GROWING LOCAL POTENTIAL: Ben Gleason of Gleason Grains

Vermont may be known for rolling apple orchards, rustic dairy barns, and flowing maple syrup, but certainly not golden fields of wheat. Despite tradition and climate, both of which were stacked against him, one Vermont farmer carved out a unique local market for his homegrown wheat, proving that the New England landscape might hold more potential than we think.

When he was 28, Ben Gleason and his older brother Joe spent a year living in a teepee, raising goats. They built the teepee on their childhood farm in Old Saybrook, Connecticut after returning from two years of travel across Europe, the last three months of which were spent in Corfu, Greece. While in Corfu, both Ben and Joe became infatuated with the islanders’ seemingly simple, self-sustaining lifestyle. Not only did everyone hand-press olive oil and raise cows or goats for fresh feta cheese, they also took time to visit with neighbors while their animals were out to graze and cultivated a welcoming, tight-knit community. “I just loved it,” Ben says. “It was just like a little paradise…I came back thinking I could have a nice simple life like that in the United States through farming.”

Although Ben grew up on his uncle’s dairy farm, he credits his stint in Greece for instilling his passion for growing. “The whole agricultural scene in Corfu really got me thinking more in terms of that’s what I want to do,” he says. “I mean, I grew up on a farm but I didn’t learn much of anything on it.” From the time he was eight years old, Ben helped his uncle and widowed mother milk cows and bottle the milk for their Old Saybrook neighbors. The whole family, including Ben’s two brothers, survived off of milk sales, a big vegetable garden, and social security from Ben’s father’s death. Even if he didn’t gain much agricultural knowledge, Ben certainly became accustomed to open spaces over the course of his farming childhood. Before leaving for Europe, he struggled as a computer programmer for Kodak in Rochester, New York. “I did it for a year and I just couldn’t take it. I hated it. I hated being in a city and I hated being in an office building,” Ben says.

Although the teepee allowed Ben and Joe to live cheaply and close to land when they returned to the U.S., it proved just as crude a home as one might imagine. The brothers were forced to cover their beds with plastic because water leaked in whenever it rained and despite their wood stove, winter was undeniably uncomfortable. Once when Ben and Joe were at a party, the goats made their way inside the teepee, peed on the beds, and ate Ben’s beer-making equipment. (The goats liked running up and sliding down the sides of the teepee and one happened to fall inside the front door flap, leading the way for the rest of the herd.) After one year, Ben and Joe decided they needed an upgrade—and more space between themselves and their animals. They built what has become the oldest existing hay bale house in New England, where they lived for four years.

Over the course of that time, however, Ben began to outgrow their Connecticut property. He wanted space to grow his own feed for the goats and wheat for bread. Although he knew that the highest yielding wheat crops were grown in dry, flat areas like the Midwest, he was dedicated to experimenting with it in his wet and hilly New England home. Unfortunately, the brothers’ best 25 acres of farmland had been sacrificed for I-95 in 1954 and the Old Saybrook community was not particularly supportive of their endeavor. “We would have people who would come out and drive around in our hay fields at night looking for deer…jacking deer. There was just no respect for anybody who was doing agriculture,” says Ben. He and Joe looked for farms in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, settling on the current Bridport farm in 1979.

With 75 acres to themselves, 60 of which were tillable, Ben and Joe planted wheat, black beans, soybeans, oats, peas, rye, and barley. They gave up their goats to focus on growing full-time, and harvested for human consumption rather than animal feed. Despite their efforts, however, there was little interest in locally-produced grain. Beyond the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-Op, the brothers had trouble finding customers. Discouraged by their small market and exhausted by long, hard hours of work with minimal profit, Joe left the farm in 1990 to work as a carpenter.

Ben continued to pursue the struggling business alone, with his therapist wife Theresa for support. His enduring commitment eventually paid off when the localvore movement gained momentum in 2000. Suddenly, there was a flurry of interest in his homegrown grains because no other Vermonters were producing them. Even today, Ben knows of only one other grain grower in Addison County, who produces organic grain for animal feed. “I had approached City Market and Healthy Living and they weren’t at all interested in buying my product until…we started hearing of localvores and people started wanting to eat local foods,” says Ben. “The Co-Op in Middlebury had been selling since 1982 but that’s a pretty small market by comparison to what I’ve got now.”

Soon after Ben gained attention within the local community, Otter Creek Brewing merged with Wolaver’s and began crafting a locally sourced, organic beer that relied heavily on Ben’s wheat. They even named it after him: Ben Gleason’s White Ale. “It had my name and my picture on the six-pack and a little bit of a story,” says Ben. “Gosh it was amazing how many people recognized me after that. The people who weren’t baking bread drank beer!”

