Mermaid Farm is Chilmark’s, and the Island’s, only 24-hour farm stand. They are a lifeline once you’ve tasted their yogurt or milk, or perhaps it’s one of their cheeses you can’t live without. Between the meats, the eggs, the lassi, and other offerings, they bring us fine maple syrup and local grains. I noticed the rye when it appeared a couple of years ago, and I wasn’t sure what einkorn wheat was, but when Lost and Found Grain oats appeared in the fridge in October, I wanted to bring some home for my husband, who eats oatmeal every morning. I didn’t have change and there wasn’t enough in the box, so I returned the next day and happily met Daniel Sternbach of Lost and Found Grain.
Daniel, who’s lived on Martha’s Vineyard for 30 years, said, “Since 2016 I’ve been growing small grains on a commercial scale. For maybe three or four years before that I was growing on a garden scale. I think the largest I did was 10,000 square feet. And under Caitlin’s tutelage I’ve been doing small projects around here vegetable-wise. Then Allen and Caitlin allowed me to start using their fields and move into an acreage scale and I’ve been doing that since 2016; 2019 was the first year I harvested oats.”
“Why oats?” I asked, and he said, “They’re easier to sell.”
When I asked about the difference between growing seasons, Daniel replied, “Every year I’m plagued with problems. I have problems with animals, deer, geese, and turkeys. So right now I have them planted in three different spots in West Tisbury. Each of those fields has a group of 50-plus turkeys that go through the fields at least three times a day. This year I lost almost three-quarters of a field to geese because they came in right before I was going to harvest. Certain fields I just don’t think I can grow in anymore. It’s a learning process for me so I’m making mistakes too; how I do things, when I do things, fertilize, not fertilize. I can’t really afford fertilizer so my stuff doesn’t really get fertilized.”
Sternbach grew up in southeastern Vermont “around a lot of people with alternative lifestyles, back to the land, preserving fruit,” though he did not farm growing up. He continues to do carpentry and construction. We get back to talking about grains, with Daniel saying he’s “done well with oats this year. Guys can cook oats. Not as many people bake. People really like them, they’re good, I like them. It all has to do with this new variety of oats developed in Canada, maybe 10, 15 years [ago], it’s a hulless or semi-hulless oat [called] AC Gehl. The seed is hard to get in the U.S.”
I wondered why he decided on this specific hulless variety and Daniel replied, “Dehulling oats takes a lot of machinery and it’s a lot of work. I have a dehuller for another type of grain, but it doesn’t work with oats. So when they developed this type of oat, it completely opened the door to all these small growers.”
I wondered what other kinds of grains he grows. “It ebbs and flows,” he said. “Sometimes I feel guilty because I don’t communicate with my customers enough because I don’t like having a Facebook page. I’ve grown rye and several different varieties of wheat. Since I’m doing it part-time, chunks of time will go by when I can’t get to it. Einkorn is another type of grain I’ve grown, that’s a wheat grain that has to be dehulled. That was the one I lost the field to this year, it was really disappointing.”
I ask if there is anywhere besides Mermaid Farm that carries Lost and Found Grain. Daniel says, “Cinnamon Starship uses an awful lot of my flour in her breads. I brought some einkorn to the stand, but it was easier to sell everything I had to Olivia [Pattison].”
We say goodbye and I head into the farmstand to make my oats purchase. As I’m paying, Beth Goodell of Island Gymnastics comes in and sees my oats and says, “I love their einkorn wheat, it’s the best.” Enjoy our locally grown grains and feel free to share a recipe.
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November 04, 2020 at 12:08PM
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Local grains - Martha's Vineyard Times
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