Good Grain

Imagine: Next door lives a hardworking organic farmer. Each summer you watch majestic fields of wheat mature from green to gold. And then the harvest.

At a new stone mill down the road, a miller grinds the farmer’s wheat into whole grain flour, sold just days old at the local market. At a small bakery on Main Street, a sourdough baker sells artisan loaves. At the corner pub, a craft brewer pours pints brewed with local ingredients.

It all tastes amazing.

Once upon a time, American communities were centered around their farmers, millers, and food artisans. GOOD GRAIN is the comeback story of the local grain movement, as found in New Jersey, the original Garden State.

In 2024, NOFA-NJ partnered with filmmaker Jared Flesher of Hundred Year Films to highlight the artisans behind the local grain movement in New Jersey. The resulting documentary, Good Grain, explores the opportunity and excitement that the local grain economy brings, and why it is important to shift away from our reliance on synthetic chemicals in the production of grain crops.

Good Grain features the Farmer (Morganics Family Farm), the Miller (River Valley Community Grains) (hey, that’s us!), the Maltster (Rabbit Hill Malt), the Baker (Sourland Bread) and the Brewer (Chilton Mill Brewing). 

Select screenings all over the region, from the Pinelands to the NOFA-NJ Winter Conference, are getting the word out about this amazing movement that River Valley Community Grains is proud to be a part of. Visit Hundred Year Films to find out where the film will be shown in your area. The next screening will be at the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, PA on February 25.