Tony couldn’t help jumping in on Paula’s point. He’s hands- on, remember.
“We often get asked why we don’t offer any flours or oat flakes and the answer is quite simply that we will only ever offer organic whole grains in their most nutritional form,” he explained. “If you think of an individual kernel as if it were an apple, once you slice the apple is starts to turn brown, oxidise and nutritionally deteriorate, the exact same thing happens to a kernel of grain. We always encourage customers to process their grains fresh – fresh is always best, right? We have a range of German-made home flour mills and flakers that are becoming more and more popular and if you think about it it’s no different to freshly ground coffee beans.” In fact, a crop as foundational to civilization as wheat has undergone a 60-year engineered evolution that few consider with the scrutiny with which they drink their morning cup of joe. “Wheat has been hybridized to become what we commonly see today used in our fluffy white loaves of bread,” Paula said. “The gluten in modern wheats is strong and has lots of elasticity and unfortunately for many it has also become quite indigestible. Ancient grains offer a more palatable alternative with their water-soluble gluten. These grains have been grown since ancient times and remain unaltered. They’re healthy, digestible and offer flavours that you just don’t get with modern wheat.” Fieldstone Granary’s commitment to provide healthy, digestible and flavourful organic grains to the consumer represents nothing short of a Renaissance in what we eat. The Sprouting Table found at fieldstoneorganics.ca shows customers how to sprout their grain to get the most out of their healthy choice. If you take a 1/3 cup of Buckwheat and soak it for eight hours, for instance, it will sprout in three to five days giving you 1 ½ cups of mild tasting sprouts that can be used in a variety of recipes from soups to salads to breads or spreads. “When you take a single grain and sprout it you’re essentially bringing it to life, it becomes a live food,” Paula explained. “At this stage the grain offers the absolute maximum nutri- tional value. Sprouting also activates the seed’s enzymes, converting starch to sugar, making the grain much more digestible and flavourable.” There’s also the huge environmental benefit to organic farming, Tony pointed out. “If we want to keep feeding from the land then we need to take good care of it.” By and large organic farms have higher soil organic matter content and lower nutrient losses like nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions and ammonia emissions per unit of field, according to sciencedirect.com .
rotation,” Tony explained. “In the prairies you’ll see the farmers’ crop rotate within their 1000s of acres. Here in BC things are a little different. Most of our growers farm between 40 to 100 acres, making crop rotation something of a challenge. Our producer plan factors in crop rotation between many growers. One year they will grow wheat for us, the next year they may grow flax, then in the fall seed spelt. It really works to every- one’s benefit. There is no denying that organic farming has its fair share of challenges, whether its weed control, soil nutrition or simply the weather, but Fieldstone has become
“Good organic farming practices very much rely on crop
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JANUARY 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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