Grain Supply

[Dame]

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio has scheduled an 8:30am CST (non-daylight saving) program on the world grain supply. 

Will try to listen.  It may have some content, and it may be mostly spin.

[opsec]

This has potential. Please do give us all the Reader's Digest version after it airs.

[Dame]

2nd hand here:  The official commodoties people are saying we should be ok for this year, but, if the weather patern holds next year will be a problem.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Here further west, last I heard, we were told to expect a "La Nina" occurrence, which implies colder and wetter. The sunspots have picked up but I don't know how long it takes to warm things up again.

Wheat diseases will remain a problem even if the weather cooperates.

[Ozark Lady]

It is not looking good for grains in general.

But, one grocery chain is doing what it can to help out families, it is freezing prices on some items.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/23/news/companies/wegmans/index.htm?section=money_news_economy

We don't have this particular chain locally, but maybe the idea will catch on?

Grow grains!

[Atash Hagmahani]

OzarkLady, can you grow Sorghum? It's about as productive and nutritious as corn, but not as picky about soil or moisture. It does need warmer temps, but your summers more than long and hot enough, and it matures faster than corn.

Trick is to find one that is palatable to humans but not to birds. We're working on it. There is a website from Kansas, probably the Grain Sorghum growers association (Kansas is the only state with significant grain sorghum production), with recipes for sorghum pancakes, sorghum muffins, etc.

If your soils are OK you might consider corn. The trick with corn is finding something you can use in the kitchen. Some of us are growing flour corns and flint corns, instead of dent corns which contain both flinty starch and floury starch. Problem there is that most people are not set up to separate them out, and dent corn makes gooey polenta because of the floury starch, and gritty flour because of the flint.

[Ozark Lady]

I ordered quite a variety of grains.
I also have animals to feed.
I have learned after... I ordered these, that some grains are not good for the kitchen due to hulls etc.
But, they would still be good animal feeds... and the animals do feed me.
Here is the grains that I have on hand to try in 2011:

Forerunner triticale
Soft white wheat
Hard red wheat

J Reid Yellow Dent
Black Aztec
Country Gentleman corn
Golden Bantam
Lancaster surecrop
Eureka ensilage
Silvermine
Early golden bantam
Wapsie Valley Dent
Boone county white
Truckers favorite white
Earthtones Dent
Painted Mountain
Pearl white popcorn
Hopi blue
Red strawberry popcorn

Buckwheat

winter rye

Cayuse Oat

White African sorghum
Honey drip sorghum
Black Amber sorghum

I plan to do more research and try to come up with grains that are better for the kitchen.
I also want to add amaranth, quinoa, rice and flax to my list.
I figure the more variety that I grow, the better my chances of finding something that grows well, and works great in the kitchen.  If I grow lots of different grains, a bad year for one, the other one might get us through!

Arkansas does grow wheat, rice, soy beans etc commercially... in addition to trees, cattle, and cotton!

Actually, most folks have two seasons... pre heat, and post heat.
Tobacco and tomatoes can take the heat, lots of other crops fizzle out!  So, I will need alot of shading!

[Atash Hagmahani]

The only one I see with a hull problem is buckwheat.

Buckwheat is not too hard to grind into a flour by first crushing it, then blowing out the broken chaff, then grinding the grain fine. Dehulling the whole groats is not as easy; you need a machine.

At least two of the Sorghums are not grains; they produce seed but you probably won't like it. Grain Sorghums are "yellow endosperm". If not, they are bitter. Instead you grow them as fodder or for syrup. I think Sorghum is probably a good bet for your climate and soil. If you want to eat it as a grain you'll need a grain type, which, as discussed on Homegrown Goodness, are not easy to find for smaller growers.

Wheats, ryes, and xTriticales are free-threshing. Emmer, Spelt, and Einkorn, though related to wheat, are not. Rice does not thresh free either.

Corn is fairly easy to process.

Oats and Barley can both go either way.

[Ozark Lady]

My goal was sorghum for syrup.

