With support from Innovative Farmers , the East Anglian Grain Alliance is hosting a Learning Network event at Duchess Farm in Hertfordshire on June 18th (12-3pm)

Duchess Farm is home to Gilchesters Organics who mill grain and supply flour to bakeries across the UK. For the last decade Gilchesters and Duchess have been working with grain specialist Andrew Forbes to identify wheat varieties potentially suited to UK growing conditions and with good milling and baking qualities. Frequently only found in gene banks or as saved by (often very small) farming communities, Andrew takes the small quantities of seed available and multiplies them on his allotment. He then screens them for UK suitability, before scaling them up at farms like Duchess for milling and baking trials through a network of bakers. Only if they grow well, bake well and taste great are they taken to full production.

Andrew will talk us through this process, explain why so much  genetic diversity in wheat remains underutilised – particularly for the kind of low-input resilient cropping systems farming need to be transitioning towards, describe some of the commercial and legislative barriers (the latter UK Grain Lab are working to change) and show us wheat plots at the farm. We’ll also look at Gilchesters mill, taste bread made with the wheat and discuss ways we might build more collaborative, resilient routes to market for these crops.