Event Recap: Farm to Pasta
When you think about local, sustainably grown food, flour may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But in our recent workshop at the Container Barn, Farm to Pasta, we were reminded that flour is very much an agricultural product - one that has an impact on your health, your cooking, and the environment.
The workshop showcased the collaboration between a local, sustainable wheat and corn farmer, Danny Cowan, and farmer and chef Erin Torgerson. Danny uses organic methods to grow different types of wheat in Mebane, NC, at his farm, Red Tail Grains, and collaborated with Erin, a trained cook, on developing two pasta flours using his wheat. To kick off the event, he gave us a primer on the differences between the sustainable wheat farming he does at his farm in comparison to the conventional practices used elsewhere.
About Sustainable Wheat Farming
Red Tail Grains practices organic farming, so they don’t use pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, whereas in conventional grain farming, these chemicals are used frequently to control biological issues in the field. While effective at controlling weeds, these sprays can do damage to more than just the intended target. A commonly used herbicide in conventional wheat farming is glyphosate (the active ingredient in Round Up), which has been linked in studies to cause various health issues in mammals, including inflammation.
In grain farming, glyphosate isn’t just used to control weeds; it’s also frequently used as a harvesting tool. To harvest wheat, it’s ideal to let it dry in the field beforehand. But waiting for it to dry naturally comes with risk: if there’s a lot of rain, it can cause damage to the crop before it’s finished drying. Some grain farmers spray glyphosate on their grain crops to artificially “dry” it quickly by killing the plant right before they harvest. While this can be effective for avoiding crop damage due to weather, it increases the chance of glyphosate residue on the final product.
Red Tail Grains wheat drying in the field before harvesting
At Red Tail Grains, instead of using this chemical, they harvest the wheat early and place it in grain bins with perforated floors. By blowing air through these openings, they can continue to dry the wheat after harvest until it is dry enough for long-term storage.
Storage is another practice in which the techniques between conventional and organic diverge. In the former, it’s common to use a chemical to help preserve the grain and keep insects from eating it. At Red Tail, they avoid chemical treatment by a combination of freezing and then storing the harvested grain in vacuum-sealed bags, which creates an environment where pests can’t survive.
Finally, there’s the milling process, which turns the stored wheat berries into the various flours that we purchase for cooking. Red Tail Grains uses a stone mill to grind their grains and corn every week. This type of milling crushes the entire wheat berry, including the germ (which includes most of the nutrients and a small amount of fat content). Many commercial milling operations exclude the germ, leaving a flour without the same nutrient density or flavor (Danny compares it to using just the egg white instead of the whole egg).
The stone mill used by Red Tail Grains each week to mill wheat and corn into flour, meal, and grits.
The Journey to Pasta
So that brings us back to pasta. In the early days of selling at farmers’ markets, Danny got many requests for semolina flour - a traditional Italian style flour made of hard durum wheat that is typically used for pasta. “That kind of hard wheat just doesn’t grow very well here in the South,” said Danny, “so it wasn’t something we could offer, but I hated saying no to people.”
But then, on a trip to Italy, he got the chance to learn pasta-making with an Italian nonna, and was surprised to see that the flour she used resembled the soft wheat flours that Red Tail Grains was producing back home. “It’s interesting that what we as Americans think of as “traditional Italian” ends up being different from the reality. Italy is very regionally specific, and it turns out that pasta is made with all different kinds of flours in different parts of the country.”
Back in the States, he reached out to Erin, who had lots of experience with making fresh pasta, for help in perfecting a version of flour that was suitable to the task while also being suitable to the growing environs of our area. The pair workshopped a few different flours until they settled on two they liked: a soft wheat semolina-style flour, ideal for hand-shaped pastas, and a finer, all-purpose pasta flour that is similar to the Italian style “00,” ideal for egg-based pasta doughs.
Pasta Night
Then it was time to pass the mic - and the pasta bowl - to Erin Torgerson, of Seeds & Salt. Erin is a trained cook and a farmer; from a young age she was inspired to learn about different cultures through the lens of food, which has inspired a career of farming and cooking together in locales as varied as Denmark, Italy (where she studied at The University of Gastronomic Sciences), Colorado, and now, North Carolina.
Seeds & Salt is Erin’s project dedicated to teaching and sharing knowledge around the intersection of farming and cooking. One of the key programs, called Pasta Night, is a roving dinner party (in person or virtual) in which Erin teaches participants about the craft of handmade pasta and how the practice fits into a bigger philosophical approach of growing, making, and sharing food. “Pasta just happens to be a great way to showcase what’s growing seasonally,” she shared.
Erin took to the stage and gave us just a taste of her Pasta Night curriculum. We crowded around to learn as she deftly and artfully formed dough - hardly measuring, sharing tips and tricks while her hands kneaded and shaped with enviable muscle memory. With the soft wheat semolina, she formed a dough of just flour and water - working it well to activate the gluten, allowing it to rest, and then manipulating it into a variety of shapes, from orrechiette and trofie to cavatelli. All the while she fielded questions (such as: Should you add salt to the dough? No, let the seasoning come from your pasta water so as not to affect the gluten formation.) and offered tips (certain flours, especially when they’re living products like Red Tail Grains flours, will be “thirstier” than others, so be prepared to add water until you reach the right texture; make sure to rest any pasta dough to allow its gluten to relax). Then she switched to an egg-based dough using the other pasta flour, which she rolled into different cut pasta shape.
In the end, she emphasized that, while you can take pasta making really seriously, she prefers to indulge in the meditative and truly “playful” act of forming something with your hands and letting your mind wander. “I love to retreat for a bit into activities where you have busy hands and an empty mind,” she shared.
Huge thanks to Erin and Danny for joining us, and don’t forget to support their work by seeking out Red Tail Grains at the farmers markets in Durham and Carrboro, and booking a Pasta Night workshop with Erin. You can also buy their Pasta Kit online, which includes the two Red Tail Grains pasta flours, plus some pasta tools and Erin’s Pasta Night zine that includes recipes and links to instructional videos.