Disclaimer: We do not claim to believe that this is the most efficient or best way to produce grains. This is an exploration in tiny-scale grain production that we do in a way that made us feel good for a moment. We have since scaled to different methods.
Photo by Jarrod Bunk
Intro
Grains of many origins are a staple in most diets and have been for thousands of years. Wheat is one of the most abundant grains today with much of it grown on hundreds or thousands of acres on single farms. We grew grains including barley and wheat on just 1/10 of an acre–hopefully 2 acres next year–and will continue to grow more to meet our needs as we save seed. We’ve been looking into machinery (seed spreaders, combines, etc.) to increase production, but these rudimentary practices have been interesting and engaging.
We like grinding our wheat to make sourdough pizza and bread. That’s pretty normal stuff, perhaps even considered “junk food” by many, but it is good food to us, and especially good when there has been some heartfelt growing behind it. And our barley–we use that for brewing beer.
A first try a using our Treadle Thresher. We’ve since improved our use of the machine for even better results. This thresher is of a homemade nature and operates smoothly. It certainly takes effort and coordination, but is effective. We’ve also used it to thresh small black beans with success.
How We Grow
We’re pretty new to this, just a couple of years in, and we’re still learning how we want to practice grain growing. Figuring out how to grow and harvest at the scale we desire is going to take some time and additional equipment. Because grain is typically easy to find and affordable, there really isn’t a model out there for how to grow grains at a small scale and do it well. Through research, practice, and advice from friends, we’ve landed with this system (for now):
- Broadcast grain in prepared field
- Harvest using scythe with homemade cradle
- Bundle, place the bundles in stooks
- Bring the bundles undercover
- Thresh using a treadle thresher
- For grain the has lodged (fallen over), we have passed the grain through a leaf shredder before putting it in the treadle thresher to separate the grain
- Winnowing – releasing the grain in front of a fan to separate it from the chaff
- Grinding it using a KoMo grain mill to make flour when desired
Grain varieties we like include: Red Fife hard red spring wheat and Glenn hard red spring wheat. Glenn is especially productive on our land. We’ve grown Pinnacle Barley for the last two years but plan to try something else next year due to lodging problems. Maybe we’ll try Robust. Not sure yet. We will also likely work in a soft winter wheat next season. Winter Rye is easy to grow and threshes more easily than wheat, so it is worth growing as well. Generally, winter (fall-sown) grain crops see fewer weed problems than those that are spring-sown. For this reason, we will likely add winter barleys next season as well.
What It Looks Like
Our talented friend Jarrod Bunk documented one of our harvests in 2021. It goes sharpen, scythe, bundle, scythe, sharpen on repeat. Here are some of the photos:
