The grains of Napa

Rachel Britten, owner of the Mendocino Grain Project, checks the harvested heirloom grain grown at Fisher Vineyards in Calistoga.

Tim Carl LLC

REAPING AS HE SOWS

Napa Valley’s Heirloom Grain Harvest 2021

The Napa Valley is known for growing and making some of the finest wines in the world. But few realize that there was a time in the mid- to late-1800s when wheat and other grains were widely planted throughout the Napa Valley, too. Today there are only a few farmers in the valley who still grow grains, and one of them is Nile Zacherle, winemaker, master beer brewer and owner of St. Helena’s Mad Fritz Brewery.

“We love the idea of growing our own grains that go into our locally made beers,” Zacherle said. “We call them ‘origin beers’ because the ingredients are sourced locally.”

One of the challenges Zacherle faces is finding land (most of which is already planted with wine grapes) where he can plant his grain crop. Another issue is how to harvest the grain once it has been grown.

“It’s not like you can just use a grape-harvesting crew to harvest grain such as wheat,” he said. “You need specialized machinery and folks who have experience about the how, what and when to harvest.”

In order to harvest the grains, Zacherle has worked with the Mendocino Grain

TIM CARL

Tim Carl LLC photos

Project (MGP), who own and operate their own Northern California farm, where they grow a host of foods that include grains. The MGP also harvests small plots of grains for farmers such as Zacherle.

“Our company has worked with Nile for some time now,” said Rachel Britten, owner of the MGP. “It’s a real pleasure to work with our farmer partners who are growing sustainable, organic, heirloom grains but might not have all the gear, time or experience when it comes to harvesting.”

Like Zacherle, many of the farmers for whom Britten harvests don’t have a consistent location for their crops, and because a combine harvester is expensive machinery to purchase and maintain, MGP’s services are in high demand.

“It’s exciting that there are more and more people out there who are hoping to grow their own foods, many on very small pieces of land,” Britten said.

GROWING GRAIN IN THE NAPA VALLEY HAS NEVER BEEN EASY

Back in the 1850s, when Thomas Rutherford and his new wife, Elizabeth Yount, farmed wheat at their Rutherford Ranch (more than 1,000 acres of land between what is now Oakville and Rutherford), they, too, found growing and harvesting grain posed certain challenges.

At that time, due to the gold rush and an influx of immigrants to the area, flour prices had skyrocketed from 6 cents a pound to nearly 30 cents. By the 1860s 1.3 million bushels (39,000 tons) of wheat were being grown in the region.

Hand-harvesting grains was the only option,

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GRAIN

From Page 13

and labor was in short supply. Transportation by horse-drawn cart to any of the local water-powered grain mills (Yountville Mill, built in 1837, or the Chiles Valley Mill, built in 1844, or the Bale Grist Mill, built in 1846, or others, including the Gosh and Rutherford mills in Napa and the Napa Milling Co., which today houses the Napa River Inn), was time-consuming. And shipping tons of flour to sell in San Francisco and Sacramento was nearly impossible due to poor road conditions. To resolve the challenges, the Rutherfords worked with Samuel Brannan to build a new train station near their ranch.

At that time, Brannan, the first millionaire in California, was nearly finished with a trainrail project to connect the Bay Area to his new spa and resort in Calistoga. Both Brannan and the Rutherfords realized that the transportation of goods, services and people was of critical importance to the continued success of their business interests.

Due to the gold rush and the expansion of California as a state, the ever-increasing demand for wheat and other grains must have seemed like it would never end. But it did. By the 1880s there was a glut of wheat on the market, followed by a drought, an influx of the grapevine disease, phylloxera, and then a financial collapse in the banking industry, all of which helped fuel the conversion of Napa Valley land to grapevines and tree crops such as prunes and walnuts.

WHEAT TO BEER

Today nearly all of the farmable land in the Napa Valley is covered in grapevines, which is often the most lucrative crop available for farmers to grow. Like the wheat boom and bust of the past, the ever-increasing demand for grapes is likely to slow sometime

Tim Carl LLC photos

Nile Zacherle, winemaker and owner of Mad Fritz Brewery, shows two of the different heirloom wheats he grows locally and then uses for

brewing his “origin beers.”

in the future. Until then, however, finding valley-floor land that might be planted with grain is a rare, transient proposition.

“I’ve been really fortunate that there are good folks out there who allow me to plant after they’ve ripped out their vines and plan to leave their fields fallow for a year or two,” Zacherle said. “Grains such as heirloom wheats and malting barley grow fantastically well here, but this is a grape-based economy.”

Consequently, Zacherle is on a constant search for a few open acres here or there. This year, the Fisher family — Zacherle is married to winemaker Whitney Fisher — has provided prime land in Calistoga for his cause, as did St. Helena’s Long Meadow Ranch.

Zacherle explained that grapes typically bring in more revenue per acre than grain, but because grain can grow with minimal labor and because he dry-farms without irrigation or costly infrastructure, the actual final profit potential is “close.” A more standard grain-grower might make even more.

“The way we farm, we probably got 1.5 to 2 tons per acre,” he said. “That’s about 30 to 40 bushels per acre, but typical barley farmers tend to get 80 to 110.”

Once the grain was ripe, Zacherle reached out to Britten. She and her team packed up an “experimental-sized” combine harvester that is typically used at small university experimental farms. When it arrived on an overcast morning in midsummer many locals and tourists took second glances as the unfamiliar contraption rolled down St. Helena’s Main Street. Once on location, it was ready for service.

Although only a few acres needed harvesting, the process was time-consuming and replete with moments when the harvester needed tweaking. For example, because each of the grains harvested has different sized seeds and coat compositions, the combine must be cleaned and calibrated between each one. The entire process took a few days to complete.

When asked what the biggest surprise was that Britten faced as the new business owner, she laughed before answering.

“I predicted that last year our first harvest would take about one month to complete,” she said. “It actually took three. Honestly, though, I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by how many people are really educated and interested in buying organic staple crops that are locally grown.”

During the harvest days Zacherle dropped in often to check before speeding off to his day job as winemaker at David Arthur Vineyards, or to his brewery to check a new batch of beer or to spend time with his wife, and their two children. All the while Britten and her hired gun, Dylan Jones, who was learning the nuances of driving the combine, methodically worked the field, harvesting, adjusting and eventually eager to show off a handful of the pristine grain once it had been collected.

As I watched the process I tried to picture what those earlier Napa Valley grain-growers had faced. Without a combine they would have had to harvest and process all of those many tons of flour by hand. And once complete, the grain needed to be transported. From there it was placed into sacks and shipped throughout the region, country and the world, where it was made into bread, pasta and even beer.

“What I love about this entire process is that this amazing valley can grow so many excellent different crops besides wine grapes,” Zacherle said. “There is a long history here, and I’m just grateful that I can share — with the help of a lot of people — another side of what this place has to offer.”