SANTA MONICA—The Santa Monica Public Library will be hosting Growing Glorious Grains on Thursday, February 6 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Growing Glorious Grains is an event in which residents can interact with small farmers who grow and process wheat and barley for the Santa Monica Farmers Market (SMFM) and partake in heritage grain production.
The Santa Monica Farmers Markets were established by then-Mayor Ruth Yanatta-Goldway in 1981 in Santa Monica’s downtown district with the goals of providing affordable high-quality produce to the city and drawing more foot traffic to the area. The creation of SMFM was a response to then-Governor Jerry Brown’s Direct Marketing Act in 1978, which allows small farmers to directly sell their own produce to California customers.
Growing Glorious Grains is part of a quarterly panel discussion series which has been held since 2006. The purpose of the event is to increase public awareness of alternative ways of processing grains, including milling, harvesting, threshing and grinding in the 19th century style. The panel will look at ways of cultivating and using wild sourdough starter (which does not utilize commercial yeast).
“With the rise of the grain industry, quality grain farming had almost completely disappeared in 1890 and has been restarted by small farmers,” said SMFM Supervisor Laura Avery, to Canyon News.
The event is free and will take place in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Auditorium, located at 601 Santa Monica Blvd. Featured guests include Andrea Crawford, the owner of Kenter Canyon Farms, Paul Morgan, a member of Blogger LA Bread Bakers, Dana Morgan, master gardener for Seed Library of LA, Jon Hammond, a farmer at Linda Vista Ranch and Corinne McAndrews, a farmer for Restoration Grains. The event will be moderated by Laura Avery.
For more information, contact SMFM at 310-458-8712 ext. 5, email SMFM Manager Jodi Low at Jodi.low@smgov.net or visit their website at farmersmarket@smgov.net.
