Connecting farms to community
While helping develop a farmers market in Skowhegan, Maine, in 2007, Amber Lambke discovered a perplexing problem: many producers’ value-added products lacked flour to create their baked goods to meet the market requirement of locally sourced ingredients. Bakers were “wild cards,” she recalled, because they simply could not find any local flour.
That led Lambke on a quest to revive the flour industry in Maine and eventually start an organic, whole flour movement in the Northeast.
Lambke, co-founder Maine Grains, presented “Connecting Farms, Food & Community” as part of the recent Cornell Organic Field Crops & Dairy Conference.
When faced with the flour sourcing issue, she appealed to local growers. Although plenty of farmers raised wheat, she recalled local “farmers growing grains didn’t understand food grade,” Lambke recalled. “The area lacked infrastructure for milling.”
Not one easily deterred, Lambke traveled to Kansas, Canada, Denmark and more to learn about the milling process. By 2012, she launched a mill, Maine Grains, housed in a remodeled prison, and began selling bags of organic flour both retail and wholesale.
Despite losing Maine Grain’s biggest restaurant customer during COVID shutdowns, the mill was swamped trying to meet orders of home bakers. Lamke then learned that some crises create lasting trends. Home baking is still going strong, long after mask mandates and six-foot separation have faded.
The pandemic also helped Lambke discover issues in the food chain and the need for “making every acre as profitable as possible,” she said. Doing so can help farmers stay sustainable. For example, growing an edible cover crop can help create more income for farmers and a more stable food system.
“How do we remember how to grow grains in our cultures?” Lambke posed.
Then there’s how to process grains. She had to learn how to stone mill grains, which she said helps preserve 30% more fiber and 30% more oil in the grain.
“Grain milling is a fragile infrastructure,” she said. Few people knew how to “dress” millstones so when she bought hers, it was tough finding someone with the know-how.
The growth of the grain industry in Maine has begun influencing baking and craft brewing, as they both use grains.
“We couldn’t convince pizzamakers to use local flour,” she said.
Eventually, she began supplying flour for the Good Crust, a wholesale supplier of dough and bread products to schools, restaurants and natural food stores throughout New England. Government programs that give commercial users a 50% rebate for purchasing local ingredients has helped Maine Grains grow.
Lambke has also dabbled in her own value-added products, contracting with Afterglow Ice Cream to make private label ice cream sandwiches.
Making Maine Grains go full circle is important to Lambke. Byproducts such as oat hulls go to a local pig farmer. “First run” flour made at the beginning of the day is sold to Amish bakers and jail kitchens.
Lambke has developed Maine Grains into a tourist attraction. At first, she did not have a lot for people to see when they arrived.
“For every three hours people drive to you, you need one hour of activity,” she said.
Expanding the market to include a café, bar, dry goods store and livestock feed helped give tourists more to do. Lambke founded the Kneading Conference and the Maine Artisan Bread Fair.
The change in the Maine grain industry has been gradual.
“Every grain grower I used to talk with would use chemicals,” she said. “You cannot change a system overnight. Whatever their reason for that, it takes time. We’re all learning. We’ll all do better when we all do better.”
Maine Grains works with 40 Northeastern farmers, prioritizing Maine farms but also purchasing grains from farms in New York, Vermont and Canada.
