It’s now officially spring and the new growing season approaches with the first signs of its arrival: watercress plucked from streams, morels and ramps foraged from woods, and soon, green garlic, asparagus and rhubarb. However, the weather is not the only source of new things at the Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market. As you gather bunches of tulips and kale, a newly purchased stone mill heads all the way from Germany towards Charles County, Maryland. By the end of April, you may be baking bread from locally grown, locally milled, organic flour.

Three years ago, Next Step Produce began offering whole barley, oats, rye and wheat at the Dupont market, another distinctive product from the certified organic farm that has long brought such rare items as Kiwi berries, persimmons and, last summer, a curtain of yard-long Sicilian squash. Nearly half of Next Step’s cultivated acres are currently dedicated to growing a diverse array of grains, from oats to barley, wheat to rye.  Some crops like millet, sorghum and rice are still in the experimental stages as farmers Heinz Thomet and Gabrielle Lajoie determine suitable varieties, ideal planting times, harvesting and cleaning techniques and culinary qualities.  With others, such as wheat and rye, they feel more confident and are ready to move to the next step: flour production.

The white flours of the grocery store, Heinz says, have an unlimited shelf life, but are lifeless. The bleaching process is an accelerated aging process that destroys the nutrients and enzymes, yet endows the grain with that fluffy, Wonder Bread baking quality so sought after half a century ago.  Heinz plans to mill his grains fresh in an old fashioned way to preserve their nutrients and natural baking qualities. But since unbleached flours have a limited shelf-life, the process represents a substantial business investment and a risk.

Grain production requires land, time, knowledge and equipment.  While growing grains may not be all that intimidating, harvesting, cleaning and processing them is another matter. Even purchasing seeds can be difficult, as many of the grains grown in the U.S. are used for animal feed and do not meet food-quality expectations. In learning about grains, Heinz found an ally in Mike Bergstrom of Great Falls, Montana, who has been cleaning grains for years and was able to offer some much needed guidance.

Heinz uses a tractor pulled combine to harvest. The machine cuts, threshes and roughly cleans the crop, separating the grain from the straw; however, it does not separate wheat from weeds.  Vetch from the field and weed seeds must be removed. Heinz uses a different set of cleaning machines depending on the specific conditions: some machines sort broken kernels from whole kernels, while others are specifically geared towards removing vetch or separating round seeds from oblong. But, first everything goes through an air screen cleaner, which separates the chaff from the seeds and grades the kernels.  Perfecting the method of cleaning grain takes experimentation, finesse, patience.

While the expansion from produce to whole grains and flours signals new growth for Next Step Produce, the move is not surprising for its farmer. Heinz Thomet grew up on an archetypical, Swiss farm with fields devoted to grain. His grandfather’s occupation was mainstream at that time, with the majority of the population still involved in agriculture in one way or another. Rural families maintained subsistence farms: diverse crops, fruit-bearing trees, a few hens and pigs for self-sufficiency with one or two cash crops. Upon coming to the U.S., Heinz continued gaining experience on farms in New York State and New Jersey, before leasing the land in Charles County, which then became his own family farm.

You have to respect the earth, he says, when you ask why he decided to grow what many consider a midwestern crop in the Mid-Atlantic region. Think about the first photograph taken from space: our planet revealed as a fragile, finite orb in a vast universe. If you live on Earth, you have to take responsibility and take care of what you have. Nothing begins on impulse, he maintains. Impulses mature gradually for farmers. In the beginning, he says, when you start farming your own land, you stoop. You cast your eyes down, work hard and keep the banker pleased. Things grow. A rhythm develops, and you have a chance to look up and around. Every day you look at your land, evaluate what is there and think about what it offers on its own.

For Heinz and Gabrielle of Next Step Produce, to be farmers should mean to leave the land in a better condition than when they found it. A mission to grow nutrient-dense food from richer, finer soil underpins life at Next Step Produce. After a decade of vegetable and fruit production, moving forward with grains simply fits into this vision.

Post by Elizabeth Dunn and Laura Genello. Photo: Elizabeth Dunn