Baking for Interdependence: Embracing Terroir, Ecology, and Craft

$1,250.00

A Workshop at Chimacum Valley Grainery

July 3rd - 6th, 2026

$1,250.00

Join master baker Graison Gill and Grainery baker Baylin Speidel between July 3rd - 6th for a unique farm-based workshop designed to deepen your whole grain skills, learn about stone milling, regional grain economies, and how to incorporate fresh flour into your favorite recipes at Chimacum Valley Grainery—one of the country’s only vertically integrated organic farming, stone milling, baking, malting, and brewing operations.

This is an exceptional opportunity for bakers to learn how to work with freshly stone milled flours and climate-resilient grains. Students will be taught how to adapt their techniques, embrace flavor, and accommodate local ingredients in order to make loaves which are more nourishing for the bakers who make them, the people who eat them, and the earth which grows them. Instructors (and special guest lecturers) will also teach students about sourcing fresh flour, ingredient costing, and how to communicate the value of whole grains to your customers.

Chimacum Valley Grainery is an organic family farm, stone mill, wood fired bakery and craft micro-brewery—growing and milling heritage and modern landrace grains that are cultivated for flavor, nutrition and local climate resilience. The farm is located on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, 25 minutes from the seaside arts community of Port Townsend. The Grainery is situated in a fertile farm valley along a salmon stream and in view of the Olympic Mountains.

This NPR story offers interesting background on our collaboration with the WSU Bread Lab on grain diversity and climate resilience:Can better bread be a climate change solution? These bakers think so.

Join us to learn in the incredible company of motivated bakers while enjoying the holiday weekend on the farm and tasting the locally grown grains and fresh organic produce of the Olympic Peninsula.

A light lunch will be included each day, along with coffee, tea, and fresh farm produce.

Elements of this hand-on course include:

Why use regionally grown and freshly milled grains?
Diverse flour types and qualities
Whole grain context—when and how to use them; how to compare and contrast flour samples
Discussion and demonstration of stone milling techniques, benefits, nuances, and equipment
Translating standard recipes to freshly stone milled flours
How to incorporate more whole grain while managing customer expectations
The basic biology and chemistry of baking
How to teach customers that flour as a living ingredient
Specific baking techniques for whole grains—hydration, mixing, shaping, etc
Grainery field and production tour
Agroecology, climate change, and small grains agriculture

*This workshop is for experienced bakers—professional, microbakery, and serious home bakers are welcome. We ask that students submit a brief outline of relevant experience before being confirmed for the course. The course is limited to 12 students. On-farm camping options are available.

For questions, email graineryworkshops@gmail.com.

Refunds for cancellations, minus transaction fees, will only be considered up to four weeks before the workshop.

A Workshop at Chimacum Valley Grainery

July 3rd - 6th, 2026

$1,250.00

Join master baker Graison Gill and Grainery baker Baylin Speidel between July 3rd - 6th for a unique farm-based workshop designed to deepen your whole grain skills, learn about stone milling, regional grain economies, and how to incorporate fresh flour into your favorite recipes at Chimacum Valley Grainery—one of the country’s only vertically integrated organic farming, stone milling, baking, malting, and brewing operations.

This is an exceptional opportunity for bakers to learn how to work with freshly stone milled flours and climate-resilient grains. Students will be taught how to adapt their techniques, embrace flavor, and accommodate local ingredients in order to make loaves which are more nourishing for the bakers who make them, the people who eat them, and the earth which grows them. Instructors (and special guest lecturers) will also teach students about sourcing fresh flour, ingredient costing, and how to communicate the value of whole grains to your customers.

Chimacum Valley Grainery is an organic family farm, stone mill, wood fired bakery and craft micro-brewery—growing and milling heritage and modern landrace grains that are cultivated for flavor, nutrition and local climate resilience. The farm is located on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, 25 minutes from the seaside arts community of Port Townsend. The Grainery is situated in a fertile farm valley along a salmon stream and in view of the Olympic Mountains.

This NPR story offers interesting background on our collaboration with the WSU Bread Lab on grain diversity and climate resilience:Can better bread be a climate change solution? These bakers think so.

Join us to learn in the incredible company of motivated bakers while enjoying the holiday weekend on the farm and tasting the locally grown grains and fresh organic produce of the Olympic Peninsula.

A light lunch will be included each day, along with coffee, tea, and fresh farm produce.

Elements of this hand-on course include:

Why use regionally grown and freshly milled grains?
Diverse flour types and qualities
Whole grain context—when and how to use them; how to compare and contrast flour samples
Discussion and demonstration of stone milling techniques, benefits, nuances, and equipment
Translating standard recipes to freshly stone milled flours
How to incorporate more whole grain while managing customer expectations
The basic biology and chemistry of baking
How to teach customers that flour as a living ingredient
Specific baking techniques for whole grains—hydration, mixing, shaping, etc
Grainery field and production tour
Agroecology, climate change, and small grains agriculture

*This workshop is for experienced bakers—professional, microbakery, and serious home bakers are welcome. We ask that students submit a brief outline of relevant experience before being confirmed for the course. The course is limited to 12 students. On-farm camping options are available.

For questions, email graineryworkshops@gmail.com.

Refunds for cancellations, minus transaction fees, will only be considered up to four weeks before the workshop.

Instructor Bios:

Graison Gill has been baking and milling for sixteen years and has taught worldwide. His passion for ecology, food systems, nutrition, and craft made him a finalist for a James Beard Award as the country's best baker in 2020.

Baylin Speidel, Chimacum Valley Grainery lead baker, recipe developer, and instructor has over a decade of experience in sourdough and whole-grain baking. Self-taught, she went on to cut her chops at a local artisan bakery and began sharpening her focus on hyper-local, freshly milled flour and fermentation-forward breads with Chimacum Valley Grainery in 2021. She is passionate about making whole-grain baking more accessible and approachable, and about teaching in ways that are honest, collaborative, and rooted in real production challenges.

Keith Kisler, 4th generation wheat farmer and one of the co-founders of Finnriver Farm & Cidery, and Chimacum Valley Grainery, as well as the current operator of Olympic Biochar. Keith has merged his family farming roots, background in environmental education and wilderness guiding, and organic principles to grow the Grainery operation into a diversified food resilience effort.

Crystie Kisler, farmwife and one of the co-founders Finnriver Farm & Cidery, Chimacum Valley Grainery, and the non-profit Community Wellness Project. She has been working in Chimacum for over 20 years to reconnect people to the land that sustains us and to grow community.

Rachael Dunn & Kellen Lynch are your local workshop coordinators. In a past life Kellen was a professional baker and Rachael worked for a decade in the restaurant industry. They met making pizza and have been in love ever since, grain keeping them close. The couple lives on site and will be your aid throughout the workshop.