Informative and inspiring videos from the Maine Grain Alliance, offering insights, practical knowledge, and shared experiences to strengthen our regional grain economy.
6min
Richard Roberts, Director of Maine Grain Alliance’s Seed Restoration program, takes us on a tour of his winter grain plantings on Land Trust 45 Farm in Solon in the township of Bingham.
1hr 56min
Maine’s grain economy has seen incredible growth over the last decade, driven by a revival of the state’s milling and malting industries. Farmers and producer partnerships made this revival possible and maintaining them will be crucial to meet the growing demand for organic grains in the years to come. This workshop will bring together three local producers — Amber Lambke (Maine Grains), Joel Alex (Blue Ox Malthouse), and Kerry Hanney (Night Moves Bakery) — for a discussion on the future of Maine’s grain economy, offering insight on market trends and opportunities for further collaboration.
1min 24sec
Richard Roberts, Director of the Maine Grain Alliance Rare and Heritage Seed Restoration Program, takes us on a tour of heritage grain varieties growing on Robbins Hill in Solon, Maine. The Old Canada Road Scenic Byway Association has made a few plots available on their beautiful land. Grain varieties include: Spring Spelt and others.
1min
Richard Roberts, Director of the Maine Grain Alliance Rare and Heritage Seed Restoration Program, takes us on a tour of heritage grain varieties growing at the Maine Wood Heat trial garden in Skowhegan, Maine. Grain varieties include: Guggisberg Spelt and others.
2min 19sec
Richard Roberts, Director of the Maine Grain Alliance Rare and Heritage Seed Restoration Program, takes us on a tour of heritage grain varieties growing on the Jackson Farm in East Madison, Maine on land made available to us by Somerset Woods Trustees. Grain varieties include: Amy, Yellow, ND216 (modern cultivar), and Purple from Anders Borgen.
2min
Richard Roberts, Director of the Maine Grain Alliance Rare and Heritage Seed Restoration Program, takes us on a tour of heritage grain varieties growing on the Hilton Farm in Starks, Maine. Grain varieties include: Poltavka, Banatka, Frederick, and Harris.
2hr
Flour is where farmer, miller, and baker meet. As we refocus on local organic growing and small-scale milling, we have an opportunity to revisit flour production based on a largely forgotten history. The purpose of this hands-on workshop is to introduce you to ideas and techniques from the history of bread. Whether you are a farmer, miller, or baker, there will be something in this workshop for you. Our ideas about flour are shaped by the roller mill. Historically, flour was understood as a more dynamic product than it is today. This workshop introduces different ways of thinking about flour, and practical techniques for millers to produce flours that will inspire bakers to be creative and inventive. I will show videos of water mills and artisan mills at work. The center of the demonstrations, however, will be live. I will demonstrate milling using my 8” stone Meadows Mill, and sieving and bolting using metal and cloth sieves that enable us to recreate historic flours, as well as invent new flours. An optional materials list will be provided before the workshop. The workshop covers the systems the French called mouture rustique and mouture economique. We will work with both the “throughs” – the flour that falls through the sieves — and the “overtails” — the flour that stays behind. These techniques include conditioning grain before milling, and selective re-milling of sifted product, which are then sifted a second time. I will provide historic recipes to match the historic flours we make, and will offer a few recipes for flours that are entirely novel. This workshop is about finding inspiration in the past to feed our passion for grains, milling, and bread.
1hr 23min
Join a conversation with Maine Grains co-founder and CEO, Amber Lambke on lessons from entrepreneurship. Amber will share key insights from her journey as a grassroots, first-time entrepreneur. From hiring and firing to grassroots marketing tips, low cost CRM’s, OSHA compliance, food safety, parenting while starting a business, Kaizen, and community building Amber will touch on it all in an interactive conversation that leaves plenty of time for Q&A. Formerly a speech language pathologist, Amber Lambke shifted gears to respond to a community need for grain processing infrastructure and is the co-founder and CEO of Maine Grains, Inc., carried by specialty food stores and used by bakeries, breweries and chefs throughout the Northeast. She is also the founding director of the non-profit Maine Grain Alliance and its flagship event, the Kneading Conference. A creative problem solver, mother of two, weekend baker, and driving force behind Maine’s sustainable organic foods movement, Amber has worked with local businesses, state and national leaders and her community to successfully bring the cultivation and processing of grains back to the northeast.
