In 2009, Brock and I hosted a series of workshops at Makaria Farm on how to grow wheat and other grains on a garden scale. Over 50 families from all over the islands participated in the Island Grains workshops. We didn’t realize it at the time, but similar projects were in the works across North America. Canada’s first grain CSA had launched the year before in the Kootenays. A bakery in Massachusetts was handing out grain seeds to its customers for planting, in a community-wide act of guerrilla gardening. Wheat was being planted in the aisles of California vineyards, and public ovens were under construction all over the continent.
Early last year, Sarah Simpson and I were asked to investigate this local grain revolution by New Society Publishers. We spent many months interviewing bakers, farmers, environmental activists and other project leaders, and soon realized that these projects weren’t about growing grain: their common goal was actually to build community. Faced with economic recession, climate change and food security challenges, individuals were turning to the most basic skills of civilized society — growing grain and baking bread — as a way to empower themselves and their communities.
Our book, called Uprisings: A Hands-On Guide to the Community Grain Revolution, shares these tales from the front lines in communities from Alaska to Arizona, as well as information on how to grow grain, make bread and perform other revolutionary acts. We hope it will inspire a new wave of uprisings.