Grains from the garden!

Last April, J attended an intensive weekend workshop in Willits, California, on the Grow Biointensive method of gardening. He came home, eyes glittering, and declared, “We have to grow grains.”

We had already planted our cereal rye, dreaming of amber waves of grain and loaves of homemade bread.

We didn’t count on the birds eating most of our grain heads. We managed to salvage a handful of rye stalks with grain still intact. J let them dry out for several months. Then the other day, he decided it was time to do something with the dried grain. He recruited his usual helper for the project.

Here they are threshing the grain.

The threshing separates the the grain part from the chaff. Below is a pile of grain and chaff, no longer connected, but still all mixed together.

Little m especially enjoyed the winnowing part. As she dropped handfuls of the stuff in front of a fan, the heavy grain would drop onto the tray below, the lighter chaff blowing past and onto the floor. Very messy and very fun.

From our efforts, we now have a small pile of rye grain. Not even close the amount we would need to make a loaf of bread.

We’re going to plant that pile of cereal rye in the next growing season. Hopefully we’ll get better at the growing process. I’m still dreaming of a homemade loaf of bread made from grain grown in our own backyard!

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