Major Props to Azure Farms!

Good morning! This is a Monday worth celebrating. Not only because our dear little Luke allowed us the best night's sleep that we've had in weeks (thanks, pal), but also because our Oregon wheat should arrive today via UPS. That's right, we've located some local wheat from an Oregon farm that isn't afraid to sell to Oregonians. Azure Farms, in Dufur, Oregon, has been a dry-land wheat and cattle ranch for decades. According to their website (www.azurestandard.com) in 1971, this Eastern Oregon farm family decided to stop using synthetic fertilizers and chemical herbicides and pesticides. And they stopped "cold turkey." According to the website, their soil has recovered beautifully since that decision. The folks at Azure Standard have branched out to become a distributor of sorts for other natural and organic products. They'll ship stuff to individuals for a small fee, but they'd rather put your order of $40 or more on a truck that drops orders at a variety of locations around Oregon. I asked to have my wheat shipped via UPS in order to get it here in time for our Ash Wednesday kick-off meal, but in the future I'll certainly make use of the free delivery service.

I ordered hard red winter wheat flour (10 lbs), and some hard white wheat berries (5 lbs) so we can try out our new grain mill. The Azure folks say that the gluten content differs between the red and the white wheat and that hard vs. soft makes no difference. This doesn't quite match up with what I've been told by others in the weird, wild, grain industry. But whatever. Hard/soft/hi-gluten/lo-gluten, I say give me the grains and I'll figure out how to make it work.