Then I read about the grains, and thought, might be able to multipurpose a few of them.  It is my understanding that the syrup sap is not at its best once the grains develop.

I also got sugar beet seeds.

How I am going to crush either sorghum or beets is beyond me.  I am considering a cider press?

Any suggestions?

[Atash Hagmahani]

I don't know how to crush sorghum either, but I started a new thread because the issue of growing sugar is worth its own thread:

http://mutuallyassuredsurvival.com/smforums/index.php/topic,5712.0.html

I'll look it up tomorrow and see what I can find out.

[Dame]

For any form of sugar other than honey or cane there is a large work and fuel requirement to harvest and process.

[Ozark Lady]

I spent alot of time looking up alternative grains.

I found some sorghums that are reputed to be multipurpose.

I also found many other grain crops that just might grow well.

Problem for me is:  I don't live in the grain belt, or prairie states... trees and bushes grow best for me.

So grains will be touch and go for me to grow. 

I know Arkansas is the leader in rice production, and grows wheat and soybeans, but that is over next to the Mississippi river, and south where there is farmland!

I need grains that will grow in a rock garden!

[silverseeds]

 
       I dont think your going to have any trouble at all ozark lady. Getting more varieties to trial would be prudent imo, but this holds true for anyone in my eyes. Especially those who do not have the ability to find known proven cultivars.

       grains are grasses. believe it or not most are not from the more fertile types areas we grow them now. Most evolved in the harsher areas of the world.(although we clearly selected them for different conditions now) They are also rather adaptable, so as long as you can ensure their minimum needs are met simply from saving seed of the best cultivars you should have better production over time. Another good idea you could consider is getting a few varieties of winter or spring wheat for instance and grow them as a landrace. This can be especially useful imo, for those of us who cant get proven varieties for our specific conditions. and if corn works for you as per your list, then the rest of the grains should be fine. acquiring older cultivars can be wise in such things as well, because they in general were a bit more adaptable.

<< By the way I have SMALL amounts of many grains i could send you or anyone else to trial>>

      A question.... which is the best season to grow grains for you? spring or winter?(there are also some that NEED winter or warmth, and others that could be grown in either spring or winter) Because the seed can last a LONG time, having one or more of both spring and winter habit grains of the ones this applies to could be useful. something to consider anyway. for me winter is much better, as that is when our soil is actually wet. I even tracked down fully winter habit peas and lentils.(hardy to zone 5 or so) (no i dont mean austrian peas which people dont really eat, regular peas-pisum sativum)

      If its something your willing to do trialing grains that fill all those niches and bulking up seed is a great learning experience as well. Also since some of us simply cant find the best suited cultivars taking this approach will ensure youll find several things with acceptable yields.

     

     

[Atash Hagmahani]

There are reasons that some parts of the country were settled earlier, and had more farms on them.

There are some Permaculture folks who are into alternative crops for woodsy type areas. One crop you might consider is Apios americana. You could probably train it up shrubby trees like the pawpaws.

[Ozark Lady]

I would love to trial grains of all kinds.

I am NOT a master gardener.  I finally got green peas to grow for me last year, a trial from the other forum!  I have enough to actually grow a crop this year.

I did however, grow up in the Mississippi delta and we grew winter wheat, soybeans and cotton, the neighbor raised rice.  So, my weather used to work for winter grains, as well as summer crops, who knows with the way weather is now?  It is more my soil or lack of that is an issue...

I grow garlic overwinter.  I tried potatoes, they rotted.  But, with tunnels I could year round garden, except for a week or two... when it gets severe.

I honestly have never grown any grains, I did grow corn once.  I got the grains to learn how to grow them, I thought I would try small quantities to learn to grow them.  Most years, corn dies for me, before it gets 12" tall.

Mostly, I have grown tomatoes, peppers, herbs, potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, tobacco, cabbage, and lettuce.

Pawpaws are understory trees, they don't like sun.  Not alot of anything grows underneath them.  There is a wild rose bush growing under one, that gets the setting suns rays.