1hr 2min
1 hr 53min
As featured last spring in the New York Times opinion piece by Timothy Wu, local grain economies hold promise for knitting rural communities together, creating jobs, and ensuring resiliency through tough times. Resurgent local grain economies are realizing the power to build organic entrepreneurial ecosystems for strong community connections and success. The rural regions in which grain production happens are essential to the nearby urban population centers, and urban markets that spend their dollars on regionally grown purchases together, demonstrate a framework for growth and change in our dynamic food system. Presented by Amber Lambke, co-founder of the Maine Grain Alliance in 2007 and Maine Grains, Inc. (2012), a gristmill in downtown Skowhegan, ME housed in a repurposed Victorian jailhouse.
33min 12sec
A conversation with Richard Roberts about grain growing, organic heritage seed restoration, and small scale equipment.
5min 45sec
Richard Roberts, Director of the Maine Grain Alliance Rare and Heritage Seed Restoration Program, takes us on a tour of heritage grain varieties growing on the Searls Farm in Solon, Maine
15min
In this video, Albie Barden gives historical context and shares current uses for the flint corn varieties he is stewarding and resorting. Albie is one of the founders of the Maine Grain Alliance and helped initiate the first Kneading Conference in 2006. Professionally, Albie is a 40 year veteran oven, cooker, and masonry heater designer, including the Tiny House heater; and builder and the co-founder of Maine Wood Heat Company, Inc. He is also the co-founder of the Common Ground Country Fair, the Masonry Heater Association of North America, and of Flint Corn in Maine. Albie has been a lifetime organic gardener and is passionate about growing and preserving heirloom varieties of flint corn.
2hr 57min
Join Amber Lambke, CEO & Founder of Maine Grains and Kerry Hanney, founder, owner, and baker behind Night Moves, as they discuss and demonstrate baking with heritage grains, sourdough and stone-ground flours. Amber kicks off the workshop by discussing a variety of topics around flour, such as white vs. stoneground four, “Bread Flour” (protein content, etc), vs. “All Purpose” vs. “Pastry Flour”, what do we mean by ‘heritage’, ‘landrace’, and ‘modern’ wheats, flour for feeding your starter, milling at home and SO much more! We then virtually transport to Kerry Hanney’s bakery as she demonstrates baking a 100% organic rye sourdough bread that is easy to replicate at home along with Night Moves popular brownie recipe, Mexican cacao brownies featuring organic flint corn!
17min 52sec
Enjoy part one of Francis Percival’s Kneading Conference keynote. Francis joined the Kneading Conference attendees to speak about food clusters and his experiences across different industries and what they can learn from each other. His book, Reinventing the Wheel, which covers the history, science, and future of cheese and dairy farming is available across the world. Francis Percival writes on food and wine for The World of Fine Wine.
55min 45 sec
Matt Williams is a pioneer in the resurgence of the grain growing economy in the State of Maine. Previously, he was a grain agronomist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension for 22 years. Matt started growing organic, food-grade wheat in 1998 and started his milling operation in 2001 to meet the needs of Jim Amaral of Borealis Breads, who was seeking Maine grown wheat.
59min 45sec
A conversation about sourcing, storing and utilizing freshly milled, organic stone-ground flour. Join Sarah Owens, James Beard Award winning cookbook author, baker, instructor, and horticulturalist and Tristan Noyes, grain farmer and executive director of the Maine Grain Alliance, for a discussion about regional flour, baking, and milling.
5min 28 sec
Richard Roberts, our Rare and Heritage Seed Restoration Program Director and Vice Chair of The Maine Grain Alliance, walks us through his seed plot in Solon, Maine. Richard works to gather and grow heritage seed varieties, testing their viability in the Maine climate.
