2017: What are we going to do with our spelt grain?

Hello @johnanthonyallan @annielandless @wendyalcock @johncherry @darren4 @harrygreenfield1 @harryboglione @tessatricks @ellemcall @lucybradley1 @christinelewis @sadhbhmoore @nikireynolds thanks all for attending the meeting on Thursday. Minutes put together by @johnanthonyallan and added to by me are above...please do add in anything we have missed.

Dear Abby
Thank you for editing and circulating the minutes and for finding the time late last evening. Tony

@johnanthonyallan Thanks for taking the minutes and writing them up too John. It's really helpful to have such a clearly written summary of the discussion.

Dear all
What to do with the grain?
Can someone with more knowledge than myself list the options. If the grain is not of milling quality as Abby has advised I I presume our options are very limited.
1 Sell the grain as animal feed.
2 Use it as seed. But if will not produce grain of milling quality this would be a commercially unviable option.
Best Tony (Allan)

Options for Using the Grain

I'm not sure I've got more knowledge and I think the likely possibilities are pretty much all mentioned in the minutes but to clarify for those who've not had a chance to look at those (I only just have, they are a good summary of what happened at the harvest meeting & festival) I'll list options under consideration. With any of these uses its possible that our grain will not be suitable

• Biscuits
• Distilling - for gin .Unlike other uses they dont want it dehulled
• Pearled - for use instead of rice - I think I'm right in saying that you can just use the grain 'unpearled' for this too. I'm not sure who we'd sell to for this. Best possibility, I think, is the 3 big wholefood wholesale co-ops - although I'm thinking 15 tonnes is possibly a bit more than they would be interested to stock.
• Animal feed - this would be the last resort if the quality isn't good enough or we can't find a buyer for another use.

Evening all

Today has been my first chance to try and do some follow up research on possible options for the spelt to add to those discussed at the recent meeting. Darren has nicely summarised the main options from the meeting above (and malting / resowing for another Spring spelt / selling a small amount to small bakeries were also mentioned).

I have found it very hard to find any clear source of info on what spelt with a low Hagberg Falling Number (HFN) can be used for. Although, it may still be too low for biscuits according to this report http://www.organiccentrewales.org.uk/uploads/k9_cerealshumanconsump2011eng.pdf

The only other idea I have seen is that whole gains can be sprouted (for which the grain should not be hulled, husked, pearled, rolled, flaked, or otherwise altered according to
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-sprouted-grains-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-204466).

And apparently Groats are the whole grain that retains the germ and bran but has been minimally processed so as to remove its outer husk or hull.

I have speculatively emailed the following places to see if they can offer any guidance (not sure why only organic places are coming up in the UK when looking for info on HFN for spelt) and will report back if any of them reply:
http://www.nefg-organic.org (via Newcastle uni) / http://www.organicresearchcentre.com / http://www.organicarable.co.uk / http://www.organiccentrewales.org.uk (via Aberystwyth uni)

An interesting link I found that explains what low HFNs do to bread:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-baldwin/cat-lane-bakery-spelt-problems-hagberg/10150320628500775/

I've had this reply from Organic Arable:

If you are sure the hagberg is low it is difficult to advise as there are limited markets for low hagberg spelt. I was offered some organic product this week too. I would suggest looking at flaking markets but can't advise who as I only know one customer who only uses organic spelt flakes. Sorry not to be more help. Good luck.

Wow @wendyalcock that is some great investigative work. That facebook post is incredibly informative, Andy (potentially Andrew Whitely?) definitely seems to know his stuff! Here is a summary of what he suggests about low hagberg spelt in case people don't click onto the post:
"In my opinion conventional industrial millers set the Hagberg falling
number target too high (below which the farmer's wheat is rejected for
baking) and so there is not enough natural amylase activity. The
majority of "bread improvers" used in conventional baking (non-CBP)
address this by adding fungal created amylase (identified as responsible
for allergy creation in bakers) and other enzymes and chemicals
(absorbic acid etc) to replace the natural activity of amylases from
within the grain.

But too much amylase (too low Hagberg falling numbers) does create the
problem you describe though tweaking of proofing time (shorter),
hydration (down) and dough temperature (down) and acidity (up) would in
most cases make flour still usable. Rye flour will always behave like
wheat flour with too low falling number, therefore will always be baked
as sourdough when used pure."
Very insightful and we had been wondering how much the hagberg number was something set by industrial bread-making standards. I'm not suggesting our spelt is still saleable for bread flour at any scale, but it seems that it's certainly not impossible to make a loaf from it!
Ed at E5 went ahead and milled the spelt sample we had sent to him, as a little test. He said it milled nicely, so I have a 1kg bag of OurField Spelt flour. I was going to ask the head baker at E5 if he is interested in having a play with it...! Will keep you in the loop.

I received another reply today from the lovely folk at Newcastle uni:

*Thank you for contacting me. I've reached out to some partners and colleagues who are more involved in the processing side of things and have some suggestions. *

Biscuits require a low falling number (if you're looking to sell flour/grain on then Rude Health may be an option).

If you still have some grain remaining that hasn't been processed into flour, spelt can be used toasted or boiled similar to pearl barley (in italian recipes it is sometimes used interchangeably with a grain called farro).

Finally, if you're planning to just use the flour within the members of the co-op, I use spelt flour for pasta at home--the industry would require a high HFN but for personal use, I've used slow Hagberg spelt with success.

Hope this is helpful--I do have a colleague with additional industry ties if you are looking for more options, so let me know if you'd like me to pass additional contacts on!

*And thank you for sharing your project--the documenting of the process is really interesting. If you'd like any additional information about what we do at Nafferton, please let me know. *

Dear Wendy
Thank you for your message with advice from more experienced people in the business. In a message of about two months ago I passed on a comment from my friends in Umbria who also mentioned farro. They use it as an ingredient in their muesli and I posted a picture of a packet showing how it is marketed. There is much to get to know about this part of the supply chain. Thank you for devoting time to it. Best Tony