A Mill Bay couple who produce organic bread, flour and crisps for grocery stores on Vancouver Island will start importing organic grains from the Prairies.
Lynda and Doug Dickie of Lyndie’s Organic Bakery will offer certified organic Red Fife and emmer wheat at the Root Cellar and Country Grocer stores. The Dickies already use the grains in their Lyndie’s branded breads, flours and cereal mixes but now will make the raw grains available by the kilogram.
The couple have had a long relationship with organic grain farmer Bernie Ehnes, the fifth generation on his family’s homestead at Etzikom, Alta.
Lynda Dickie said emmer is the oldest wheat in the world. It was cultivated in Biblical times and used for bread and beer and has been discovered in ancient tombs.
Both emmer and Red Fife have twice the protein of regular wheat and have different makeups in their glutens and are considered easier to digest, said Dickie.
Red Fife’s history is rooted in Canada, first used on an Ontario farm by David Fife in 1842.
Dickie is also hoping to strike deals with Island brewers who may want to make beer with the grains.
Check www.lyndies.com
