When much of the cereal and grain products on supermarket shelves contain old lifeless refined flours, Reed Hamilton of Grass Valley Grains mills upward of 250 pounds a week of flour made from fresh whole grains grown on fields in Wheatland.

Hamilton is one of a few scattered small-scale grain farmers in the state dedicated to growing nutrient-dense traditional and heirloom varieties both drought resistant and adapted to local conditions.

Small farms like Grass Valley Grains offer promise for a healthier population and could protect future food systems threatened by global climate change.

“We have a crisis of obesity and diabetes,” said Monica Spiller, founder of The Whole Grain Connection, a nonprofit group begun in 2000 to support small organic grain farmers through education and seed sharing.

An American diet based heavily on refined and processed flours and sugars leads to health problems, Spiller said.

On the flip side, whole grains are recommended to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, studies show.

Although it appears Americans are eating more whole grains then they were a few years ago, only 11 percent of the grains people ingest are whole grains, according to the Whole Grains Council. The U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines recommend at least half of the grains we eat should be whole with bran and germ intact.

Hamilton serves as a board member for Whole Grain Connection and grows Sonoma Wheat, a Spanish heirloom variety thought to be the first wheat grown in California and written about in John Bidwell's diaries.

Despite providing for a niche market of appreciative foodies, Hamilton, like many small grain farmers, struggles to make a profit in the face of a influential baking and milling industry that prefers cheap refined flours to whole grain.

“They only think of the price. They think of nothing else. It's absolutely appalling,” said Spiller of commercial bakers who don't share Spiller's understanding that the price of grain should cover the cost to the farmer.

Paving the way

“If I didn't get much response I'd quit in a minute,” Hamilton said, who depends on his storage business to pay the bills.

“People are very enthusiastic. People really appreciate that there's local grain. People say the flour and polenta tastes really wonderful.”

At 62, Hamilton says he has about 10 years of energy left in him to perform the hard physical task of almost single-handedly raising, harvesting, milling and marketing grains like wheat, corn, barley and teff.

By trial and error, Hamilton is founding the skills for a viable sustainable grain farm, paving the way for an eager young farmer to take over the operation in future years.

“Acquiring the knowledge of how to farm is a really big project,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton's largest orders come from Flour Garden Bakery and Briarpatch Co-op.

Hamilton's project began as an environmental experiment in 2007 exploring the practicality of growing grains in Nevada County.

He soon realized the hilly terrain of the foothills was impractical for grain growing, so he turned to the flat expansive valley fields of Wheatland where he farms a friend's 30 acres in a three-year, 10-acre rotational cycle.

“Grain takes a lot of room,” Hamilton said.

Last fall, Hamilton planted crops of hard red wheat, heirloom soft white wheat, barley, rye and oats.

Though he spent his youth on a grain field in the Midwest, Hamilton left the farming life as a young man and didn't return to his roots until he reached almost retirement age.

Hamilton could write a book on the education he's acquired, recorded in blogs on his website. He is working toward an innovative No Till method of farming now being developed by researchers at UC Davis and the Rodale Institute.

So far, small-scale grain farming done completely as a solo operation is not yet economically viable for Hamilton. He wonders if a better approach might be to pair with another agricultural enterprise or form a community-style model.

Over the years, the project has taught Hamilton both the frustrations and the rewards of being a farmer. Though there are many hurdles yet to overcome and the work is tiring, Hamilton says he continues to find joy in it.

“I really like being in the field doing fieldwork. I like to see things grow.”

Visit Grass Valley Grain's website at grassvalleygrains.com

Laura Brown is a freelance writer who lives in Grass Valley. Contact her at 401-4877 or laurabrown323@comcast.net.