About Me:

We grow a variety of rare and heritage grains on our farm. Tristan Noyes and his brother Jon collaborate with the Maine Grain Alliance to restore handfuls of carefully kept seed well suited for Northern Maine.

 

Website:  gromaine.com/about-us/

Grain Types Being Saved
Wheat, Rye, Corn, Buckwheat
Variety Name(s)
Fort Kent Golden Flint Corn, Tvengsberg rye, Gotland einkorn, Fin de Tauriac, Touselle sans barbes, Noé, Vosges, Bladette de Puylaurens, Dala spring wheat, Gotland emmer, Öland spelt,

 

USDA Growing Zone:
5a

Displaying 1 - 7 of 7

GrainVariety NameDetailed Description of Grain VarietyFile
CornFort Kent Golden Flint CornFile
WheatFin de Tauriac

Awnless and a few with black awns

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WheatTouselle sans barbes

Touselle sans barbes appears to be referenced as far back as 1042. It is thought to orginally be from southeastern France. This site has done a lot of research on this grain's origins: http://www.bicga.org.uk/docs/Le%20Bl%C3%A9%20meunier%20d'Apt%20-%20google%20translation.html

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WheatNoe

Blue stemmed, Blé de Noé is a classic wheat of France,

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WheatVosges

French heritage wheat variety

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WheatBladette de Puylaurens

A landrace winter wheat from the 1800s from Puylaurens, France, in the Tarn region not far from Toulouse. Long, full, awnless or awnletted, blond heads with reddish grains. Tall, with good tillering and quite resistant to cold and lodging (Description from the Seed Exchange)

RyeTvengsberg

From The Flatbread Society website (https://flatbreadsociety.net/stories/14/the-rediscovered-rye):

"In the 1970s, Per Martin Tvengsberg, living in the eastern-most region of Norway, was interested in local history, came across an old grain-drying sauna that dated back to the early 1900s. Drying grain is an important in these northern areas, because one can almost never harvest dry grain, and dry grain is crucial to ensuring effective storage. Per Martin was curious to see if perhaps a few grains of this old rye might still be lying in the old building. So he went to this sauna, and after talking to the owner a bit, got permission to look into it. They cleaned and searched every corner, but they found no grain - likely the mice had eaten any remains long ago. Per Martin got permission to take up the floor boards. Between the boards of the floor, he found 9 grains! He then carefully planted these precious seeds to see if, on the off-chance, any would germinate. There was life in 7 of the grains.

Per Martin man lived in the city of Hamar. After the discovery of the 7 viable seeds of Finnish rye, he convinced the gardeners at a local church to start tending to these sprouts. After several years of this, they had built up a decent supply of the grain. Eventually, the descendants of these 7 seeds made it into the Svalbard Global Seed bank. About 15 years ago, farmer Johan Swärd obtained a deciliter of this Finnish rye grain, which he began cultivating at his farm, Aschim West."

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GrainVariety NameDetailed Description of Grain VarietyFile