Grain by Grain

A Quest to Revive Ancient Wheat, Rural Jobs, and Healthy Food

By: Bob Quinn, Liz Carlisle

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo, Chris Sorensen

When Bob Quinn was a kid, a stranger at a county fair gave him a few kernels of an unusual grain. Little did he know, that grain would change his life. Years later, after finishing a PhD in plant biochemistry and returning to his family's farm in Montana, Bob started experimenting with organic wheat. In the beginning, his concern wasn't health or the environment; he just wanted to make a decent living and some chance encounters led him to organics.

But as demand for organics grew, so too did Bob's experiments. He discovered that through time-tested practices like cover cropping and crop rotation, he could produce successful yields - without pesticides. Regenerative organic farming allowed him to grow fruits and vegetables in cold, dry Montana, providing a source of local produce to families in his hometown. He even started producing his own renewable energy. And he learned that the grain he first tasted at the fair was actually a type of ancient wheat, one that was proven to lower inflammation rather than worsening it, as modern wheat does.

Ultimately, Bob's forays with organics turned into a multimillion dollar heirloom grain company, Kamut International.

©2019 Bob Quinn and Liz Carlisle (P)2019 Tantor

How you can help

I think it was Very good info , you can make farming better for the world and also locally

A great primer on the business of organic farming

The author does a great job of showing how his organic farming has benefitted his farm, his finances, his family, and his community. He had many advantages to start with including access to land and equipment. He was able to step out of the typical industrialize agriculture that is termed conventional and succeed in the organic market. While creating that success he helped many others succeed and has started to repopulate his small town in Montana.

This book is a good primer showing how this kind of food based, placed based economic development can work and how to look at your surroundings with new eyes to see possibilities.

Great story, Good research based information

Very well told story. The author's story comes across without being preachy. A scientist at heart, eternally curious, I love the way his company funded double blind crossover rat and human research studies to study the health benefits of KAmut wheat. 🌾

Very enlightening but the narrator voice is awful

Thoroughly enjoyed the topic, having grown up on small family farm that fell prey to what Bob discusses. I eat kamut & love it.

sorry but the narrator's voice & inflection is so distractingly bad, I could only take it in small amounts.

great story

Loved the book. It is a great story and wish more people thought and acted the way Bob does this world would be a better place. A little hard to get used to the male narrative voice especially after listening to Bob in interviews. After I got used to it wasn't a big deal.

Grain by grain

So important to be aware that, if we know, we can do things right!Thank you authors!

Reader is not great

The topic is relevant and worthy of discussion. For me, however, the reader made this hard to listen to.

I keep telling stories from this book

One of the most memorable books I've read in years. It's a great example of achieving success through experimentation and failure.
A third-generation Montana wheat farmer convinces his dad to try out an organically grown section, gets the hang of it, finds he can make more money at organic farming, converts the whole farm. Develops a thriving market for his organic wheat. Helps Montana develop an organic certification.
Plants some "ancient grains" that someone had given him, claiming they were from King Tut's tomb. That was impossible, but they did have some interesting qualities: gluten-intolerant folks were claiming they could eat it, other folks claimed other health benefits. Named this wheat kamut and developed a standard for it that is in place until this day. Eventually partnered with medical people and scientists to study the health benefits more rigorously and found that some of the health benefits were unexpected and amazing.
Tried growing fruit trees in an area considered too cold to grow them, so he went north to Canada for advice to plant in protected areas. Lost his orchard with some record-breaking cold weather and learned that for cold climates, using full-sized rootstock will lead to a hardier tree than using semidwarf or dwarf rootstock.
Tried planting vegetables in a seep and with a dryland control and found the dryland patch did much better. Continues to experiment with dryland produce and products.
It feels like everything Farmer Quinn did was successful, but the book shows that it was only through error, setback, and resilience that he was able to find the right path. I'm writing this months after I listened to it and my ability to remember these stories is a testament to this book.
Never too old to stop experimenting and learning. In farming, one has a limited number of tries. Bob Quinn has made the most of them.

Great Info, Odd Narration

I loved the information in this book, but the performer has such a strange way of reading. I thought it was AI reading until I looked it up!

Good content poor performance

As someone from Montana this is pretty hard to listen too. Many pronunciations are incorrect and there are several mistakes in names.

also the voice and intonation used does not match the voice of the author so it sounds very inauthentic.