Guess What Time It Is?

It's harvest time here on the Palouse and we're excited to be in the fields bringing in this year's crop.  Here you see Darrell operating our hillside combine in a field of barley.

A tractor with a grain buggy attached heads out to get a load from the combine.

For the next few weeks we'll be out in the fields bringing in the 2014 Joseph's Grainery harvest, so you can enjoy our whole grain and legume products!

Farm Update - The Wheat Has Heads!

The Rolling Hills of the Palouse now have carpets of green growing!  It's absolutely beautiful right now.  In the photo above you can see the Palouse River Valley cutting it's way through the grain covered hills.

Here you can see the heads of soft white wheat emerging from the plant.  The crops are looking fantastic and will be ready to harvest in mid July to early August.

Farm Update - 2014 Crop Is Up!

See, we told you so.   Plant a few seeds and things get out of hand.  Your 2014 Joesph's Grainery Soft White Winter Wheat is on it's way, but you don't have to wait until the fall 2014 to get yours.  The freshly harvested 2013 crop is in stores now. 

Remember that field we showed you that was just brown dirt with rows and rows?

Thousands upon thousands of little green plants, Soft White Winter Wheat, have shot out of the ground.  They'll grow a little more, and before we know it the winter snow will be here to insulate the crop from the cooler temperatures.

Then and Now...

Then...

This photo was taken in 1939.  That's a 51 International cutting the crop.  My Great Grandmother hand tinted the photo back in the day...you may recognize this shot, as it's part of our logo.

And Now...

This photo was taken at the same spot just a couple of days ago.  That's an 8120 Case IH Combine.  My Grandpa is in the gray shirt and Darrel is in the blue.  Darrel's the lucky guy who gets to drive this mammoth machine on a daily basis during harvest.  This combine has an operator's manual the size of a college textbook.

Things have come a long ways, haven't they?

It's Harvest Time!

Yep, it's the most wonderful time of the year!  No, it's not Christmas.  Around the Palouse many would argue that Harvest deserves that title.  With the gorgeous amber waves of grain, the hot temperatures and the farmers reaping the rewards of  a year's worth of hard work, I think most folks on the Palouse would say it's definitely a special season.

That said, it was definitely time for my cousins, little brother and I to make our way out to the field and see how harvest was progressing.  I didn't let the chance to slip behind the wheel of that gigantic 8120 International Harvester Combine pass me by.  I think Katie's wishing she wasn't stuck in the cab, with me behind the wheel.

Owen and Bro did a good job of looking pretty darn cute in their matching overalls.

Joseph's Grainery Barley waiting to be harvested.

Us kiddos decided it looked like Harvest was off to a great start and I handed the wheel of the combine back over to my friend Darrel.

Harvest on the Palouse

Cousin Katie loves Joseph's Grainery Wheat Berries!

Yep, you'd take your binky out too, if you could sample a handful of Joseph's Grainery Wheat Berries while standing in the field where they were grown.  :)

Grandpa and the crew have been hard at work harvesting the 2011 Joseph's Grainery Crop of Soft White Wheat, Barley, Hard Red Wheat and Lentils.

There's nothing quite like the rolling hills of the Palouse!

Perfecting the Parade Wave

My Grandpa and Grandma took our signature 1936 Ford delivery truck to a couple 4th of July parades yesterday.   Did you see them?

We hope that you enjoyed celebrating the 4th of July with friends and family.  God bless America!

Thank you to our friend Heather Meyer for sharing these photos with us.

Wet Winter Wheat

Joseph's Grainery Soft White Winter Wheat

Your Joseph's Grainery Soft White Wheat is all wet.  This is the crop that will provide you with Your Joseph's Grainery Products for the fall of 2011 through the harvest of  2012. This wheat was planted in the Fall of 2010 and will be harvested this coming August.  Right now the weather is starting to warm up so the wheat will grow quickly.

In The News - Spring Weather Woes on KXLY

My Grandpa was on the KXLY 4 evening news last night.  Things are still pretty wet around here for this time of year and they interviewed him about it.  Here's the video clip, you might want to turn your volume up, as some of the audio isn't the best:

Joseph's Grainery Family History

Here's a photo of my Grandpa Bill and my Great Grandpa Joe (yep, both Joseph's Grainery and I are named after him) circa 1952.  When MaMa showed me this photo, I thought it was a picture of me.  Grandpa says I get my good looks from him.  ;)

What an amazing  time it must've been to be alive.  Imagine coming back to the farm after the war to take a new bride and have your first son.  I cant' fathom it.  Anything must have seemed possible if you just worked hard enough.  And for many of them, it was.  I know it was for my Great Grandfather.  He did it all.  They truly were, and to those still left alive, are, the greatest generation.  Proud to call him my Great Grandfather, although I never got to meet him - Joseph Lussier Myers, June 25 1920 - April 1 1994.

