Welcome to the TBR Garden Thread for the week of September 25th, 2016!We've finally had the first fall cool down and are well into fall cleanup mode, with a few things finishing up like dry beans, sesame seeds, sorghum, millet, and buckwheat. The winter wheat and rye have already been planted, with the overwintered salad greens getting planted this weekend.
Normally we'd be knee deep in apples right now, but we hard pruned the trees last year, and the wet season rotten what few apples we got before they even ripened. We still have so much apple sauce from the year before that we're not doing without. The raspberries are putting on heavily though, and soon walnuts and hickory nuts will be ready. Hopefully it will be a long fall with plenty of time to get projects done.
| Lime basil |
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Lime Basil is the variety of the week. I bought this a few years ago wanting to grow different types of basils for cooking. I had my doubts about just how much lime taste it actually had, as sometimes the garden catalogs tend to hype things. Upon growing it I was impressed. It has a great and pronounced lime flavor that is great for cooking, especially with Mexican food when you don't have limes available. I made some great salsa with lime basil, papalo, epazote, and mint marigold. It even holds it's flavor well when dry.
You find lime basil seed at Burpee, Seed Savers Exchange, Baker Creek, and a number of other vendors.
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I've been promising a post on grains, oilseeds, fiber, and sugar crops. Though I don't grow anything in abundance, I do grow a number of each that I keep seeds for in case the times require more self-sufficiency. I'll give a quick rundown of what's out there and some information from personal experiences. For more detail, I recommend two books:
Small-Scale Grain Raising:An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers, 2nd Edition. By Gene Logsdon. This is practically the bible of small scale grain growing. Logsdon is the recognized authority on the subject, and has decades of experience to back him up. If you can only buy one book, this is it.
The Organic Grain Grower: Small-Scale, Holistic Grain Production for the Home and Market Producer By Jack Lazor. Also a very excellent book, Lazor complements Logsdon with is own years of experience and is a great companion book for a complete library.
Where to get farm seed? There are a number of places, some selling in small quantities with others offering bulk for larger operations. Some of my favorites:
Organic Growers Supply This and it's parent company Fedco Seeds offer quite a number of varieties in small and large sizes.
Shumway - They have a great selection of farm seed from small to bulk.
Baker Creek - They mostly have small quantities but some rare stuff.
Johnny's - Nice selection of farm seed, small and large sizes.
Southern Exposure - They are mostly in small quantities, but have some really rare varieties.
Bountful Gardens - Packets only generally, but a great selection and many rare varieties. I've bought some interesting stuff from them.
A quick rundown of the various farm seed available:Grains:Wheat:
Wheat is one of the oldest grown grains, going back millennia. It is often called the 'staff of life' which many civilizations where built ont. The original wheat was emmer, grown in the north Caucus region, and einkhorn, grown more around the Middle East. Both started out as grasses that were bred for larger and larger seeds. From them came the modern wheat we know today, which is now GMO. There are a number of intermediate types, including the old heirloom varieties and more primitive types like kamut.
Wheat unlike most grains is a heavy feeder, mainly because it's high protein. It takes good quality, well fed soil to produce a good crop. Within wheat itself there are two main types,
winter and
spring. Winter is the hard wheat for making high quality bread, mostly grown in the north where snows are heavy to insulate it from winter kill.
Spring wheat is softer, more for pastries and pastas. There is a wide range of spring wheats, including the above mentioned emmer, einkhorn, kamut, as well as many other old and new types, all for various uses.
It is suspicioned that because of the heavy genetic breeding and GMO varieties that many people are becoming gluten intolerant. Some have found though that they can deal with the more primitive wheats, especially if they are made into sourdough.
Spelt:
I have never grown spelt but do grind some I pick up at the Mennonite store. Looks nearly identical and acts pretty much like wheat for baking, though gluten intolerant people are able to eat it. Also has a lower glycemic for diabetics.
