This summer marks the first harvest of the UK Grain Lab northern trial, a cultivar testing and breeding initiative in Yorkshire, which could spark the growth of a diverse local grain food economy. Giulia Kessous writes.
UK Grain Lab is a network bringing together local communities of farmers, millers, breeders, bakers and researchers who share a common vision: building alternative grain economies. ORC collaborates with the Grain Lab through the LiveSeeding project which aims at developing crop breeding and seeds for organic systems through a participatory approach.
UK Grain Lab plays an essential role in using research tools to deepen our knowledge on diverse populations and cultivars. This new northern trial responds to the work initiated in the South West by Fred Price, expanding it into a different pedo-climatic context and including additional populations (more information on the trials here). The goals are to develop materials that are well-suited to organic and low-input systems. Charlotte Bickler, principal researcher in Crops and Agronomy at ORC and UKGL coordinator explains: “One of the main challenges is weeds in such systems and I am interested in cultivars which demonstrate weed competitive traits such as good ground cover.”
The network focuses on winter wheat for human consumption, so the Grain Lab breeding process includes broader actors from the network, such as millers and bakers. It is known that there is often a trade-off between yield and protein content; however, we have developed promising materials showing evidence of higher-than-expected protein quality, compared to their yield.
It is with the same spirit of active participation, collaboration and knowledge sharing that farmers, bakers and researchers from the network visited the trial platform between the raindrops and rays of sunshine, to imagine together what the local grain network future could be. “In coming weeks, we will be working with bakers in the Yorkshire Grain Alliance , to see if these cultivars are tasty too, and what products they might be best used in. Based on all this information, we will choose which ones to begin bulking up to increased volumes for further field scale testing and milling and baking trials” Charlotte says.
See also: Organic Delivers
