grow your own wheat

[FarmerDenise]

I found this interesting and informative article on growing your own wheat in MEN.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real...campaign=FG&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

I may want to try growing some this spring. From the sounds of it, I could plant it now in my area.

 

[freemotion]

Yep, I saw that, too! I may have to try a tiny patch, just to see if I can. My father was talking about his dad using a flail to beat out beans one year. He used a threshing machine for the grains he grew for his animals.

 

[freemotion]

Oh, wait a cotton-pickin' minute....I just remembered....I tried to grow oatstraw for it's herbal benefits in a section of my garden last summer. I took dh over to it THREE TIMES and pointed to it....DON'T MOW THIS, I PLANTED IT ON PURPOSE.

Men and their weedwhacking obsession! Three times he mowed it down!!!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i'm totally trying it this year! cant wait to see what happens. i got Gene Logsdon's Small-Scale Grain Raising ...tons of great info. i'm using his methods to see how much feed i can raise for the critters...and us. but i need a grain mill.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Oh, wait a cotton-pickin' minute....I just remembered....I tried to grow oatstraw for it's herbal benefits in a section of my garden last summer. I took dh over to it THREE TIMES and pointed to it....DON'T MOW THIS, I PLANTED IT ON PURPOSE.

Men and their weedwhacking obsession! Three times he mowed it down!!!

Sounds like he had a short memory about it. I think you could try again this year. Just make a few "jokes " about about weedwacker circumcisions and he'd probably be very careful.

 

[Farmfresh]

I have grown a small wheat patch before. I harvested it by hand with a small hand scythe and threshed it by beating it on the side walls of a deep wheel barrow. I grew winter wheat and planted it by sowing just after the first hard frost of the year. I harvested it at the end of June.

This year I am growing oats for ground cover.

 

[freemotion]

Oh, wait a cotton-pickin' minute....I just remembered....I tried to grow oatstraw for it's herbal benefits in a section of my garden last summer. I took dh over to it THREE TIMES and pointed to it....DON'T MOW THIS, I PLANTED IT ON PURPOSE.

Men and their weedwhacking obsession! Three times he mowed it down!!!

Sounds like he had a short memory about it. I think you could try again this year. Just make a few "jokes " about about weedwacker circumcisions and he'd probably be very careful.

Now why didn't I think of that? That WOULD work!!!

 

[Augustmomx2]

Oh, wait a cotton-pickin' minute....I just remembered....I tried to grow oatstraw for it's herbal benefits in a section of my garden last summer. I took dh over to it THREE TIMES and pointed to it....DON'T MOW THIS, I PLANTED IT ON PURPOSE.

Men and their weedwhacking obsession! Three times he mowed it down!!!

Why do they do that?!? I had beautiful pumpkin plants growing out of my compost pile last year...showed them to dh...and a friendly reminder of please don't touch. It was a wasted talk...he dug them into the compost pile, thinking they were a weed

To the OP I read that article as well, I had some idea that I needed acres to grow wheat...I'm thinking about a little patch for the chickens as well

 

[old fashioned]

I too am trying this year to grow some grains. I only have a backyard garden roughly 30x60, but I have a 10x10 raised bed I'm prepping for a grain test bed.
I am so excited about this especially when checking the Seeds for Change-certified organic-catalog I found they sell small amounts (1/4lb and larger) of grains like barley, hulless oats (much easier to process than hulled and harder to find), buckwheat, millet, winter rye, triticale starting @ $2.29 for 1/4lb. They also have cover crops like vetch, clovers, and even alfalfa (1oz=$5.99). The alfalfa is expensive but I'm also hoping to save seed (?) if possible to increase my supplies of these grains.
I've got an order for barley, oats, rye and alfalfa. I already have some organic wheatberries (sold as cereal product) that I have cooked up for the chickens and even tasted myself and were good. I'm hoping these will grow into actual wheat plants as I've already tested them for germination by putting in a wet paper towel for a week or more and they sprouted.
I don't have the room to grow enough of these grains to feed our family or even the chickens for very long, but I want to try it and learn about the whole process. Hey, ya never know when that knowledge might come in handy!

As for everyone's DH's helping(?) hand......mine usually stays away from the veggie garden and knows his life depends on it (haha). BUT I will say thanks to him, my flower beds do NOT contain any dahlias. In our old place I was given some bulbs and I planted in the bed by our driveway-that same night HE comes home with a hand tiller and proceeds to demonstrate it's virtues--bye bye dahlias Then a few years later we moved, I again aquired some bulbs and again he destroyed them
Needless to say, I gave up on dahlias!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I know I will have a hard time with SO about this as well. He will no doubt consider it a weed not wheat
Fortunately he recognized Timothy grass, so that I was able to harvest enough for our rabbit, that I did not have to purchase any until now.
He weed whacked the whole field recently, but fortunately decided to leave a large portion of the wild mustard. He is very lucky!!! since I both save the mustard seed for cooking and pickling, the critters also love the dried mustard plants. It makes a lovely treat for the chickens and the rabbit.
He did weed whack a lot of other herbs (growing wild in the field) I usually pick toward our winter greens