I’ve been looking up info on growing grains lately. This is a video from the food at Great Lakes Staple Seeds about very low tech ways to grow a household amount of grain. Seems very accessible. Has information on all aspects including threshing.
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Megan G
They are good folks. The wife, Eleanor, runs a facebook group called “Growing Grains on a Small Scale” for those that are interested in that kind of thing.
I have several of their heritage varieties because they are just across the Lake Michigan pond from me.
Greenie/Erin
I ordered a bunch this year and am totally in love with the sumire mochi barley – both because it is so so beautiful and because glutinous barley seems like a dream. I love the glutinous rice texture but it requires so much processing, if I can make basically mochi barley balls I’ll just use them as the staple starch for everything. OMG. Hopefully my first taste will live up to expectations.
MG
Megan G
Yes! That would be so fun to do! My first grain growing experience was last year with spring and everything I grew was so short and the grain heads were forming though! But then, then the critters decided to have my grain for breakfast and I was empty handed.
My fall planted grains are greening up now. It looks like I’ll have success with sangaste rye and various wheat varieties. I started planting small grains here but I’m due for night temperatures in the mid 20s F, so I hope it doesn’t knock out any young sprouts. We’ll see, I have more to plant out yet.
Greenie/Erin
One of the biggest pressures towards grain-growing this year is that I’m moving kind of late in the season into somewhere they’ll overwinter, so I can do fall-planted ones. Very interested to see how it turns out.
Megan G
That will be to your benefit then. My fall grains have done far better than my spring varieties. I always wanted to try Salt Spring Seeds’ grain seeds, but they are of course a Canadian company and the nation borderlines constrict their ability to ship to me.
They were the first site I stumbled across a few years ago that gave me the information I needed about cross pollination in grains. At first, I wanted to keep lines separate, but them became more interested in breeding grains. It can be surprisingly difficult to find good grain growing information for a home gardener.
Here’s a link to their overall grains page: All About Grains – Salt Spring Seeds
They offer other information about seeds, too, especially for western Canada.
Ray South
That was a worthwhile watch. Now I know why I’ve never managed to harvest oats successfully!
the video is unfortunately unnavailable…
Looks like you need to click through the link and watch it on youtube, instead of playing it on here. The link is Small Scale Grain Growing for Homestead and Community Gardens - YouTube
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Thanks!
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