Center, and presented with Richard on regional food networks at Spokane’s Farm & Food Expo on November 5. Culinary writer Samuel Fromartz writes of The New Bread Basket: “If you’re curious about the future of bread, beer, or even the locavore movement itself, this is the place to start.”

You can read more about Amy's visit on her blog here.

2016 Spokane Food and Farm Expo

Palouse Heritage had the opportunity to present at the 2016 Food & Farm Expo in Spokane. Our co-founders, Richard and Don Scheuerman, participated in the event along with several of our friends and partners who have joined us in the effort to raise awareness about the benefits of landrace grains. 

Richard taught one of the classes at the event, titled:

Heritage and Landrace Grains:  Restoring the soil, our health and flavor with heritage and Landrace Grains

You can watch his lecture below. The accompanying PowerPoint slide deck is available by clicking here.

Thanksgiving History and Wishes from Palouse Heritage

This week of gratitude for family, friends, and the earth’s bounty seems an appropriate time for us to commence The Palouse Commoner blog and newsletter. The ancient Greeks considered agriculture on of the “cooperative arts” (like medicine and education), because farming requires the “cooperation” of worker and land. Farming was not something to be done “to” to the earth, but “with” it, and in that spirit we are very grateful for the partnership of many others this past year at Palouse Colony Farm whose valued contributions have brought us to this point.

Traditional American Thanksgiving commemorations are heir to influences from early Pilgrim colonists and their Native American neighbors, as well as later European immigrant groups with their distinct harvest feast customs. Longer growing seasons in North America led to later commemorations of harvest festivals, and today’s popular county and state fairs in late summer and fall continue this tradition of agrarian spectacle, revelry, and fellowship.

President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, the year of his inauguration. He designated the last Thursday in November “to be devoted by the people of these States to… the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.” This time was associated with the growing New England Thanksgiving tradition and observations of Christian Whitsuntide and the Jewish Feast of Ingathering (Sukkot, or Tabernacles). Some governors and denominations, however, objected to civil involvement in religious affairs so the day came to be celebrated according to regional preferences, or not at all.

One of the 19th century’s most tireless advocates for a true nationwide commemoration of Thanksgiving was longtime Ladies’ Magazine Boston editor Sarah Josepha Hale. Launching her crusade in 1827, Hale wrote hundreds of letters to public officials to further the cause, and in 1863 composed an influential editorial offering explicit association between Thanksgiving and Old Testament tradition: “Can we not then, following the appointment of Jehovah in the ‘Feast of Weeks,’ or Harvest Festival, establish our yearly Thanksgiving as a permanent American National Festival which shall be celebrated on the last Thursday in November in every State of the Union?”  Hale’s magazine provided a forum for many of era’s finest writers whose works, like these lines from Longfellow’s “Thanksgiving,” she featured to advance her abiding campaign:

“When first in ancient time, from Jubal’s tongue

The tuneful anthem filled the morning air,

To sacred hymnings and Elysian song

His music-breathing shell the minstrel woke.

Devotion breathed aloud from every chord:

The voice of praise was heard in every tone….”

Such language sounds rather excessive to our 21st century ears, but they seem to have helped turn the tide. Hale’s plea reached the White House, and on October 3, 1863 President Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November as an annual national observance of this special holiday. In honor of this rich historical tradition and Providence's blessings, we at Palouse Heritage would like to wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving!

Palouse Heritage Has Been Busy

Though Palouse Heritage launched recently, we have been busy researching and growing out our landrace grains for years. In the process, we have had unique opportunities to showcase our work. Here are some highlights:

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Due to his deep expertise and growing public interest in the grains we are raising at Palouse Colony Farm, Richard regularly receives invitations to speak on landrace grains and agricultural history. This past year, he was asked to deliver a presentation at the annual Carolina Gold Rice Foundation's (CGRF) annual conference. The CGRF exists to advance sustainable restoration and preservation of Carolina Gold Rice and other heirloom grains. Its members work to raise public awareness of the importance of heirloom agriculture. They are affiliated with one of the leaders in organic heirloom grain milling, Anson Mills. 

