Grains of Change

Don Lewis and Wild Hive Farm

by Peter Barrett and photographs by Jennifer May, March 27, 2009

Civilization began with the domestication of grain. Bread is a central image of home and prosperity in many cultures, and remains an enduring archetype of sustenance. Yet as industrial farming has come to dominate, most of us have lost all connection with the cereals that form such a fundamental part of our diet. After three decades as a beekeeper, baker, early organic adopter, and now cafe and store owner, Don Lewis has arrived at a place where he feels all of that is about to change. “We’re at a tipping point; awareness and demand are increasing dramatically” Lewis says, and he is on a mission to help the Hudson Valley produce as much organic grain as possible.

Wild Hive Farm began as an apiary. Seeking to expand, after a few years he took inspiration from his grandmother—who baked, cooked, and preserved a wide variety of food for his family—and began baking bread to sell alongside his honey at the Union Square Farmers’ Market. About 10 years later, Lewis met a farmer who had started growing some of his wheat for human consumption. “He said, ‘Here, try this flour,’ and I stuck my hand in. In that moment, I saw that there was a whole other world in there.” Lewis began using as much local flour as he could in his breads, and began contracting with growers to get more grain that he could grind himself. Over the following years, he gradually had enough to make his bread 100 percent local, and about five years ago he began producing extra grain and flour to sell to retailers. Lewis also donates some to Dutchess Outreach, which he says “closes the circle”; by making his grains available to the less fortunate, Lewis hopes to return the mill to its historic place at the center of a community.

In November 2008, Lewis opened the Wild Hive Farm store in Clinton Corners, combining the bakery with a cafe and store selling local, organic products in the very building where the general store used to be. The cafe features home-style cooking, and the store carries an increasing variety of exclusively local beans, maple syrup, jams, dairy, and produce, as well as all of the Wild Hive Farm grains and baked goods. This summer they will also offer a large variety of local produce, make picnic baskets to order, and begin teaching classes on baking and pasta making.

A glance at the cafe menu reveals the commitment to local products; most of the ingredients—meat, cheese, produce, beans—list their local source right in the description of the dish. The line of baked goods includes a variety of whole-grain breads and sweets. The cinnamon rolls, made with whole-wheat flour, have an actual flavor of wheat with just the right sweetness—a pleasant departure from the cloying norm. For the home cook, though, the grains and flours are the stars. Ric Orlando, chef-owner of New World Home Cooking in Saugerties, says, “We use the polenta to make yellow grits with shrimp, and the wheat berries to make a wild mushroom farro-style risotto. Don’s grains are so good, and so fresh. Because commodity grains are overproduced and stored for so long, they often have some of the fats removed to keep them from going rancid. [Wild Hive] grains remind me of the grains I had recently in Puglia [Italy]: complete, and full of flavor.”