IMPROVING BAKING QUALITY AND LOCAL MARKETS FOR WHEAT GROWN IN WESTERN WASHINGTON By KAREN M. HILLS A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Crop and Soil Sciences DECEMBER 2012 © Copyright by KAREN M. HILLS, 2012 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by KAREN M. HILLS, 2012 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of KAREN M. HILLS find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. ______________________________________ Stephen S. Jones, Ph.D., Chair ______________________________________ Jessica R. Goldberger, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Carol A. Miles, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Andrew T. Corbin, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writing of this dissertation would not have been possible without the help of many people. First and foremost, I’d like to thank my advisor, Dr. Stephen Jones, for seeing promise in me and guiding me toward what has been an interesting subject matter. During the three years I have spent at WSU Mount Vernon, he has not only been a great mentor, but has given me plenty of opportunities to build my strengths in public speaking, event organizing and leadership, and has encouraged me to take on projects that helped me to develop professionally. I would also like to offer heartfelt appreciation to my committee members: Dr. Jessica Goldberger, for her willingness to mentor me in the implementation and interpretation of my survey of commercial bakers, Dr. Andrew Corbin, for his career and research advice, and Dr. Carol Miles, for always challenging me to be a better researcher. My graduate studies were possible, in large part, due to the generous financial support offered by the endowment established by Glen Franklin. I also received assistance through the Goldsworthy fund, scholarships funded by the Roscoe and Francis Cox Educational Trust and U.S. Bank, and Graduate Student and Professional association travel and registration grants. There were many people, researchers, bakers and others, who contributed to my ability to conduct this research. Steve Lyon offered invaluable assistance with planting, harvesting and general logistics of field research. Dave Hedlin of Hedlin Farm cheerfully hosted field trials on his farm. Dr. Andrew Ross and Caryn Ong (Oregon State University) allowed me to use their laboratory equipment. Dr. Doug Engle and Bozena Paszczynska taught me the SDS sedimentation procedure. Dr. Mingchu Zhang and Robert VanVeldhuizen collaborated with the iii Alaska wheat breeding project. Jurgen Bettag, Jo Ferneau, Sheila Carder, Garrett Furuichi, and the Bread Bakers Guild of America helped with the implementation of the baker survey and Jeremy Sage and Chris Savastio provided Washington farmers market data and map making expertise, respectively. Perfect Blend donated the fertilizer used in the field trials. Professional bakers Scott Mangold of the Breadfarm and George DePasquale of Essential Baking conducted invaluable test baking of wheat from research plots, milled by Kevin Christenson of Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill. Sonya Heltsche assisted with statistical analysis. I would like to thank former and current members of the Jones lab who provided me with assistance, encouragement or support including: Kevin Murphy, Lucas Patzek, Jeffrey Endleman, Janet Matanguihan, Brook Brouwer, Caitlin Price, and Steve Hinton. Faculty, staff and other graduate students at the Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center in Mount Vernon were an important part of my PhD experience. Finally, I would have not made it through this journey without the moral support offered by Meg, Alex and Rebecca Hills and Marcus Latham. Thank you for believing in me. iv IMPROVING BAKING QUALITY AND LOCAL MARKETS FOR WHEAT GROWN IN WESTERN WASHINGTON ABSTRACT by Karen M. Hills, Ph.D. Washington State University December 2012 Chair: Stephen S. Jones Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) is currently grown in crop rotations in western Washington to break disease cycles and improve soil quality. There is interest in creating a local grain system to add value to the crop. Two of the barriers to the creation of a local grain system are increasing protein levels and baking quality in organic systems and understanding attitudes of commercial bakers in western Washington in regards to purchasing western Washington wheat flour. In 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, a blended organic fertilizer (Perfect Blend TM 7-2-2) was surface- applied at five rates ranging from 0 to 90 kg N ha-1 to three varieties of hard winter wheat grown at two locations in western Washington at the crop boot stage. Grain protein, averaged across varieties and locations, was 9.28 percent and 8.50 percent for the 0 kg N ha-1 treatment during the two seasons, respectively, and 10.27 and 9.56 percent for the plots receiving 90 kg N ha-1. Protein quality, measured as SDS sedimentation, averaged across varieties, locations and years was 9.9 cc g-1 for the 0 kg N ha-1 treatment and 10.5 cc g-1 for the plots receiving 90 kg N ha-1 at v the boot stage. More work is required to determine quality thresholds for the intended market of artisan bakers. A survey of 73 commercial bakers in western Washington found that 61 percent were interested in purchasing western Washington wheat/flour. Bakers who used retail strategies to market their products were more likely to be interested in western Washington wheat/flour. The most important factors bakers would consider in purchasing regionally produced wheat/flour were consistency, quality, and reliability of supply. Thirty-four percent of survey respondents defined local as within the state of Washington, 25 percent provided a multi-state definition, and 14 percent provided a flexible (or reflexive) definition that referred to two or more geographic regions. Perceived barriers to purchasing local wheat included supply chain, price, quality, and scale factors. Both opportunities and challenges exist in western Washington and other regions interested in the relocalization of wheat supply chains. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: Literature Review .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Baking quality in organic winter wheat ................................................................................ 5 1.3 “Relocalizing” wheat in the food economies of western Washington ................................ 11 1.4 Project Significance............................................................................................................. 22 1.5 References ........................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 2: Effectiveness of Late Spring Nitrogen Topdressing for Increasing Baking Quality in Organic Hard Winter Wheat in Western Washington State ......................................................... 35 2.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 35 2.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 36 2.3 Materials and Methods ........................................................................................................ 44 2.4 Results ................................................................................................................................. 52 2.5 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 56 2.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 59 2.7 References ........................................................................................................................... 61 Chapter 3: Commercial Bakers and the Relocalization of Wheat in Western Washington State . 76 3.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 76 3.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 77 3.3 Literature review ................................................................................................................. 79 3.4 Methods ............................................................................................................................... 90 3.5 Results ................................................................................................................................. 93 3.6 Discussion