July 14th at UMass Farm, South Deerfield, Mass. - Growing Local Grains July 15th at Colrain Seed Farm, Colrain, Mass. - Community Grain Festival See www.growseed.org for details. Add Comment  An Announcement from the Heritage Wheat Conservancy: HERITAGE WHEAT FIELD DAY - BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT SUNDAY JULY 25, 2010 Join us for a wheat field day in Brattleboro, VT at the SIT Farm. They said we couldn't do it, but we did! We're building a local wheat-to-bread system, variety by variety, field by field. Help us harvest almost-extinct ancient wheats einkorn and emmer, delicious Rouge de Bordeaux French heritage wheat, and robust Banatka, reknowned for baking quality in Eastern Europe. Take home a sheaf of what you select, to plant in your own farm or garden. Schedule: 10:00 Select for local adaptability and robust resistances 11:30 Workshop: Restoring Heritage Wheat and Bread Traditions 12:30 Potluck Lunch with tastings of delicious einkorn bread that is safe for most gluten allergies! Directions: I-91 Exit 3, South at rotary onto RT 5, take first right onto Black Mountain Rd, Drive up the windy road. Right at SIT, at the Wheat Festival sign. Contact: Eli Rogosa: growseed@yahoo.com See growseed.org for details Growing Heritage Grains 03/21/2010
 Modern wheat varieties have been developed for ease of growing and harvesting on a vast scale with machines, for disease-resistance in huge monocultures, and high gluten content for commercial bread baking. As with fruits and vegetables, flavor and nutrition have become a more minor consideration. If you are going to go to all the work of raising small grains by hand, you might want to consider getting involved with raising, and preserving, ancient and heritage varieties of grain, that were developed during the eras when they were grown on a small scale, and harvested by hand. There may be a wisdom to their development, that is lost at a modern machine scale. For example, very tall winter varieties can out-compete the weeds more easily.
Also growing, and harvesting small-grains by hand, is an awful lot of work for something that you can easily buy in bulk at a natural foods co-op. A better niche for the scythe user, would be to grow rare heritage varieties, that you can't buy anywhere else. You can help preserve them for the future, and also to adapt them to your bio-region. Start with a variety of different grains in garden-sized plots, and see what does well in your area. Save the seed of what grows, and tastes the best, to sow larger areas the next year. | Botan Anderson ArchivesMay 2012 CategoriesAll  |
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