F.A. Farm

My winter wheat is now fully headed out. I planted it September 9th last year. I also planted spelt, but it has not headed yet. My planting methods for grain are crude but effective. I tilled the ground as well as I could and then broadcast the seed by hand. My throwing arc is getting better and it really is not too difficult to get good coverage. After sowing, I set my tiller on the shallowest setting and tilled in the seed using my tiller's second gear. I like to till in second gear anyway as I think it lowers the risk of tiller sole (i.e. the hardpan you get 6-8 inches down when you till too much at the same depth), but going faster also makes for less footprints in the fresh soil. The spot where I have my wheat was newly tilled from sod last year, so there is quite a bit of new organic matter for the soil bacteria to munch on. There are also some spots of poor germination because of the low, wet spots. This is just a small plot, only 2500 square feet, and I only expect a bushel (60 pounds for wheat) out of this experiment. When I did spring wheat last year, harvesting was not a problem, using only a small sickle and tying up the grain into shocks. I pulled a wheelbarrow along as I cut and the wheelbarrow held about two shocks worth of grain. Tying up the shocks with a wheat stem worked well. Threshing by hand was a pain and I finally used a lawnmower to shred the shocks and I got a very low percent of cracked grain. I winnowed out the grain by hand using a house fan and pouring the grain back and forth between two containers. I am looking at getting an electric chipper/shredder for easier threshing. It is not necessary to bring the machine to the grain; it is only necessary to bring the grain to the machine. I already have a hand grinder and if this experiment is successful, I will have to get a pasta maker. Then we can have homegrown pesto on our homegrown pasta.

You too, can grow your own grain. This might become important in a year or two.