Triticale:
A hybrid of wheat and rye. Spring sown, heavy producer, easy to grow, though I have never grown it. Mostly used for forage but can be ground into flour for baking.
Rye:
Rye is a great producer on poor ground, which made it a popular cereal crop in the past for those parts of the farm with low quality soil. Most varieties are overwintered though there are some spring rye varieties. Very easy to grow, and actually more difficult on rich ground since it tends to lodge. Adds weight and a deep flavor to bread when ground, popular with the Scandinavians.
Oats:
Oats are a cold sensitive spring crop that does well on poor ground, but appreciates rich. Oats has a very tough hull that takes specialized equipment to thresh, though I grow the hulless type. I have so far not been impressed with the productivity of hullless oats, but I'm shopping around varieties till I find a good one.
Oats do a great job of lightening bread and adds a nutty taste. I love bread with lots of oat flour in it.
Barley:
Barley is a very short term grain that does well on poor soil. It like oats has a tough hull, but here are also hulless varieties. I have grown hulless for years, and it is extremely productive and easy to grow. Spring planted.
Millet:
Millet is one of the first grains grown and one of the fastest growing grains there is. It is a summer crop that likes warm weather, but also poor soil. Today the proso millet is mostly grown for bird feed, but others like the pearl millet pictured above can be used for cooking and baking. It's great to add to soups and casseroles. It's also used as a cover or game plot feed. Millet varies quite a bit in height, from 2 ft for proso to over 6 ft for pearl, with some hulling easier than others, like Pearl.
Buckwheat:
Though not a grain it's treated like one. There are two types of buckwheat, tartary and Japanese. Tartary is spring buckwheat, planted early and doesn't have a hull. Japanese is summer planted and has a tough hull that needs processed. Both are fast growing grains, and the Japanese is a favorite of bees, making a great dark honey. Both are fast growers and can reach bloom within a month if conditions are right.
Corn:
Here we are talking field corn, hard corn that is dried down and stored. Corn was used as the staple grain by the native cultures of North and South America. Bred from a simple grass teosinte, it's high genetic variability led to nearly unlimited varieties and colors being bred over the millennia. It was used as flower to make breads, cakes, and tortillas.
There are 3 types of field corn:
flour,
dent, and
flint. Each has their own use, with flour corn the softest, and dent the hardest. There are other related types such as popcorn and husk corn, which has a husk around every kernel.
Quinoa & Amaranth:
Quinoa is the ancient grain of the Incas. Grown mostly in the mountainous areas, it adapts well to gardens. Not exactly a spring or summer crop, planted mostly when thing have warmed up but not to hot. Very productive, colorful, and nutritious. I have grown this for a few years and have gotten some great crops. Great for soups, casseroles, and grinding and baking even.
Amaranth is a relative of pigweed, the seeds are smaller than quinoa but are grown much the same way.
Sorghum:
Sorghum is a dual use crop. The stalks are squeezed for sugar, but the seeds that grow on top can be ground and used for grain. Sorghum flour is light and excellent for baking.
Teff:
I have not grown teff, one of the smallest grains around. It great for gluten free diets and is used in Asia for making pita. A summer grain with a long growing season suited more for southern climates.
Grinding grain and grinders: I like to grind my own grain for baking. Not only is it better tasting, it's more nutritious. There are a number of home manual grain grinders out there as well as electric. The Country Living Grain Mill is the Cadillac of manual mills, I have the Family Grain Mill that works well for me, as well as an old Corona for corn meal. There are also flakers that mash grain like oats for cereal.
Here is a good start in getting a general idea of what's out there. Some are better for corn and others for grains, but there is a wide selection available with a little searching.
Sourdough and sprouted grain: Sourdough is baking bread by raising it with yeast from a starter that grabs the yeast right out of the air. I have done this and got great results, but I started the one I have right now from making
Rejuvlac from lacto fermented grain. Sourdough yeast pre-digested the carbs, make it lower glycemic and more easily digestible, plus the great tangy taste.
