Does anyone grow small grains?

uncommon_skills · #1 08/26/12, 07:53 PM

I have been reading several books on growing grain for yourself and I was wondering if anyone on here grows them. It seems like it could be useful, but it is also a lot of work, and the processes are not what most people are used to. I think very few people now have skill at cutting, shocking, drying, threshing, hulling, and grinding. It seems like the downside of grains is that there are so many processes before you get to use them, rather than picking, possibly cooking, and eating, like a lot of vegetables offer.

What do you think, is it worth it to grow your own grains? I am going to try planting the three sisters (corn, beans, squash) next year and see what I can do with them. I may also try buckwheat, because I like buckwheat pancakes and it doesn't take a whole lot to provide my supply for the year.

What do you all think? Anything else I should try?

uncommonskills

Bearfootfarm · #2 08/26/12, 08:46 PM

Quote:

I think very few people now have skill at cutting, shocking, drying, threshing, hulling, and grinding.

None of those require much "skill"

They all require LOTS of time and HARD WORK unless you have machinery

Limon · #3 08/26/12, 09:24 PM

If you search around some, you'll find this is a topic that comes up fairly often. There was a post within a month or so by someone who had tried it and how much work it took. In short, it can be done, but it's not practical unless you have equipment, or can find older equipment and fix it up.

None of the individual steps are technically complicated (although it takes practice to learn to use a scythe efficiently), but it's a lot of work and time for something you can buy very, very cheaply. It's even cheaper if you can buy directly from a local farmer. If you store them properly, grains will easily last decades.

#4 08/26/12, 11:46 PM

I grew a 4x6 foot bed of buck wheat. I din't plan to use it for food, I just wanted to have some idea what it do for a green manure crop.
The rain storm knocked it down and now it is voluntering all over my garden.
But i don't think I would have gotten more than half a cup of kernals from the project.

Paquebot · #5 08/27/12, 12:27 AM

Growing small grains is easy. Scratch the soil surface a bit with a sharp stick and spread some seed around. Since most are grass, that's how they'll grow. Eventually you'll have an option of sitting beside the plants and eating the grain or beginning a series of movements requiring various pieces of equipment that the average person isn't going to have. I do know all of the steps from planting to flour but each required different tools or machines. Grandmother's mill was probably the least expensive of the whole process and then only used for Norwegian mush. Flour for any other purpose was purchased.

Martin

Cliff · #6 08/27/12, 07:21 AM

We've grown grain sorghum here a few times. The birds get almost all the seed. I think you'd have to grow acres of the stuff to get much for yourself.

We plan to try amaranth as the wild varieties grow very well here. Their seed heads are different and the seeds are tiny, I don't think birds would have success raiding them as well. Idk how saving seed will work though because they'll probably cross with the wild stuff.

Soupmaker · #7 08/27/12, 07:23 AM

Ones effort is much better spent growing vegatables and meat.

unregistered168043 · #8 08/27/12, 07:28 AM

I raise feed corn for my chickens for a couple years now. Its not any great skill at'all. I let them dry on the stalk, shuck them and throw them in a bin. I don't grind anything, Just feed the whole corn with cob to my chickens and they peck it off.

geo in mi · #9 08/27/12, 08:12 AM

The ability to grow and process small grains from seed to the table on a small to medium scale, for now, is the limiting factor in the growth of the homesteader/small landholder movement, in my opinion. But, I believe that someone, somewhere will put the process together in a set of small, efficient machinery systems to do just that. When that happens, the homesteading movement will take off like gangbusters. The grinding, flour making equipment is there, but there is no small machinery in North America, at least, to plant and harvest it at the scale that the small or medium landholder needs. There are very few grinding machines of the sort needed to use for feeding a small flock of animals on the homestead, either.

We are at the in-between stage. The older than history systems of sowing by hand and then threshing by sickle and flail are too hard and time consuming for the amount of flour or grain needed--as everybody seems to mention. The idea of retrofitting an old combine is stupid, in my opinion, because of the age and lack of parts, and lack of horsepower to run it--not to mention having a breakdown of such worn out equipment at harvest time--and not to mention the size and turn around space needed in a small field--and not to mention the extra skill set needed to fix it or change setups for different grains. And forget it, the idea of today's industrial sized combines and grain drills........ Also, the machines from Africa, Europe, or third world countries don't seem to be the answer, because they are just miniature versions of the big equipment--well-meant, but too expensive for the NA homesteader, with no guarantee that parts will be available......

