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Malting company adds value to commodity crop for farmers Center among best in U.S. researching apple cider Bread Lab helping farmers grow better wheat varieties A S U P P L E M E N T T O T H E S K A G I T VA L L E Y H E R A L D A N D A N A C O RT E S A M E R I C A N

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ON THE INSIDE

Visit growskagit.com for stories in this issue and similar content. Cover photo

Scott Terrell Skagit Valley Herald

RoozenGaarde continues its effort to expand and improve

Skagit Valley Malting is malting and germinating grains no one else can

Puget Sound Food Hub is making things simpler for small farms

WSU research center considered among best in U.S. in cider apple studies

Watershed Mills banking on high-quality flour to make a comeback

Bread Lab breeds grains to benefit farmers, processors and consumers

Agriculture integral part of portâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission

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Skagit Valley Malting

Adding value to commodity crop for local farmers Story by AARON WEINBERG â&#x20AC;˘ Photos by SCOTT TERRELL

Skagit Valley Malting Business Development Manager Adam Foy (left) and CEO and President Dave Green stand in a warehouse full of bags of malted barley ready for shipment.

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That means brewers and distillers can unlock new flavors, and bakers can produce better tasting and more nutritious food. Companies have lined up to work with Skagit Valley Malting, with representatives from around the world visiting the Burlington plant. That’s a good thing for local farmers. Every few years, farmers must grow wheat or barley to recondition the soil. In the past, the downside has been that those grains fetched low prices. Skagit Valley Malting, though, helps those farmers earn extra money on those crops by paying a premium price. “That is the fundamental tenet of the company,” Skagit Valley Malting CEO and President Dave Green said. “In some cases, we doubled the price the grower receives. To provide sustainable

agriculture for the future, you’ve got to find ways to bring value to the grower.” The company buys wheat and barley from five Skagit County farmers, including Dave Hedlin of Hedlin Farms in Mount Vernon. “It gives you another option if your grain is malting quality,” Hedlin said. “It’s always fun to watch the product you produce made into beer.” Skagit County has the ideal climate for growing grains: cool nights, close proximity to marine air and little drought stress, Green said. Green took over the business in July after founder Wayne Carpenter retired. Green has more than 30 years of experience in the food processing industry. The malting facility has three full-size custom-engineered malt-

ing machines, capable of malting kinds of grains others can’t. For instance, brewers use about 10 varieties of grains among the 21,000 available. Skagit Valley Malting’s machines can malt thousands of varieties of grains, allowing brewers to unlock flavors and colors previously unknown to the market. One of the 10-ton stainless steel machines recently was used to malt a dark purple barley called obsidian. “It’s unique for its color and flavor nuances,” Green said. “It’s an ancient grain ... We are not aware of anyone malting it commercially.” The machines are also capable of malting repeatable and precise batches, which is important to brewers, distillers and bakers, said Adam Foy, the company’s business development manager.

A Skagit Valley Malting processing drum turns slowly as barley is malted.

“Those machines give us a unique ability to create a more uniform and repeatable product,” he said. A relatively new development for Skagit Valley Malting has been creating malt flour for baking. “This repeatable product didn’t exist in the culinary world,” Foy said. “A chef expects this bag to taste the same every time they buy it. These machines give us the ability to create a superior product.” The kind of flour Skagit Valley Malting can make could also create other business opportunities because the grains grown here often have reduced sugar. Green said energy bar companies and bakeries have expressed interest in the low-sugar flour. “It may be a game-

Skagit Valley Malting CEO and President Dave Green holds recently malted dark purple barley called obsidian. changer,” Foy said. Looking ahead, Green said he expects brewers to start going beyond the testing phase of his company’s malts and to start

creating flagship beers. “Then we’ll be in the position to take the next stage of growth,” Green said.

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PUGET SOUND FOOD HUB

GrowSkagit

Cooperative helping small farms reach big buyers Story by AARON WEINBERG Photos by SCOTT TERRELL Skagit Valley Herald

Amy Frye and Jacob Slosberg, who own Boldly Grown, drop off carrots and beets at the Puget Sound Food Hub in Mount Vernon.

