Many sounds filled the room: a serrated knife cutting through thick sourdough crust, hands kneading einkorn dough, and ideas exchanged between friends. At the Grain Growers Conference, the noisier, the better.

In March, the UVM Extension Northwest Crops and Soils (NWCS) program and the Northern Grain Growers Collaborative (NGGC) hosted the 22nd annual Grain Growers Conference at the Essex Culinary Resort and Spa in Essex, Vermont. This year, the event attracted 121 guests who enjoyed 18 sessions throughout the day, including presentations by industry experts, baking sessions in the resort’s Viking Kitchen, opportunities to taste the fruits of locally grown grains, and plenty of time to network.

woman holding ingredients
Emily Small, owner of Wild Yeast bakery in Sharon, VT, teaching a hands-on baking session focused on einkorn.

NWCS hosted the first Grain Growers Conference in 2004, the same year the Northern Grain Growers Collaborative (NGGC) formed. The collaborative helps conventional and organic growers gather, exchange ideas, and network. Today, it has 50 members from across the Northeast, including farmers, bakers, foodies, agricultural stakeholders, and other community members. The NGGC's board of regional grain experts have a diverse range of knowledge from across the grain chain. 

Red Hen Baking
Red Hen Baking was one of many companies that brought samples for tasting, highlighting the local origin of grains in their products.  

The 2026 conference theme was Growing Stronger: Advancing Grain for a Resilient Future. Many sessions focused on how farmers, millers, bakers, and researchers are innovating their work to strengthen regional grain systems and ensure long-term resilience for small farms and businesses. 

The day began with a keynote by Alyssa Hartman, executive director of the Artisan Grain Collaborative; Andrew Hutchison, head baker and co-owner of Madison Sourdough Company; and Sandy Syburg, co-owner of White Oak Farm and co-chair and treasurer of Rye Revival. The three midwestern speakers described how they collaborate in their everyday work and how this connection benefits them all, as well as their customers. Syburg set the intention for the day by closing with a quotation from Rancher Don Campbell: “If you want to make small changes, change the way you do things. If you want to make major changes, change the way you see things.” It was a fitting motto for grain enthusiasts there to share how they work and how they think.

Crowd at a conference

Session Highlights

Success in small-grain processing requires creativity. In a session titled “The Journey of Value-Added Grains at Weatherbury Farm in Avella, Pennsylvania,” farmer Nigel Tudor shared strategies he and his family used to build and maintain a successful operation. The Tudor family grows a variety of certified organic grains, grain berries, and beans and raises livestock.

He emphasized that their work has evolved over time through trial and error; it was not perfect from the start. Tudor described years of hands-on, in-field experience, reflecting on which equipment was truly worth the investment and how his background in engineering and design allowed him to build custom tools for small-scale grain processing. One example is a spelt dehuller he developed through a project funded by a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant. You can learn more about Weatherbury Farm and the products they offer at weatherburyfarm.com.

The United States has only three certified bread sommeliers, and one of them is deeply rooted in Vermont's food system. Heike Meyer is a professional baker and baking instructor who co-founded and co-owns Brot Bakehouse School and Kitchen in Fairfax with her husband. Originally from Germany, she moved to the United States in 2008 and teaches in-depth, hands-on baking classes with an emphasis on traditional techniques and the fundamentals of bread.⁠ Meyer became a certified bread sommelier after completing the year-long course at the German National Bakers Academy in Weinheim, Germany. This prestigious title is held by fewer than 300 people in the entire world.⁠

Meyer's session, titled “Rethinking Bread: Flavor as a Language for Farmers and Bakers,” aimed to help producers and bakers develop a rich vocabulary to describe their products and better inform customers. She argues that the public doesn’t pay enough attention to the flavor profile or the origin of bread because it is considered a staple food. She compared bread with wine, noting that during the Middle Ages many people drank wine as if it were water, paying little attention to its flavor or origin. Today, wine is a luxury item meant to be savored and enjoyed. Meyer implored the audience to begin thinking of bread the way we think of wine. 

She advised local bakers to embrace the local grain identity when naming and describing breads. “If your loaf has a geography, it’s really something any supermarket bread cannot match,” Meyer said.

Head to brotbakery.com for the schedule of classes and workshops at the Brot Bakehouse School and Kitchen.https://brotbakery.com/

bakers showcase
Bakers from King Arthur Baking Company sharing some of their products at the conference’s Bakers Showcase 

The day closed with the second annual Bakers Showcase, a new tradition that began at the 2025 conference after members of the board and community sought a way to showcase grain chain partnerships in our region. Participating farmers, bakeries, and businesses brought product samples and explained the origins of the local grains behind them, making the showcase exactly what it was designed to be: a celebration of regional collaboration.

This year, the Bakers Showcase featured six bakeries, two farms, and more! Participants were:

bread
Samples of a wheat and einkorn sourdough loaf baked by Emily Small, owner of Wild Yeast bakery in Sharon, VT.

What did it feel like to attend the 2026 Grain Growers Conference? Standing behind her table at the Bakers Showcase, Lisa Nichols from the Brattleboro Food Co-op said, “It’s just extremely inspirational to be here, seeing the ideas that happen just on the fly and then they turn into something really big. And they just make bread so much more delicious.” 

This sentiment was clear from the beginning of the keynote speech to the end of the Bakers Showcase. Each year, this event sparks new collaborations, connects people, and reminds us to celebrate local food. 

The 2027 Grain Growers Conference is in the works! Stay up-to-date about upcoming conferences and events by following NGGC and NWCS on social media and subscribing to the NWCS monthly email newsletter. 

Want to become a member of the Northern Grain Growers Collaborative? Click here: https://www.northerngraingrowers.org/membership