A note:
Just in case you're wondering, this is not the official website for Green Being Farm. This is just my blog from the summer I spent at the farm.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

The hard way

This year I wanted to try growing some grain. I figured I'd start with what I eat most of: wheat and oats. April and May have been so rainy that I wasn't really able to get it in until today. Well, that's not true, I could have got it in sooner (and really should have, I think), but on those few sunny days when the ground was dry I doing garden work, or waiting to actually get the grain (eventually got Red Fife wheat seed from Sean McGivern at Saugeen Specialty Grains).

Well anyhow, here's what I did.

Here's the bit of the far acre I set aside for the wheat. From the wheelbarrow back to the tree line and over to the right (there's a little patch on the far right that I've reserved for garden beds. The spot set aside for wheat is roughly 50 x 200 feet, or a 1/4 acre.
And here's the wheat seed. As I say, it's Red Fife.

I broadcast the seed using a hand-crank broadcaster. I thought about broadcasting by hand for that old-timey feeling, but decided not to. Following the COG Organic Field Crop guidelines, I seeded at 180 lb/a, so 45 lb.

Here's the grain, all scattered.


Then, the hard bit. I raked the seed under. It was actually easier than I thought it was going to be, but dragging a dinky hard rake across a quarter of an acre takes some effort. I can feel the work in my shoulders and arms still, this evening.

All told, it took me about 1h 30m to plot out the area, broadcast, and rake in. Okay, so, if I actually get 300 lb (the half of an excellent yield), then that's pretty good. (Of course, all the hard work of harvesting and threshing and all that is yet to come).

I'll keep you posted.

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