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Like most WHO RUN small farms, Boldly Grown co-owner Amy Frye doesn’t have the resources to sell to many commercial customers on her own. She’s got enough work managing 4 acres of vegetables in Burlington. But since 2012, the Puget Sound Food Hub has made things simpler for small farms such as those operated by Frye, providing a gateway to more than 200 commercial customers from Bellingham to Seattle. Farmers who join the food hub’s cooperative can list their products on its website, which allows commercial customers to place orders. The farmers then deliver the products to the hub’s drop-off center in Mount Vernon, from where they are shipped to the customer. Frye was at the dropoff center in early March delivering bags of carrots and beets. “This would be pretty hard for (my husband and I) to do on our own, especially with our other jobs,” Frye said. “It’s allowed us to connect over 100 different individual purchasers.” The food hub is a farmer-owned cooperative that

is made up of about 50 farms in the region. The idea for the co-op came from the Northwest Agriculture Business Center (NABC), a nonprofit that assists local farmers. “Our intention was to give smaller farmers access to sell to larger distributors,” NABC Executive Director David Bauermeister said. “We tried at first just networking people, then we had a wholesale market at the Skagit Valley Food Co-Op.” The idea really took off in 2012 when a program was set up to deliver orders for farmers. During that time, NABC was awarded about $500,000 in grants to push the project forward. A year ago, NABC gave up ownership of the food hub as it transitioned to a co-op, said food hub General Manager Terri Hanson. “The main thing is that it’s a group of 50 farms from different regions, and they are all in busi-

John Vanderwal of Ralph’s Greenhouse unloads produce at the Puget Sound Food Hub location in Mount Vernon. ness together selling products side by side,” she said. Hanson said one of the hub’s most important aspects is its delivery service. There are three dropoff sites for farmers: one on Best Road in Mount Vernon and the other two in King and Whatcom counties. “The farmer just makes one drop, then it goes where it needs to versus driving around all over,” Hanson said. “Most small farms don’t have their own truck. If they did, and wanted to go to Seattle, how many restaurants

could they hit in one day?” The food hub runs up to eight trucks a week to Seattle. The hub’s website not only has member farmers’ inventories, but profiles on each farmer along with their growing methods, certifications and more. Claire Lichtenfels, owner of Hunter’s Moon Farm on Whidbey Island, said that kind of marketing would be difficult for her to accomplish on her own. “We’ve been selling to smaller stores, but we

would never have been able to get into Seattle and market our stuff there,” Lichtenfels said. “We are a small, twoperson operation, and we wouldn’t get around to that.” Since joining the food hub in November, she’s been dropping off boxes of blueberry ginger quinoa bars every week at the Mount Vernon location. Recently, the Northwest Agriculture Business Center used a $60,000 federal grant to help purchase a walk-in freezer for the

food hub’s warehouse. The food hub has also brought in three new fulltime employees this year, including two for management positions and one as a driver. Looking ahead, Hanson said the food hub will add part-time warehouse employees this summer to help process orders during what is its busy season. Frye and her husband will continue selling their vegetables through the food hub. “It’s been a huge part of our success so far,” she said.

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Skagit County aT CENTER of cider apple research Story by AARON WEINBERG â&#x20AC;˘ Photos by SCOTT TERRELL

Washington State University professor Carol Miles stands next to bottles of cider at the research center in Mount Vernon. The cider program started there in the 1970s.