National Whole Grains Month - Giveaway!

September is National Whole Grains Month, so in honor of that here at Joseph's Grainery, we thought we needed to celebrate in some way.  We are after all, in the business of sustainably producing quality whole grains.

Celebrate National Whole Grains Month with any of Joseph's Grainery Whole Grain products.

We will soon be adding a Multigrain Pancake Mix to our product lineup, but we thought it would be fun to give you the opportunity to be one of the first to try it and provide us with some feedback, so we're going to give 3 lucky readers each a bag of our Joseph's Grainery Pancake Mix before it's available.

Joseph's Grainery Multigrain Pancake Mix makes beautiful & delicious pancakes...

sausage & strawberries not included.

To enter, leave a comment below telling us how you like to eat your pancakes (e.g. - smoothered in syrup...keep it clean folks, I am only 2 years old.)  :)

For additional entries you can:

• subscribe via one of our methods on the sidebar
• join our e-mail list, located on the sidebar
• "like" us on facebook
• blog, tweet, or facebook about this giveaway (must provide a link)
• place an order of any of our whole grain products through our store

The rules, details and fine print:

• Contest closes at midnight (Pacific Time), Friday, September 17, 2010.
• Will only ship to US addresses - so you must reside in the United States.
• You must provide a comment for each entry, telling us what you've done and providing a link (if applicable).
• winner will be chosen randomly, using random.org.
• No purchase necessary to win.

So tell us, how do you like your pancakes?

It's Harvest Time! - Palouse Wheat Harvest

I really am excited that it's harvest time here at Joseph's Grainery, but this wheat really itches.  Grandpa and the crew are busy cutting the 2010 crop that you'll find on the store shelves or can order here soon.  Grandpa took me out in the field to inspect the crops, because my name's on the label I need to know that everything is  of the highest quality.

Here are a few more photos of our operation running at the Wilcox farm and our family farm near Diamond, Washington:

This is an aerial shot that Grandpa took from his plane.  Those are our two International Harvester 1470 Hillside combines.  On the Rolling Hills of the Palouse we need special combines to keep the machines from rolling.

Here the combine is approaching the tractor that pulls the bankout wagon.  The combine will empty the seed into the wagon and the tractor will take it to the grain bins.

Here's another aerial photo Grandpa took of the aftermath of a fire at the neighbor's farm.  The weather is really dry during harvest and the smallest spark can set off a fire that will literally spread like wild fire.   Grandpa said that the crews had the fire out very quickly.  We really appreciate our area's firefighters, their quick action saved our crop!

Check Us Out At...

Guess, what?  You can now purchase Joseph's Grainery whole grains and flours at two more locations in Washington State.  If you're in Olympia (the state Capitol) visiting, you'll definitely won't want to miss the Washington State Legislative Gift Center.  They feature gifts and products made and grown in Washington.  You can find them at 416 Sid Snyder Ave in Olympia, Washington.

You can also find Joseph's Grainery products at the Marina Market in Poulsbo, Washington.  If you haven't ever visited Poulsbo, you're in for a treat.  It's an adorable Scandanavian fishing villiage in the Puget Sound with all sorts of cute shops and Marina Market is no exception.  They are home to the Licorice Shrine and over 250 types of European Chocolate, as now Joseph's Grainery Barley and Lentil Products.  They are located at 18882 Front Street in Poulsbo.

Whole Grain Gift Idea

It's wedding season and we know how some of you LOVE to give the Joseph's Grainery Palouse Pack as a gift throughout the year.  Well, sometimes you want just something that's just a little bit fancier, but you still want to give the gift of whole grian goodness.  Well, we came up with the perfect wedding gift to incorporate your favorite whole grains. 

We started by purchasing two, plain glass baking dishes.  We followed this tutorial on glass etching, and etched the happy couple's name into the side wall of each of the baking dishes.

Then we added a package of wheat berries and a package of Soft White Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, included a few of our favorite whole grain recipes and gussied it up with some tissue paper and ribbon.  I think any cook or baker would love to have a set of personalized dishes and what better way to start a new family off then introducing them to the whole grain goodness of Joseph's Grainery!

Whole Grain Flours - Now Available!