Somehow your question and the caffeine jolt got me on my soap box again....... your question is valid, and it needs the right and affordable machinery to do it. Growing the grain is something learnable--but it's all in the harvest and threshing......

Welcome to the forum.

geo

uncommon_skills · #10 08/27/12, 08:28 AM

Yeah, I have noticed the lack of small to medium scale machinery. That is one of my problems with planting polycultures. I have seen how polycultures can outproduce monocultures (like corn and beans planted in the same field at the same time producing more corn and just slightly less beans than 2 fields of the same size planted with them) but ther problem comes from planting and harvesting. It is labor intensive to try to harvest a polyculture and to try and keep everything with seperate or to give the best condition for everything.

Would things like a seed drill and cutter for a walkbehind tractor work? I know that they are expensive and little used here, but it seems in europe that they have all sorts of tools for them.

uncommonskills

sammyd · #11 08/27/12, 08:51 AM

how small do you need the machinery to harvest and plant?
There are all sorts of small scale planting and harvesting options.
Tillers and spreaders abound. Lawn rollers are made and sold everywhere. Planting is no problem even for folks who don't want to walk around throwing their seed by hand.
You can buy all sorts of scythes. You can buy all sorts of walk behind mowers, BCS makes some nice sickle mowers, Plenty of Gravely and David Bradley stuff still alive out there.
The thing holding back small scale grains is the lack of decent threshing methods that are small and easy to operate.

I've planted plenty of small plots of grain with a spreader behind a riding lawn mower. Used a small spring tooth cultivator and even a piece of fence wrapped around a board with a cinder block on top to press the seed into good contact with the soil. Grain was planted for centuries without a drill, you really don't need one to get decent results.
Cut plenty of it with a scythe and even a pull behind sickle mower and small tractor (either green or ripe).

fishhead · #12 08/28/12, 08:25 PM

It looks like with practice it could be done entirely with hand tools and a persons year supply could be processed in a couple of days at the most.

Am I missing something?

Danaus29 · #13 08/28/12, 08:53 PM

I've planted a 30 x 30 foot patch of buckwheat by tilling then had broadcasting seed. Haven't ever got much of a harvest, 2 years into experimentation. But if I had bees they would have made some good honey from it.

I also have lost the entire crop of sorghum to birds, twice now.

Sunflowers are a snacking favorite here. Not really a grain but good eating and you can use them in oatmeal and breads. Still trying to find a variety that the birds don't beat me to. Supposedly the Mammoth Russians are too big for the birds to steal. But looks like that applies only if the seed heads are enclosed in old pantyhose.

Amaranth seeds might be doable. I've got a huge crop of pigweed that I can play around with. Supposedly the garden flowers Cockscomb and Celosia also can be eaten like amaranth. I haven't tried them either.

fishhead · #14 08/29/12, 01:23 PM

I wonder what a deliberately planted and fertilized crop of pigweed would yield?

#15 08/29/12, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soupmaker

Ones effort is much better spent growing vegatables and meat.

If you add dent corn to this I'll agree with you.

sammyd · #16 08/29/12, 02:22 PM

we had good luck with the mammoths and didn't lose much at all to the birds. However mice became adept at climbing down the twine we had them hung to dry with and absconding with the seeds.

Danaus29 · #17 08/29/12, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammyd

we had good luck with the mammoths and didn't lose much at all to the birds. However mice became adept at climbing down the twine we had them hung to dry with and absconding with the seeds.

Grandma lost a lot of seeds because of mice climbing down the twine. Grandpa built a mouse proof cage from hardware cloth on a wood frame. It came in handy with other crops too..

praieri winds · #18 08/30/12, 11:41 AM

would it be worth the work to grow millet seed for bread or just go to health food store and get it

uncommon_skills · #19 08/30/12, 04:06 PM

I don't know how much millet you go through but it might be worthwhile to plant a small plot and see. You can get around a bushel of millet per 1,000 square feet of plot if things go right and the birds don't bother it too much.* A bushel of millet would sure make a lot of bread.

*Small Scale Grain Raising claims you can get about 50 bushels per acre, or around a bushel per 1,000 sq. feet. Your Milage May Vary

uncommonskills

Limon · #20 08/30/12, 04:34 PM

The only people I know who tried to grow millet lost most of it to the wild birds. I know the recommendation for commercial farmers is to cut it slightly before it's ripe because it threshes out so easily. (At least in this area.) It's then dried artificially to finish it off and get the moisture content low enough for storage. I don't know if doing the same would be practical on a small plot or not. Definitely better than trying to cover it with orchard netting.