Skagit Valley Herald

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The Washington State University Mount Vernon Research Center, which pioneered cider apple research in the late 1970s, is now considered among the best in the field. The center’s work is rivaled in the United States only by that being done at Cornell University and Virginia Tech, said Carol Miles, who took over the Mount Vernon research team in 2007. The center has about 1,000 cider apple trees, which include 75 varieties. The apple industry here is worth about $100,000, with about 75 acres dedicated to growing the cider and dessert apples. Cider apples are different from what are known as dessert apples, such as Jonagolds, and aren’t good for eating. They are high in tannin, which gives them a bitter taste. “If you took a bite out of one, you’d spit it out,” Miles said. “It’s that bitterness that gives it the quality of a fermented beverage.” The apple crop was once a larger player on the county’s agriculture scene, said Miles, and could be again. “Skagit was growing Jonagold apples and did a good job, but the market fell out,” she said. “We know we can grow apples here.” Cider apples grow well in Skagit County’s climate. Apples here are susceptible to scab disease that scars the skin of the apples. Dessert apples with scab disease don’t make it to market, but since cider apples are pressed, it doesn’t matter if the skin is affected.

Another reason to grow cider apples rather than dessert apples is that there is steady demand. “The value is not as high as a dessert apple but as far as risk management, it’s a steady market that’s not subject to global marketing pressures like dessert apples are,” Miles said. The hard cider industry has taken off over the past seven years, which has added more importance to the center’s research, Miles said. She said U.S. cider sales rank high among craft beverage sales. “I think our work is getting quite a bit of notice,” Miles said. Ron Extract, who is looking into opening a winery and cidery in Skagit County, said he was surprised to learn about the extent of the cider apple research being done here. “I think that was a pleasant discovery after we came here,” Extract said. Dave Bauermeister, executive director of the Northwest Agriculture Business Center, has about 250 cider apple trees on 11 acres in La Conner. He said he learned how to set up his orchard through workshops at the research center. “We grafted them ourselves three years ago and transplanted them a year ago,” Bauermeister said. One aspect of research that is continually worked

ABOVE: Washington State University Mount Vernon Research Center research assistant Jackie King displays data and sketches made of cider apples when the program was in its early stages. LEFT: Cider bottled in March 2014 will be evaluated for its taste.

on by Miles’ team is documenting specific cider apple flavors. Her team will take a specific variety,

press it and ferment it for a taste test. Researchers document a few apple varieties each

year and have created a varietal database through that research. Miles’ team is also

studying tannin levels in cider apples and is submitting a grant application to study a mechanical harvesting technique. Mechanical harvesting would involve using a large machine to shake apples off trees and into bins, rather than having the apples fall to the ground. The process would alleviate food safety issues associated with apples laying on the ground. “Our future goal would be to test those machines,” Miles said.

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WATERSHED MILLS

Aiming to shake up the wheat market Story by AARON WEINBERG â&#x20AC;¢ Photos by SCOTT TERRELL

Head miller Andy Green stands between two stone mills that will process flour at Watershed Mills, located at the Port of Skagit.

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Kevin Morse is banking on high-quality flour making a comeback as he prepares to open his Watershed Mills flour mill in April at the Port of Skagit in Burlington. Morse will focus on milling wheat that grows well in Skagit County, with varietals bred for flavor and nutrition. It will be a big change from the white, starchy, enriched flour found on most grocery store shelves. “Modern wheat varieties are bred for yield,” Morse said. “That offers consistency and a long shelf life. What we are doing is completely opposite ... The flavor can’t be matched by commodity markets.” The mill will be able to produce up to 14 million tons of flour a year, making it the largest in Skagit County. Locally, it’ll help local farmers earn more money from growing wheat. Morse will pay premium prices to farmers in Skagit County and other areas of the Pacific Northwest as long as their wheat meets a certain standard. Farmers usually lose money or break even selling wheat, which must be grown as a rotation crop to recondition soil. The big corporate millers, of which there are about four, have forced farmers into that process of growing poorquality wheat for low prices, Morse said. “Their business model is buying the cheapest grain possible,” he said. “The large milling companies buy wheat from all over the world — China, Canada, Kazakhstan — and mill it to a minimum spec ... That is what we are used to for the past 40 years.”