Sprouted grain flour is made from grain that is sprouted just a bit, dried, and ground into flour. It has the same glycemic effect as making sourdough and is great for diabetics.
More info on sourdough and sprouted grain here:
https://www.culturedfoodlife.com/sourdough-sprouted/Manual threshing: I have an old Corona grinder with a dehuller attachment that can dehull grains and oilseeds. It is basically a disk with a rubber piece glued to it that does the dehulling. There are now companies that make small manual threshers. One such is Back to the Land,
http://backtotheland.com/shop/grain-threshers/foot-powered-wheat-thresher/. I've only found one of two other companies building them, all others are electric.
Oilseeds:Oilseeds are grown for both edible oil, but also fuel. Some oilseeds are dual purpose.
Sunflower:
Sunflowers are a popular oilseed, commercially grown in the northern U.S. It's light, great for cooking and salads. I grow Mammoth Russian, a very large productive type.
Camelina:
Camelina is not a well known oilseed, but it has been grown for thousands of years. Very small seeds, but up to 40% oil content. Spring sown, quick growing, ready in 90 days or so. Being looked at as biodiesel fuel because of the type of carbon chains it has. I intend to process some and try it as lamp oil this winter.
Radish:
Field or oilseed radishes are bred for their oil producing seed, which has a spicy flavor and used in salads. Oilseed radishes are easy to grow and attract bees.
Pumpkin:
Not all pumpkins are grown for pies or decoration - some are grown for their seeds and oil. Takes alot of seed to get a quantity of oil, but if you have alot it might be worth pressing a little bit for salads and such. Summer planted, fall harvested, I've grown seeds squashes. The toasted seeds are excellent.
Flax
Flax is another dual use plant. Some are grown for fiber, some for the oily seeds. Spring planted. Flax seed has many health benefits, if not squeezed for oil, it's also used in breads and baking. Very easy plant to grow and a favorite of bumblebees.
Sesame
There are three types of sesame: white, tan, and black. The darker the seed, the stronger the taste. Sesame is used in Asian cooking, it has a very nutty flavor that goes well in many things.
Manual oil presses: There are a few companies that sell manual oil presses. I bought one years ago from a company that I can no longer find on the net, but there are others: A couple of links and a pic of what they generally look like:
http://www.easyoilpress.com/http://oilpresshome.com/
Sweeteners:Sorghum
The dual use sorghum is also good for making a sweet syrup in the same way as maple but stronger and more tart. If you're into making sorghum syrup, the internet has a number of tutorials on it.
Sugar beets
Sugar beets are just beets with a high concentration of sugar, up to 15%, much higher than maple or sorghum. I grew some this year and boiled them down, a 4 ft. row makes about 1 cup syrup. A fairly small plot could yield enough sweetener for a homestead's needs if neccesary.
Stevia
Stevia is a non-sugar sweetener with no calories with the sweet substance in the leaves. I have not yet managed to grow it, much less process it, but it's an option for the homesteader.
Fiber and dye. For fiber to make clothes, the only plants I've seen are fiber flax and jute. Both are sold by Bountiful Gardens. That is a ton of work and to me only for a very desperate situation, nonetheless I grow the seeds.
The main dye plants are madder, indigo, dyer's chamomile, woad, weld, and others. Bountfiul Gardens and Fedco carry those as to a number of other companies.
Other. There are a number of plants that are used just for their seeds for various uses like flour and baking, oil, or condiments. Chia, poppyseed, mustard, are caraway come to mind. Some of the above mentioned vendors carry these, and they can be a great addition to the homestead.
There are also many fodder/pasture crops for homestead use as animal feed. There are also many cover crops for soil building. Some have herbal properties, and some attract bees for honey. There is so much information out there that all I can recommend is take this list and research what's out there, as the selection right now is tremendous.