Along with City Market, Healthy Living, and the Middlebury Co-Op, Ben now sells to the Rutland Area Food Co-Op, Mountain Greens Market in Bristol, and Red Hen Bakery in Middlesex, where he delivers 1 ¼ tons of flour every month, what amounts to almost a third of his yearly supply. He also sells some flour to King Arthur Flour in Norwich, where they teach a local flours baking class, and to a farm and co-op in Williamstown, Massachusetts, his only out-of-state vendors. Ben uses stone mills to produce all of his flours, which include a Lemon Fair pastry flour, whole wheat bread and pastry flours, and Snake Mountain sifted bread flour. Although stone mills run more slowly than conventional roller mills, they do not heat the grain as much and therefore ensure better quality.

Despite its challenging climate, Vermont has ultimately served as a nourishing home for Gleason Grains, especially in comparison to Connecticut. “The nice thing about Vermont is that people really appreciate farmers,” says Ben. “I’ll go to meetings and people say Oh I’m really happy to meet you, I’ve been using your wheat for all these years!...It’s really nice to have something you do that is recognized and appreciated.” In addition to his supportive customer base, Ben enjoys being surrounded by like-minded farmers and environmentalists. “There’s just so many great people,” he says. “One of the things that I really liked as soon as I moved here is that people are so unassuming. And when you get to know them you find out wow, they’re really special people! They have all these degrees or they’re doing really interesting things.”

Because farming can be an isolating enterprise, Ben makes sure to reach out to fellow growers in his free time. When farm work slows in the autumn, winter, and early spring, he organizes a group of organic Addison County farmers to meet and share tips. “It’s a real social event,” Ben says. “Otherwise, I don’t have that much opportunity to talk to other farmers…Farmers, at least here in Vermont, are very good about sharing what they’re doing, helping each other.”

Discussing concerns and suggestions with his peers has also helped Ben cope with the inevitable difficulties and disappointments of farming. “I love what I do but I’m way too busy,” he says. “That takes up a lot of my time, milling and selling flour…It’s been a much more stressful life than I had anticipated.” He also admits that even with loyal local customers, his income for the year is only encouraging until he accounts for his expenses. In recent years, climate change has exacerbated the difficulty of grain growing, too. This past spring was the rainiest Ben remembers in 31 years, and brought disease to most of his wheat crop during pollination. He was only able to harvest 15 tons of grain compared to his usual 60 tons.

Due to increasingly wet weather, Ben is constantly searching for new, disease resistant varieties of wheat and better organic growing methods. He recently started planting kelp meal with his seeds to increase trace elements and mineral balance in his soil. He is also an active member of the Northern Grain Growers Association, which allows him to attended conferences and apply for research grants to experiment with new grain varieties from around the world. Although the odds remain stacked against him, Ben is patient, persevering, and true to the local customers who have come to depend on his product.

For Ben, good crops are particularly satisfying simply because they are so hard-won. “I just love growing crops and watching them, seeing the whole thing,” he says. “I think wheat is a really beautiful crop, too. It’s pretty when it just looks like grass and then it’s pretty when it starts heading out and it’s really pretty when it’s dried down, and when the wind is blowing through it.” Indeed, the mere beauty of the growing season coupled with an encouraging local community continues be enough to keep Ben going. Vermont farming may not be as simple as Corfu living, but Ben is here to stay.

The following scones call for Gleason Grains Lemon Fair pastry flour and can be made either as a sweet start to the day or as a scrumptious afternoon treat. Ginger and cinnamon bring out the soft notes of pear, a melt-in-your mouth combination--especially when served warm with butter.

GINGER PEAR SCONES

2 firm d’Anjou pears

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 ½ cups plus 3 tbsp pastry flour

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 ½ tsp baking powder

6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

½ cup heavy cream plus 2 tbsp for brushing

¼ cup chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Peel, core and cut the pears into ½ inch chunks. Arrange pear chunks on parchment and roast until they are dry to the touch and a little browned, about 30 minutes. Slide parchment paper with pear chunks onto a cooling rack and cool to lukewarm. Leave oven on. Line baking sheet with a new piece of parchment.

Blend flour, sugar and baking powder in a food processor. Add butter and blend until mixture resembles fine meal. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Make a well in the center and add ½ cup heavy cream. Fold dry ingredients into cream until just moist. Mix in ginger and pears.

Transfer dough to a floured surface and gently kneed into an 8-inch round. Cut dough in 8 wedges and brush tops with remaining 2 tbsp heavy cream. Place scones on prepared baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until golden brown, about 18 minutes.

Makes 8 scones.