The full title of Richard's presentation is Our Daily Bread:  Heritage Grains for Health, Culture & Occassional Profit. In this talk, he shares insights from his research into regional history and landrace grains, much of which laid the foundation for the launch of Palouse Heritage. You can watch it here:

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In June 2015, the Pike Brewery Company launched its new Skagit Valley Alba, the first Washington State varietal beer and one made with 100% in-state ingredients. Also known as "Pike Locale," Palouse Colony Farm's Purple Egyptian Barley Malt is among the key ingredients. Seattle Eater captured the excitement over this novel brew. Here is an excerpt:

"Barley, the grain that, once malted, makes up the key ingredient in most beers, is largely produced as a commodity (think big production plants churning out a uniform product). Brewers may add ingredients such as hops for a more distinct flavor, but the barley is often the same, particularly in American beers. Until now. For its new Skagit Valley Alba, the first in a new Pike Locale series of like beers, Pike Brewing sources its malts from Skagit Valley and Whitman County Farms."

Full article:

http://seattle.eater.com/2015/6/2/8702057/pike-brewing-company-launches-a-beer-series-made-from-100-washington

"Pike Locale" Featuring Purple Egyptian Barley Raised on Palouse Colony Farm

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The Rodale Institute researches and shares information on the best practices of organic agriculture. They featured our own Richard Scheuerman and our early heritage grains efforts in July 2014:

http://rodaleinstitute.org/revitalizing-heirloom-grains-in-the-pacific-northwest/

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Another unique opportunity came in the spring of 2013. As reported by the Time Media Company:

"WSU/Mt. Vernon Research Center Director Stephen Jones, a prominent voice nationally for sustainable agriculture, contacted [Palouse Heritage's] Dr. Richard Scheuerman regarding a White House health education initiative. Jones had collaborated the previous year with Blue Hill Farm Restaurant chef and best-selling author Dan Barber (The Third Plate) in a project to include cereal grains in the White House Kitchen Garden. Michelle Obama’s influential “Let’s Move” initiative has promoted use of more whole grains and vegetables to improve the health of America’s youth and prevent childhood obesity. Jones, Scheuerman, and WSU/MV senior agronomist Steve Lyon had been working for three years with a group of Northwest farmers to reintroduce heirloom milling and malting grains to the region. Among the varieties selected for the White House project was one raised in Washington State as early as the 1890s and named the “Lincoln oat” in honor of the famed 16th U. S. president—himself raised on small farms in Kentucky and Indiana."

Palouse Heritage was honored to contribute towards this project.

First Lady Michelle Obama Welcoming Students to the White House Kitchen Garden
AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Steve Jones and Dan Barber inspecting White House Lincoln Oats
Hannalore Suderman photo

Speaking of Blue Hill Farm Restaurant chef Dan Barber, he was elated to receive a sample of our Purple Egyptian barley, with which he baked these remarkably tasty loafs:

Delicious! We are grateful for these types of opportunities we've had and are excited about what the future holds for Palouse Heritage.

Palouse Heritage is Launching!

Palouse Heritage is excited to announce our official launch! The concept of Palouse Heritage has been in the works for years. Not only have we been compiling years of research efforts related to landrace grains and regional history, but we also have been growing out test plots of the landrace wheat and barley varieties first grown in the Palouse and elsewhere in North America. We started with small samples, but now have enough growing seasons completed to begin providing flour and malt from these crops to artisan bakers and craft malters who value the benefits of landrace grains. 

We look forward to sharing more with you as we deliver fascinating historical research featuring the Palouse region as well as food products derived from our landrace grains. We are happy to provide our research findings through this blog. Our president and co-founder, Richard, will be the primary author. Learn more about his plans and vision for this blog here. Stay tuned!