Feature Article in The Whitman County Gazette

Palouse Heritage was privileged to be featured in the latest issue of the Whitman County Gazette:  http://www.wcgazette.com/

If the article is no longer available on their website, you can read the full excerpt here:

Return to Palouse Colony Farm

By Kara McMurray Gazette Reporter

Palouse Colony Farm circa 1910

Richard Scheuerman grew up about two miles from a farm known as the “Palouse Colony,” a farm between Endicott and St. John that was settled by German immigrants from Russia in the 1880s. “It was kind of a legendary place as a boy growing up,” said Scheuerman. Scheuerman said he was always interested in knowing more about the people there. “I enjoyed talking to older people. Even as a boy, I started visiting with elders of my grandfather’s generation who lived there,” he recalled. “It was all just very fascinating.” Scheuerman found himself learning about the “Old World agrarian methods” these farmers brought with them. It was a history he became hooked on. A recent business endeavor has brought Scheuerman to re-establish the Palouse Colony and its Old World farming methods as Palouse Heritage. “An opportunity came for us to acquire the property about two years ago,” said Scheuerman. “I have always kept interested in researching about the Palouse country. It was a special opportunity I didn’t want to pass up.”

Richard’s wife Lois and his brother Don Scheuerman are also part of restoring the Palouse Colony Farm, as is Rod Ochs. The Scheuermans and Ochs are all descendants of families who once lived at the farm. Richard said those involved in helping to restore grain varieties have been Alex McGregor, the McGregor Company and Andrew Wolfe, his nephew. Additionally, farmers Joe Delong of St. John, Tom Schierman of Lancaster and Chuck Jordan of Winona have helped. Richard called the effort so far “a learning experience.” “We’re always finding new things,” he commented. “It’s been a wonderful adventure just learning about this. It’s kind of all coming together.”

Richard told of how the German immigrants brought grains with them from Russia, including Turkey Red, a form of hard red winter wheat. Prior to the introduction of Turkey Red, soft white wheats were mostly used in bread production in the Pacific Northwest. “Until immigrants came from Russia, people made bread out of the soft winter wheats,” said Richard. “The Turkey Red revolutionized this. Virtually all breads today are made from hard red wheats.” Richard called the flavor of the grains now being grown again at the Palouse Colony “very distinct.” “The flavor is incredible,” he said. “We’re calling it ‘flavorful authenticity.’” Bringing back different grain varieties has been an experience right out of history, Richard said. “None of these have been grown for probably a century,” he said. “We’re seeing this unfold as living history, and friends are bringing out old recipes that were handed down.” Richard said they are not seeking to replace “modern hybrid” grains, but said there is a place for both. “Modern hybrids produce higher-yielding crops,” he said. “There’s a place for both worlds with markets internationally and with distinct flavor grains.”

Richard said that Don is also working on brews. “Don has been interested in the malting grains. He’s working with some craft malters and brewers,” said Richard. The brews are not quite ready, though. “The malt grain is being used in Spokane to create craft brews,” said Richard. “We’re trying to decide if we are ready to scale it up to production. It certainly tastes wonderful.” There are 40 acres on the property that are being farmed now. Richard said the property was also recently designated as a state historical site. The flours Palouse Heritage is developing will be available in December, and the availability of the brews will be announced at a later date. To learn more about what Palouse Heritage is doing and the history of the Palouse Colony, go to www.palouseheritage.com.

Article courtesy of The Whitman County Gazette

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.

Palouse Regional Studies Celebration at WSU

On 4 November 2016, Palouse Heritage had the privilege to participate in an event at Washington State University (WSU) celebrating Palouse regional studies. Specifically, the occasion commemorated Gary Schneimiller's generous gift to WSU Libraries in honor of research related to the Palouse region. Gary is a friend of Palouse Heritage and it was truly a privilege for our co-founder, Richard Scheuerman, to give the keynote speech. We commend Gary for his generosity and shared passion for celebrating the rich history of the Inland Pacific Northwest.

You can view the video of Richard's talk below.

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!

