The Staple Food Revolution: Bringing Beans and Grains to Local Markets
Brandon Jaeger and Michelle Ajamian say they were driven by existential anxiety to open Shagbark Seed & Mill in Athens, Ohio. Their facility produces Ohio-grown, Certified Organic dry beans and freshly milled grains to help create a local staple food market. During the #CropsInColor in Appalachia tour, they share with Food Tank and The Crop Trust about the challenges of starting a small grain mill and why they’re not aiming to be in every kitchen in the United States.
Before opening Shagbark, Jaeger and Ajamian traveled the country visiting farmers’ markets and noticed that, despite growth in local food systems, staple foods were not represented at a local level. “All of our protein comes from [beans and grains] and a lot of nutrients, and they aren’t available locally,” Ajamian says.
“I went to the farmers’ market to get my eggs, cheese, and leafy greens, but then I went home and grabbed my cans of beans, rice, crackers, and pasta from the pantry,” Jaeger explains. “I can buy locally baked bread, but I don’t know where the flour is coming from, just like how I don’t know where all those other beans and grains come from.” And after some research, Ajamian found that even black beans in organic co-ops, for example, were often coming to Ohio from China.
The pair received a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant in 2008 to test high-nutrient staple crop plots for Appalachian farmers. “We looked at all of the empty fields in Appalachia and realized they aren’t really geared to the kind of ag that’s in the corn belt. We have small, irregular plots and thin soil,” Ajamian says. Nuts and other perennials, however, grow well in the region’s unique topography and climate.
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