The waiting is finally over!  You can now order your Joseph's Grainery Whole Grain Flours.  We are excited to offer you freshly ground whole grain flours:

Barley Flour
Lentil Flour
Hard Red Whole Wheat Flour - considered to be the "classic" whole wheat flour
Soft White Whole Wheat Flour - sometimes called pastry flour

We grind the whole grains just prior to packaging them up to ship to you, so you receive the freshest flour possible.  The grain is ground into flour specifically for your order.  So for those of you who have experienced our speedy service in the past, it may take a day or two longer to receive your package when ordering our freshly ground whole grain flours, but you'll know you have the freshest flour!

UPDATE: Whole Grain Flours Coming Soon!

You won't have to wait too much longer for our NEW Whole Grain Flours.  Our commercial kitchen is complete and it has "passed" it's initial inspection. Just a few steps to go!  Keep watching the side bar here at JosephsGrainery.com, once we are ready to start taking orders for fresh ground flour, you'll see them there.

Get ready to bake!  We are going to be offering the following flours:

Joseph's Grainery Soft White Whole Wheat Flour - great for cakes, pastries and noodles, sometimes called "pastry flour".

Joseph's Grainery Hard Red Whole Wheat Flour - considered your classic "whole wheat flour", works fantastic for baking breads.

Joseph's Grainery Barley Flour - we'll be featuring lots of recipes using Barley Flour!

Joseph's Graineyr Lentil Flour - a fun flour to experiment with.  We'll be featuring creative recipes with this new flour as well.

 

We're excited to expand our product line and hope that you are looking forward to baking with Joseph's Grainery Whole Grain Flours!

Now Available in Stores!

Tell your grocer to get it now!  Ask for it by name.  Joseph's Grainery, from our farm to your table.

Our whole grain products made their debut at the Rosauers Supermarket in Colfax, Washington today! Would you like to see Joseph's Grainery products on the selves of a store near you?  Ask the manager to carry Joseph's Grainery Whole Grains and Flours.  You can also contact us here and give us the store's name, manager and contact information and we'll get in touch with them as well.

Do You Know Where Your Food Comes From?

We do!  Here at Joseph's Grainery we can take you to the exact field where your whole grains are grown.  In a world where most people don't have a clue about what's in their food, more and more are finding it of utmost importance to know how the food they eat gets on their table.  This is a quest we find admirable.  Your health, waistline and family will thank you for it.  This will show you the exact field where your Joseph's Grainery Soft White Wheat and Barley are grown...enjoy!

Spring Farm Work on the Palouse

We're in the middle of our Spring Farming here at Joseph's Grainery.  We're busy prepping the soil and planting our Spring crops.  This video shows our crew at work and was filmed last week!  It takes a lot of work to produce the whole grains you enjoy, this is just one step in the process.

My MaMa's Day on the Farm

Yep, that's right, my MaMa only got to work one day on the family farm...and she's been stuck in the office ever since.  :)  When my MaMa turned 16 she talked my Grandpa and Grandma into letting her drive truck for harvest because she needed a project to qualify for her State FFA degree.  My Grandma reluctantly agreed, because she knew the farm can be a dangerous place, and it proved that her mother's intuition was correct...

Yep, My MaMa and her cousin Brian rolled a truck full of wheat!  Talk about a wild ride.  Cousin Brian was supposed to be showing my MaMa how to drive the wheat truck that morning until My Grandpa could test her truck driving skills that afternoon.  Keep in mind that her Cousin Brian was the same age, but he'd been around the farm for a few years.  Well, they got headed down a hill to fast with a heavy load and my MaMa says the truck started bouncing.  They both hit their heads pretty hard and before they knew what happened the truck wound up on it's side.

My MaMa says she remembers Brian saying in a terrified voice, "Oh, no....oh, no....are you bleeding....are you sure your not bleeding?"  It turns out one of them had Kool-aid packed in their lunch that day and it was dripping onto Brian.  Thankfully neither of them were hurt more than mild concussions and bruised egos.

While they were laying there in shock and trying to figure out how they'd get out of the truck, Brian kept saying, "Uncle Bill is going to kill me!"  Not only had he wrecked the truck and dumped a load of wheat on the ground, he'd also wrecked the truck with the Boss' daughter on board.  Not to worry, my Grandpa didn't kill Cousin Brian, he just made him help with the clean up.  That's Brian in the blue shirt.  They came and sucked all the grain up with a huge vacuum!

We don't mean to embarrass Brian by telling this story, but we thought it was a fun piece of our family farm's history.  It turns out that it wasn't completely Brian's fault anyways...there was something wrong with the truck that no one had realized before the accident.  My Grandpa told me what it was, but I can't remember now. 

We couldn't be more proud of Brian for serving in our great Country's Armed Forces!  Thank you to all of our Troops and God Bless America!