Bringing local grains back to the table

LEAVENWORTH —- For the past seven years, Bosket Bread has made a name for itself as a major local wholesale bakery in the Greater Wenatchee Valley, supplying restaurants and grocery stores with fresh breads like sourdough loaves, hoagies, buns, and more.

“That's our mission, is just to support this local community with good fresh bread and have quality ingredients,” said Spencer Bosket, who owns the bakery with his brother, Riley.

Bosket Bread’s focus is making bread that not only tastes better, but is healthier for you, focusing on simple, quality ingredients and oftentimes, fermentation. By keeping it local, the bakery doesn’t have to use preservatives for shelf stability; instead, it’s delivered fresh to be eaten fresh.

“Bread should not be sitting on the counter and not go moldy for weeks and weeks and weeks at a time,” said Riley.

Increasingly, the Boskets have taken their mission a step further, sourcing local, organic flour for a number of their breads  —- a practice Spencer hopes to continue expanding.

“Sourcing the flour is just hard. There's just not that much organic flour available…flour's heavy, and so you pay a ton in shipping,” said Spencer.

While it is a challenge, it hasn’t been impossible. Bosket hasn’t had to travel too far from home for the answer, with small grain farms and mills like Cascade Milling in Royal City and Bluebird Grain Farms in Winthrop.

“We wouldn't be in business if it wasn't for these chefs, bakers who totally get it,” said Bluebird owner Brooke Lucy. “They're the artists that bring our grains to life, that make it accessible. You know, they show people what it tastes like.”

Like Bosket, Bluebird Grain Farms has a local focus, growing, cleaning and milling flour to order nearby restaurants and bakeries.

“It's as fresh as it gets,” said Spencer.

When Sam and Brooke Lucy started Bluebird Grain Farms more than 20 years ago, it was an answer to a problem that seemed counterintuitive for Washington state.

“We started really because we could not access any local wheat in one of the largest wheat-producing states, and we thought that was crazy,” said Brooke Lucy. “The local food movement was kind of taking off as far as farmers' markets and farm-to-table…and you could not access local grains.”

Washington produces wheat on an enormous scale but much of that production enters a commodity market rather than the local food system. According to the Washington Grain Commission, the state is the fourth largest wheat producer in the country. In 2024, Washington farmers harvested 143.5 million bushels, 90 percent of which was exported to Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

Over the past 150 years, advances in milling, transportation, agriculture and commercial baking have transformed wheat into a commodity designed for high yields, efficient processing and large scale distribution.

Notably, the introduction of the roller mill in the late 19th century significantly changed the structure of modern flour. According to a history of wheat put together by the Oklahoma Grain Commission, the roller mill replaced millstones to grind a finer, whiter flour, which separated the bran and germ from the starchy endosperm. Removing the germ also extended the flour's shelf life, while removing the bran and germ reduced some of the grain's nutrients.

When the Lucys decided to produce grains for their own communities, they ran into another hurdle: sourcing seeds for growing organic wheat. In their search, they discovered a trove of ancient and heritage grains that were mostly imported from Europe, said Lucy.

“We saw a niche to bring these grains back to the American plate, really. And these were grains that all our ancestors used to eat and grow…Even in the beginning of grain growing in the United States, over 150 years ago, these varieties used to exist,” she said.

Bluebird grows several wheat varieties familiar to modern conventional baking, including soft white, hard red and hard white wheat, along with heritage rye. But its specialty are its ancient grains: emmer farro (emmer wheat), einkorn wheat, and spelt.

“Each grain has just its own unique flavor and attribute,” said Lucy. “What's so beautiful about preserving some of these varieties is that it really speaks to these cultural stories based on the region that these wheats were preserved in.”

A large part of Bluebird’s mission is educating the public about these grains that have been forgotten for the sake of higher yielding varieties. With each grain, Bluebird’s website takes the time to share its story, such as emmer’s history as one of the first cereals to be domesticated in Mesopotamia’s Fertile Crescent.

“The versatility is amazing, because you can cook it like a rice or a quinoa, but then you can mill it into flour, and so you've got this incredible flavor profile that you have multiple uses for,” said Lucy.

For Bosket Bread, versatility reveals itself in the varieties of bread it is able to offer, such as einkorn or rye. Spencer said one of his favorite parts of the job is experimenting with new grains and finding creative 

“I love experimenting with different grains, because they're just all so different and unique,” said Spencer. “And it forces you to figure out how to ferment it right so that it kind of comes out as a nice looking bread.”

For both Bosket and Bluebird, leaning into these grains is challenging, but worthwhile. For Bluebird, Lucy said the biggest challenge is the cost comparison to wheat grown on the commodity system.

“Those farms are subsidized by the federal government, and so the price that you see on the shelf is not the price that it costs,” said Lucy.

However, Lucy sees a larger return on investment with Bluebird’s higher priced grains. The farm prioritizes regenerative practices that keep the land healthier, longer; the grains they focus on have a higher nutrient profile, which are better maintained in processing. But above all, she emphasized, they taste better.

“You need to taste it. Just taste it. Taste the bread, taste the hot cereal, taste the grain in a grain bowl, and then you'll understand,” said Lucy.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media