Manual harvesting and threshing of grains

[Dame]

Last night I dug out one of my older gardening references and notices it had a section on grains.  It has the instructions for small scale growing and harvesting of wheat, oats, barley, and other small seeded grains using manual methods only.

As this was a topic of conversation quite some time ago and I have never been comfortable with the answers I and others found at the time, this may be of interest to some.

Broadcast plant and then cultivate to the depth the seed needs to be buried.  Generally 1.5 to 2 inches.  I would bet this is why the tines of a standard garden rake are just over two inches.

When ripe cut with a scythe, the one shown has a long curved wooden handle and a long curved blade.  Attached is something called a cradle.  Looks like a very long tined hay fork attached to the handle to catch the cut grain.  The cut bundles are then tied and a number of them tied into "sheaves", a number of sheaves made into a small tee-pee called a stook.  The sit in the field like this for about 10 days to cure and are then hauled to the threshing floor.  This book suggests concrete.  The sheaves are then laid out on the floor and beaten with a flail.  A long handle with a short chain attached at the bottom with the other end of the chain attatched to anonther short piece of sturdy doweling.  When the grain has been beaten out of the heads of grain the straw is lifted with a pitch (hay) fork and shaken, then removed and saved as bedding for the chickens who will eat any remaining grain.

Next the grain and chaff is shoveled into large baskets.  This mix is then poured from one basket to the another from a height difference of about 4 feet in a light wind.  Repeat until the grain is clean.  The grain can now be milled into flour.

The author suggested this method not be attempted for more than a maximum of three acres; and that it took about 10 times longer than modern methods.       

[Atash Hagmahani]

Good to know, though. Sometimes, such as for collecting seed, you won't have equipment handy. It's worth trying it out some time to get the hang of it before you absolutely need to know on short notice.

[The Future]

Thanks for this.  I still haven't gotten my head around grains - to do them or not.  For calories that is.  I figure I can sprout them without threshing at all.  More for vitamins that calories in that case I would guess.  Still entertaining the threshing though...

[Dame]

Grains, particularly wheat, are referred to as the staff of life and my bit of reflection on the subject indicates that without the production of a long term storage simple carbohydrate crop we have little to no capacity to deal with short-term crop failures while sustaining a healthy enough population to resume production of adequate food following these crop failures.

Crop failure for a year or for a few years is a recurrent theme throughout what I understand as recorded history and I doubt this is going to change.  The science suggests that we are leaving the longest period of stable weather conditions and therefore stable crop production in the geological record and combined with the diminishing supply of cheap energy we are likely to become more rather than less reliant upon grains to withstand the fuluxuations.

[Ryder]

The part about grains is you can grow enough to eat and have enough left to plant in the next several years. If sprouted you use the nutrients and don't have the seed to plant. 

[Atash Hagmahani]

Dame, you're right. What has been going on for a while now is that famines in one part of the world have been balanced by bumper crops elsewhere. Crops get shipped around the world to balance things out. But as global trades starts breaking down, we're back to depending more and more on local harvests.

The one problem with wheat, aside from the fact that it's temperamental about precipitation (can't be too wet or too dry, or have rain the wrong time of year), is that its protein content--which in the case of hard wheats is fairly impressive--is lopsided. It's short of the "limiting" amino acid lysine. That's why people who eat a lot of wheat--such as Indians and Iranians--tend to also eat a lot of lentils.

We've talked a lot about the problems with gluten, but it is precisely the gluten that creates the structure of a good yeasted bread. And I have to admit I am very fond of bread. Most meals at our house have bread on the side.

[silverseeds]

Dame long term storage is VERY important. but also diversity.

there are many grains, diversity is key. Many ways to grow the same types of grain as well, spring or winter habits for some. and other variables also. these famines that did indeed occur, would have been lessened had they a broader range of crops.

For this area, it was generally drought, or a late or early frost, that caused these issues. So I am focusing on winter habit grains, which these peoples did not have access to. also working on breeding more drought, and frost tolerant grains(and legumes) as well.

So I will have rye, wheat, and barley... growing over the winter. with a separate barley in spring, and also millet, corn, and amaranth. with wild grains like panic grases, sand dropseed, and indian ricegrass, on the side, some (potatoes, and jerusalem artichokes to)........ I also have perennial wheat and rye. bred by time peters, which is a cross of wild perennial ryes(with undesirable seed) and annual large seeded varieties.

Other things that might affect a crop are disease and pests, and if your growing various types of grains, AND growing them in both warm and cool seasons, those will be taken care of most years as well......

Certainly doesnt make good storage any less needed, but something to ponder. and besides locating the right varieties, it is not really much harder if your already growing your grains, to grow various types. In fact imo it is easier, or more interesting anyway, but not more work, certainly.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Silverseeds, have you actually grown any of that perennial wheat and rye?

Washington State University was also working on that, and I am curious how it compares. But more importantly, how is disease-resistance?

[silverseeds]

  I have some I planted last fall, it is doing very well, on unamended, heavy dry clay soil, that few things grow on, let alone thrive....

As for disease resistance, I imagine it is high, being so much wild genetics in there. It is still a highly variable set of populations is my understanding.....

   Would you like a small amount of the rye? I have various populations......

 

[The Future]

, on the side, some (potatoes, and jerusalem artichokes to)........

I only recently became aware of how short jerusalem artichokes last in storage...

[silverseeds]

, on the side, some (potatoes, and jerusalem artichokes to)........

I only recently became aware of how short jerusalem artichokes last in storage...

yes they dont last to long in storage, BUT they do have an advantage over potatoes lets say..... Potatoes really NEED o be harvested, jerusalem artichoke do not. You can dig them ANY time of the year. the ground rarely freezes here, for more then a few days, and generally only at night. So I can harvest them in the dead of winter as needed. I need no long term storage for them because it would be pointless anyway. Just grow them, and dig them if and when I need them. and late winter, dig the rest, and spread my patch, or DRY them and make a flour from them as various tribes did......

[Atash Hagmahani]

Something I am puzzled about:

Humans can't digest inulin, is that correct? Do Sunchokes have any nutritional value?

[silverseeds]

Something I am puzzled about:

Humans can't digest inulin, is that correct? Do Sunchokes have any nutritional value?

Yes Ive read that as well. It is a low calorie food, but still a healthy one according to all Ive read. good for diabetics apparently. also I believe in storage it turns into a starch.

[opsec]

I wonder if you could cook Sunchokes at low temperature to convert the inulin into starch, cut it into slices, dehydrate it, then grind it into flour which could then be stored dry.