Many people have found themselves with more time at home due to the pandemic and stay-at-home orders. As a result, people have been taking up hobbies that they long wanted to try or had once enjoyed and lost time for. On a snowy February day, Peter, his brother Daniel, and I got together to mill and work with some of the grains we have been cleaning at Seneca Grain Cleaning. For those unfamiliar with the business, Seneca Grain Cleaning acts a pass-through business between farmers and Seneca Grain & Bean. Essentially, once crops are harvested in the field and dried to their desired level, farmers hire Seneca Grain Cleaning to clean their product to a food grade standard. After cleaning, the product is returned to the farmer or is purchased from the farmer by Seneca Grain & Bean for resale. Seneca Grain Cleaning sees a wide array of products come through its cleaning line - everything from sweet corn seed to hard red winter wheat and hemp seed. During days we clean, it’s easy to let the mind wander with the different aromas in the air about what these products will eventually become. We took that cold February day to make our cleaning line muses transform into fruition into tasty treats.

Certified Organic Emmer Berries cleaned by Seneca Grain Cleaning and sold by Seneca Grain & Bean

We began with milling each of the different kinds of grains we would be working with - each for a different style of bread/pastry. We ground spelt for pasta, emmer for focaccia, einkorn for shortbread cookies, Renan (a hard red winter wheat) for a sourdough boulé, and white fredrick for a sourdough loaf.

Stone Ground Whole Grain Flour

This was my first time working with a stone mill. It was amazing to smell the aromas coming from the mill as soon as it began running. You obtain and preserve more flavor in your bread milling fresh flour the day of baking.

After milling all of our grains we began to prepare the doughs. We added sourdough starter to the doughs destined to be sourdough, and added some honey to the einkorn for shortbread cookies. After folding the dough at the appropriate intervals, we began to put the loaves in the oven. The spelt pasta headed to the boiling pot and we relaxed with a glass of wine.

The renan sourdough was amongst the most flavorful sourdoughs I’ve ever had - it had a beautiful nutty component with a buttery aftertaste. The emmer focaccia we finished two ways - one with herbs and peppercorn and the other with mozzarella - both finishings offered a complimentary flavor to the earthiness umami of the emmer. The einkorn shortbread cookies had a toasty flavor that reminded me of warmer days around a campfire; this was my first time working with einkorn and I have to say I was beyond excited to see the delicate flavor it imparted - I could immediately tell this was a grain I needed to start using in my pastry repertoire. Lastly, we finished with the spelt pasta - this was topped with homemade pesto and truly tasted like Finger Lakes in a bowl.

Stay tuned here on our blog for recipes using our grains. Next up will be a day of soups/salads using our beans. Find yourself inspired and want to share your recipe? Send it to us at daniel@senecagrainandbean.com and we’ll feature it here!

Daniel Budmen | Reflections on Baking with Seneca Grain & Bean

Baking Day