That’s just been the way it is. In fact, Morse said Watershed Mills will be the first regionally sized flour mill to open in the U.S. in decades. Morse thinks people are ready for a higher-quality, better tasting and more nutritious wheat. “What (merchants) want to be able to tell their customers is they are buying from good farmers,” Morse said. “They want to know that these grains are better.” He likened the idea of milling quality grains to craft beer brewing. People can buy cheap beer, big-name brand beer or buy something a little more expensive that tastes better. “People want that quality product and are willing to pay more money for it,” Morse said. Watershed Mills will focus on the wholesale market, working out deals with companies such as Costco, Whole Foods and bakeries throughout the country, said Andy Green, head miller for the company. Morse said Skagit County isn’t known for its grain, but that will soon change. People think wheat is a crop that grows well in the upper Midwest, but that’s not the case, Morse said. “Our soils are so much richer,” he said. “The soils here can grow more nutritious and flavorful wheat. People will see that.”

Watershed Mills founder Kevin Morse holds some hard red wheat that was grown in Skagit County.

A millstone that fits the flour milling machines at Watershed Mills was made in Ethiopia.

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WSU BREAD LAB

Story by AARON WEINBERG Photos by SCOTT TERRELL Skagit Valley Herald

Breeding a better wheat Bread Lab Managing Director Kim Binczewski pours a sample of Skagit 1109 wheat into a roller mill at the lab.

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Years of research at the Washington State University Bread Lab in Burlington have led to a variety of wheat that will grow uniquely well in Skagit Valley. turn a profit with their wheat crops has also been a goal of Bread Lab researchers, Lyon said. Wheat is grown as a commodity crop to recondition the soil, so most farmers see little, if any, profit. “If they made any money, they were happy,” Lyon said. Lyon helped farmers find varieties of wheat that are resistant to a local disease. Farmers now save money because they no longer have to spray fields to combat that disease. Some Bread Lab research takes place down the road at the Washington State University Mount Vernon Research Center, where Lyon helps grow 40,000 wheat varieties. He tests them there for flavor and functionality. The top-performing wheat varieties then graduate to the Bread Lab facility at the Port of

Skagit for further testing. “Nowhere else can Ph.D. students go from the field to lab like this,” Lyon said. One of the Bread Lab’s most recent accomplishments was the naming a new species of perennial wheat called Salish Blue. It’s the first time a WSU research team has named a wheat variety. Student Colin CurwenMcAdams said Salish Blue is a soft wheat for cookies, scones and pastries, and has potential for malting. Breeding a viable perennial wheat could change the game for wheat farmers, he said. Unlike traditional wheat that must be replanted ever year, perennials grow back on their own. “Worldwide, no one grows perennial grains to any scale,” CurwenMcAdams said. “The development of perennial grains would be a

Skagit 1109 wheat, processed in a roller mill at the Bread Lab, separates the bran (left) from the flour.

Bread Lab Managing Director Kim Binczewski and senior scientific assistant Steve Lyon show off a mounted sample of Skagit 1109 wheat. big change.” The Bread Lab has recently expanded at the Port of Skagit, with the addition of a new lab and the King Arthur Flour Baking School, a Vermont-based organization that opened in October. The school offers classes for home bakers and professionals, said Bread Lab

Managing Director Kim Binczewski. “People from around the world come here for professional classes,” she said. A second round of construction started in March at the Bread Lab to add a milling room and a professional kitchen; it’s scheduled to be com-

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pleted June 1. Since releasing Skagit 1109, farmers throughout the region have already planted different kinds of the variety. That process will eventually lead farmers to determine which kind of Skagit 1109 grows best in the marine climate. “It’s been well adopted. It’s exciting,” Lyon said.

