Island grown heritage and landrace grains

We grow only standard height, traditionally bred grains that we select for flavor, robust agronomic peformance, and character. If you are a farmer or seed grower please get in touch if you’re interested in getting foundation seed for any of our varieties. We believe strongly in sharing, cooperation, and food system diversity.

 

Fortuna

A hard red spring wheat bred in the 1960s in Montana, Fortuna was originally brought to Lopez 10 years ago by O.J. Lougheed, a lifelong researcher of heritage grains, who sought to find nutritious old varieties that grew well on Lopez. Fortuna has excellent baking quality, rich and sweet flavor, and robust stripe rust resistance.

Selkirk

A 1953 Canadian hard red spring wheat out of Manitoba, Selkirk has great baking quality, good disease resistance, and a balanced flavor.

Chiddam Blanc de Mars

Originally brought out of the seed banks by Monica Spiller in California, Chiddam Blanc is a 1927 French selection of a British landrace wheat. Classed as a soft or medium white spring wheat, we absolutely love the flavor of this grain and use it in all of our pastries and mixed into our whole grain doughs to lighten and sweeten the bread.

 

Halland

An unimproved Swedish landrace, this is a highly diverse, very adaptable, excellect yielding, amazing flavor wheat. We are honored to partner with this grain and look forward to many years of collaboration and learning as we work together to flourish in our thin island soils.

Dala

A 1910 field selection from Dalarna, a Swedish landrace, Dala has a mild and alluring flavor, excellent yield and disease resistance, and that deep rooted nutrition.

Bishop

A 1904 cross of Gehun and Ladoga, Bishop is mind bendingly mild, buttery, and sweet. A hard white spring heritage wheat with strong yield, good disease resistance, and an undeniable charm. Expect to see this one a lot in the coming years.

 

WSU Purple

Back in 2016 Colin Curwen-McAdams was a wheat breeder and researcher at WSU interested in perennial and colorful wheats. He gifted us a selection of unstable purple and blue wheats and we’ve been growing them out ever since. Amazingly rich earthy flavor and surprisingly good baking quality.

Hourani

Hourani is a stunning and scrubby drought tolerant ancient durum from the Hourani plateau of Southewest Syria. Collected in the 1920’s by the legendary seed explorer Nikolai Vavilov the same variety has also been found in archeological sites dating back to 2000 B.C. It has large hard golden kernels perfect for semolina, peasant pastas, and flatbreads. With flavors of ripe plums, golden raisin, apricot kernel, and limestone a small amount can imbue any bread with a rich golden hue and deep flavor.

Rainbow Barley

While most of the grains we grow are identity preserved, meaning we use actual variety names, Rainbow Barley is our own creation. It’s a population of hulless barleys, selected for colorful seeds. Containing Jet, Lomboc, Oscar, Ethiopian, Arabian Blue, Tibetan Purple, and new varieties each year as we find them, this mix of beautiful barleys is always a joy to see in the field and the combine.

 

Ethiopian Blue Tinge Emmer

We originally got this seed from Uprising Seeds in Bellingham and have been growing it since 2015. A hulless emmer with a gorgeous irridescent purple seed, this grain as the most intensely sweet and rich flavor of any of our grains.

Horsedrawn Rye

One of our farming partners Ken Akopiantz at Horsedrawn Farm got some cover crop rye seed many many years ago and has been growing it out and saving seed on Lopez ever since. We love its mild flavor, easy baking quality, and deep roots.

More varieties always in the works

We love these old varieties of grain. Their spirits have the wisdom and experience to adapt to our changing climate and our mission is to keep these varieties alive in the field, a valuable reservoir of genetics and community seed resilience. We are always trialing new varieties looking for the characteristics and flavors we love.