HOMEGRAIN: A fundraiser for the WSU Breadlab

Homegrain is a book celebrating the grain scene of Washington State – from seed scientists to growers to millers to bakers and those who grow and mill or mill and bake or bake and make pottery and other delightful combinations. It was put together by a frequent Two Plum Press reader, Alexandra Garcia, to benefit the Washington State University Breadlab.

The Breadlab is a unique and exciting organization – not what you’d expect any large American University to just have. They are innovating, they are reviving, they are helping the local grain economy with every single class, event, and project they embark on. I distinctly remember when visiting a magical bakery in Copenhagen, Denmark and speaking to a French baker there, he knew about the WSU Breadlab – that was his point of reference for the entire region of the Pacific Northwest. In April of 2025 the funding was cut (paused? Whatever this current hellscape of sea change for the good things in this world is calling the tumult) for a good portion of the Breadlab’s work, and Alex immediately sprang into action – morphing this book she’d already been hoping to make into something with a new, more urgent, vividly clear purpose.

The book contains a collection of interviews with bakers, growers, millers, and organizers about the work that they do, punctuated by information about grain varieties and in the case of bakeries, their weekly menus. I see this as being an incredibly handy tool for those in or visiting Washington – a deep dive into the ethos behind these operations and some practical, trip-influencing information to boot. There are also essays (a highlight on rye from a rye scholar and the editor’s visits to some of these operations), some beautiful paintings, some handy recipes, and a couple poems to punctuate the experience at the end.

115 pages on recycled cream colored paper. Covers featuring coppery metallic ink on recycled brown craft paper. 100% of proceeds will be donated directly to the Breadlab. The book debuted at the Buckwheat Festival on August 8th, 2025 and is available online for the first time now!