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Skagit 1109 is the first wheat bred specifically for this area, senior scientific assistant Steve Lyon said. It’s one of many accomplishments of the Bread Lab since it was founded in 2011 to help breed grains to benefit farmers, processors and consumers. “This area just grows grains tremendously,” Lyon said. “It’s been fun over the last six years.” The Bread Lab has helped farmers grow healthier and tastier wheat varieties. And that’s helped farmers make more money while passing on the better products, Lyon said. Some of the Bread Lab’s higher-profile work has involved helping the Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle make healthier tortillas. The lab is also working with the restaurant chain Burgerville to improve its hamburger buns. Helping local farmers

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Brent Roozen walked along the gravel pathways through the RoozenGaarde display garden, where various tulip varieties were beginning to sprout. “This is the original area we started the garden,” Roozen said. “That was in 1984. There was a tiny building here, a few plantings and a windmill.” Since those humble beginnings, the display garden has grown to 5 acres with 350,000 handplanted bulbs. Located at the entrance to RoozenGaarde, the garden welcomes those taking part in the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival that runs during April. Roozen said there’s been an effort in recent years to expand and improve the garden. About half an acre was added this year. The newest additions are near the sprawling tulip fields to the east. One display features large tulip beds designed in the shape of tulip petals. Expanding the display garden will hopefully deter visitors from walking into the tulip fields, Roozen said. Visitors are allowed to stroll only 5 feet down the rows of tulips in the fields. That rule exists to prevent damage to the crop. People don’t always follow that rule, Roozen said, especially with the popularity of social media apps such as Instagram. “Everyone wants to have the most likes on their photos,” he said. “So just standing in front of a tulip field doesn’t do the trick anymore. You have to do something a little crazier, or more creative.” He said he’s seen people run 100 feet down

GrowSkagit

RoozenGaarde’s display garden ever expanding Story by AARON WEINBERG • Photo by EDWARD CLEM

Skagit Valley Herald

Brent Roozen stands in front of beds designed to resemble the shape of a giant tulip, at his family’s flower farm in Mount Vernon. a row or shower themselves in loose petals. Both are big no-no’s. Roozen hopes the constant improvement and expansion of the display garden satiates the need visitors have for the perfect photo. Roozen said the display area allows the RoozenGaarde staff

to get creative with designs. For instance, Roozen showed off a swath of tulips planted in the shape of a winding river. “This is going to be a blue river,” he said. “The (variety) is pretty vibrant so it will stand out.” To make the displays last lon-

ger, two tulip varieties are often planted in the same space. One variety will sprout early and the other a few weeks later, so when the first loses its bloom, the other takes its place. “If you come early in the season, then come three weeks later, you’ll see two completely

different things in the same spot,” Roozen said. Next year, Roozen expects to add even more to the display garden. “We are hoping to do a whole bunch of stuff,” Roozen said. “New displays, maybe a new windmill.”

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Port of Skagit helping local agriculture Story by AARON WEINBERG • Photo by SCOTT TERRELL

What’s special about living in Skagit County? That’s a question Port of Skagit Executive Director Patsy Martin posed to port tenants a decade ago. The answers eventually led to the Port of Skagit making value-added agriculture one of its top priorities. “Most of our tenants said the quality of life in Skagit County is unique and that’s why they chose to come here,” Martin said. “So we spent time delving into what makes us unique.” With about 900,000 scenic acres of farmland in Skagit County, agriculture is inescapable. It’s a $300 million industry, according to the Washington State University Skagit County Extension. Port of Skagit staff learned that farmland here is unlike any other area on the West Coast. There are only a handful of agriculture regions in the world with comparable climates, and those also happen to be home to some of the world’s best farmland, Martin said.

Skagit Valley Herald

“We took that knowledge plus our understanding of other areas around the world similar to ours and said, ‘What do we need to do to make us more resilient?’ ” That led Port of Skagit staff to start seeking value-added agriculture tenants such as the Washington State Bread Lab, Skagit Valley Malting and Gielow Pickles. The port knew those tenants would help farmers make more money, and thereby help preserve the uniqueness of the valley. “All these little pieces we are adding are all part of the same concept, to create a thriving agriculture community in the valley,” Martin said. The latest value-added agriculture tenant at the port is Watershed Mills, which is scheduled to open in April. But the port won’t stop there, Martin said. “We are continuing to try and find other folks that fit that mission,” she said.

Port of Skagit Executive Director Patsy Martin has been working to bring value-added agriculture tenants onto port property.

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