Barley & Potato Soup (Volga German)

This wholesome soup and related variations have been winter mainstays in homes like ours across the Pacific Northwest for generations. The presence of allspice is a nod to American influence as the Old World flavorings most commonly used for this dish in the were dill, parsley, and pepper. The recipe is from Evelyn Reich of Colfax, a lifelong Palouse Country resident.

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Barley & Potato Soup (Volga German Gashta-Katofel Sopa) 

• 2 quarts vegetable stock
• 4 whole allspice
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• sour cream

• 1 cup pearl barley
• 3 medium potatoes peeled and diced
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 1 large onion diced
• 1 carrot grated
• 4 strips bacon, beef soup bone, or ham hock

Boil barley and spices in water for two hours. Add 4 cubed potatoes, celery, onion, and carrot, and simmer an additional hour until vegetables and barley are tender. Fry bacon until crisp and add with drippings to the soup, or add soup bone to mixture. Place a dollop of sour cream to each bowl just before serving.

Land and First Peoples

Looming above the panoramic Palouse near the heart of the region stands a promontory revered by the native peoples known today as Steptoe Butte. To the Palouse Indians it was Yamustas (“Elk’s Abode”), a sacred high place of spirit quests and the abode of mythical Bull Elk. An honored figure in tribal folklore, this creature was said to have found sanctuary during the time of the Animal People in the cleft of the butte's eastern face. Its majestic antlers stretched toward the summit and remain visible today. To the area's first European-American explorers, who dubbed it "Pyramid Peak" for resembling Egypt's great monument to Cheops, the butte served like a mariner's landmark, a strange island in an oceanic maelstrom of earthen waves cresting with wind-pulsed native wheatgrasses and fescues.

Before the sextant and plow demarcated and denuded these fertile swells, they were seasonally transformed from soft springtime viridian hues with wildflowered splashes of bluebells, flaming Indian paintbrush, and bright yellow arrowleaf balsamroot into summer and fall's muted green-brown pastels mixed in the bunchgrass billows. The butte continues to serve as a landmark Palouse portal to Native Americans today. On several occasions while in the company of Nez Perces returning to Lapwai from the Colville Reservation or with Coeur d' Alenes headed east from Warm Springs, I have heard elders say, "When I see Steptoe Butte, I know that I am home."

Elk's Abode - Steptoe Butte (John Clement)

The Palouse region covers that part of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho in the Palouse River basin as well as adjacent lands characterized by a rolling terrain of fertile loess soils. This area covers approximately 4,000 square miles and lies largely in Washington's Whitman and Spokane counties, the eastern third of Adams County, and in Idaho's Latah County. Nearly seventy percent of the land is arable, composed of deep deposits of rich but fragile topsoil which cover immense layers of brown-black basalt. This bedrock shield is up to 10,000 feet thick resulting from successive lava flows through fissures across the Columbia Plateau during the late Miocene Epoch between six and seventeen million years ago when the area of today's Palouse Country, before the Cascade uplift, received as much as fifty inches of annual rainfall to host a mixed forest of conifers, maples, water tupelo, and oak similar to America's southeastern bald cypress swamps of today.

The Palouse is bounded by the Snake and Clearwater rivers on the south and Idaho's imposing Bitterroot and Clearwater Mountains to the east. The evergreen forests of these eastern uplands extend across the northern half of Spokane County along a line roughly corresponding to the deepest penetration of the great Pleistocene glaciers to form the region's northern limit. The Cheney-Palouse lobe of the Channeled Scablands comprises the region's western boundary which extends from the timber line near Tyler, Washington south to the mouth of the Palouse River. Annual rainfall increases from an average of fourteen inches in the western Palouse prairies to eighteen inches in the central Palouse Hills and up to twenty-two inches in the foothills of the eastern mountains.

This pattern corresponds to a rise in elevation from 1,200 feet in the southwest corner of the Palouse prairie to the fringe of the Clearwater Palouse Range at 2,800 feet, almost exactly one inch of precipitation for every hundred feet of elevation. Variations in soil fertility developed over ages due to increasing rainfall eastward led to climax vegetation associated with the Palouse's three climatic life zones: Upper Sonoran in the western Palouse, Arid Transition across the central Palouse Hills, and Canadian in the eastern mountain uplands.