Edible Blue Ridge Fall 2022

and granola, she uses 100% locally grown and milled flour. “By putting that miller, that farmer on the front of the package, I really want to draw attention to, yes, this is something that is grown locally, milled locally and then baked locally and, yes, there is a taste ben efit. It’s not your average flour,” Coiner says. “ To do that I wanted to make simple, familiar products that really feature the grain. The cookie — it’s an ordinary chocolate chip cookie but it’s made with local rye flour and it’s good. It’s really good, there’s just some thing different you can’t quite put your finger on. The taste and texture, it’s special. I believe that what you’re tasting is the grain, the quality of the grain.” Coiner is always experimenting and looking to ward how she can better educate her customers all while serving a delicious product. An example of this is her Cover Crop Sourdough. The loaf is gluten-free, using grains that are grown as cover crops: buckwheat, millet and sorghum. Farmers often grow these grains between their cash crops (wheat, rye, etc.). Cover crops offer not only an alternative to using herbicides, but are an important part of building up carbon-rich organic matter in the soil. Coiner sought to develop a loaf that celebrated these crops and their vital role in sustainable farm ing methods. All of these grains also happen to be gluten-free. Also containing rice flour and corn and potato starches, this rich loaf has a distinctive flavor, something that Coiner says all loaves made with local flours possess. “I feel that every flour has something to of fer. It’s up to the baker and the processor to figure it out. That’s a departure from the conventional way of thinking that flour is ‘All-Purpose’ (don’t get me wrong, there are really great local all-purpose flours!). But with local flour it helps to switch that and say, here is an ingredient that will really shine in a certain context and it’s up to me to figure it out. There’s so much beauty in the process, turning this flour into this amazing food that sustains us.”

Opposite: LHC loaves. Clockwise from top left: Cover Crop Sourdough, Little Hat Creek Farm Crackers, Heather Coiner loads loaves into her wood-fired oven

You can find Little Hat Creek at the following farmers markets: IX Art Park Market: Saturdays 9a.m.-1p.m. until Christmas Lexington Farmers Market: Wednesdays 8a.m.-12p.m. until Thanksgiving Nelson Farmers Market Cooperative: Saturdays 8 a.m.-12 p.m. until Nov. 1 Richmond Markets: This winter - follow @littlehatcreek for more info To purchase their dry goods line visit the following retailers: Feast! (Charlottesville) Greenwood Grocery (Crozet) In Vino Veritas (Keswick) Wade’s Mill (Raphine)

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