Wonderful wheat

Paul Sofranko wrote:Wheat came in surprisingly next to last. Maybe if we do another poll, it'll finish higher.

I think it will.  Grains and especially heritage grains are experiencing a great new public interest that is building, it seems.  I suspect people initially worry it would take up too much space in their garden.  Some also may not grow in wheat friendly regions (too wet or humid). Or they may realize how cheap it is to buy grains, and it may not seem worthwhile...and yet...

It is so satisfying to learn how to grow your own grains and make your own breads/foods with grains!  One of the very neat things demonstrated by Ecology Action in the US (the non-profit farm that practiced John Jeavons Grow Biointensive method) as well as many other farming methods is that you can get about 10-25 loaves of bread from a 10x10 foot plot. I would say this is once you learn how to grow and harvest the wheat well and have good soil tilth developed. I've had much less than that productivity in my 1st year desert garden, as the soil is still developing.

Ecology Action sells the booklet by Carol Cox, Grow Your Own Grains, at this link.  They also provide a Spanish language version for free.
Link to Carol Cox Grow Your Own Grains booklet

Ecology Action used to sell a wonderful variety of unusual seeds with a catalog that was so information packed I kept them and looked forward to the new one each year.  I still have some of their seeds and miss them greatly!  That catalog inspired me to start growing grains.  Here is an online copy of the catalog, thankfully documented for posterity's sake:
Bountiful Gardens 2014 Catalog of seeds and growing techniques

I started out in farming and gardening introduced to two methods - first biodynamic gardening and closely after to biointensive growing, based on John Jeavons's book.  My original method was a hybrid of the two.  Then I stumbled on permaculture and it "clicked" almost instantly for me.  I think that was helped by the way I already viewed the vegetable garden, farming, and wanting to work with nature. Permaculture pulled all of those things together for me in a way that was holistic and comprehensible and inspiring.

Though going straight into grains is rare, I suspect tomatoes are probably the most popular gateway herb. Tomato growing can lead to attempting fruits-that-can-barely-grow-in-your-zone and eventually that often comes around from the exotic to the strangely mundane yet awe inspiring grains. I think people who love to garden, and love to eat things they grow, also love to challenge themselves a little bit. Grains fit that bill, even though they are one of the simplest crops. Another thing that attracts some gardeners - history. Grains and pseudograins have some of the longest, most fascinating histories.

Civilizations rose and fell, and will continue to because of grains. People near starvation have recultivated a pinch of grains to survive - even a single grain.

The key I was missing all those years was the place winter wheat (and other winter grains like barley and rye) could have in the garden. They can fill a space of time that you might not otherwise have planted for.  Leftover beds after planting your garlic or onions for the next year?  Fill it in with wheat, rye, or Austrian peas! Fall brassicas coming out, and your soil has a bunch of little grubs and plant bugs everywhere?  You might help rebalance it with an overwintered grain crop.

Sequential gardening - understanding it and preparing for it - has taken me 25 years to finally get a decent grasp of. If I could go back in time and focus on gardening better, it would be to focus on the understanding of garden sequences from a permaculture perspective. One of these days I'll post our current garden sequences, where grains fit in, where the perennials fit in and how we work annuals around them...

The other key with cereal crops in particular is their great ability at creating soil aggregates.  Grain/grass root exudates are a big part of soil tilth and microorganism survival over the winter months.

There is a wonderful story about growing wheat excerpted here at the Organic Consumers Association: Homegrown Grains: The Key to Food Security -- How to Grow and Make Your Own Wheat Flour

They give a link that is now dead, but thankfully were able to quote the delightful story.

Gene Logsdon, Chelsea Green Publishing, May 28, 2009 - an excerpt from Small-Scale Grain Raising: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers, Second Edition by Gene Logsdon. wrote:
I remember the first year we grew grains in our garden. A good gardening buddy dropped by one day early in July just when our wheat was ripe and ready to harvest. He didn't know that though. His reason for stopping was to show me two splendid, juicy tomatoes picked ripe from his garden. After a few ritual brags -- and knowing full well that my tomatoes were still green -- he asked me in a condescending sort of way what was new in my garden. I remembered the patch of ripe wheat.

"Oh, nothing much," I answered nonchalantly, "except the pancake patch."

"The pancake patch?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Sure. Until you've tasted pancakes fresh from the garden, you haven't lived."

"And where might I find these pancakes growing?" he queried sarcastically, to humor my madness.

"Right up there behind the chicken coop in that little patch of wheat. All you have to do is thresh out a cupful or two, grind the grain in the blender, mix up some batter and into the skillet. Not even Aunt Jemima in all her glory can make pancakes like those."

My friend didn't believe me until I showed him, step by step. We cut off a couple of armloads of wheat stalks, flailed the grain from the heads onto a piece of clean cloth (with a plastic toy ball bat), winnowed the chaff from the grain, ground the grain to flour in the blender, made batter, and fried pancakes. Topped them with real maple syrup. Sweet ecstasy. My friend forgot all about his tomatoes. The next year, he invited me over for grain sorghum cookies, proudly informing me that grain sorghum flour made pastries equal to, if not better than, whole wheat flour. Moreover, grain sorghum was easier to thresh. I had not only made another convert to growing grains in the garden, but one who had quickly taught me something.

Grain converts... a very Permie thing if you ask me.

Is anybody growing mixed grains? https://www.wired.com/story/ancient-grain-crops-future-of-farming/

Anthony Powell wrote:Is anybody growing mixed grains? https://www.wired.com/story/ancient-grain-crops-future-of-farming/

I had to look this up, I wasn't sure what it was.  Thanks for providing the link, Anthony!

I wonder how you get a bunch of different types of grains that still all mature at nearly the same time, plus take the same amount of moisture?  Seems like they must have very unique mixes.

But I guess that's the main benefit.  If you had a large field to plant and leave for only rainwater to irrigate, then a mixed crop like that might provide a few grains that did way better than others due to the unique weather of that year?

I have to irrigate no matter what here at our current location in the desert SW.  And we have the drip irrigation set up. So at this time it makes more sense for us to grow our grains in small single variety patches that we can harvest whenever they are ready.  That's very hands on, though. This other method does seem to have it's potential uses and now I'll probably try it someday, once I've multiplied my seed enough to experiment more.

That was a very interesting article though. Thanks for sharing.  It brings up other ways of dealing with certain constraints and challenges. Fascinating!

I grew wheat for the first time last year, 2022. With Ukraine invaded, and fertiliser prices rocketing, it was time to look at heritage wheats - that abhor fertiliser (they grow too tall and fall over, or 'lodge'). The grain plains of Ukraine are reportedly on drained land, which will be losing humus to CO2. So it's time our UK farmers were producing home-grown wheat for people to eat. Heritage wheats are less productive than Green Revolution wheats, so, as some UK growers know, you need a larger area - but your input costs are negligible. No fertiliser means less aphid problems. I picked up a variety called April Bearded, sowed in April in land fresh-cleared of raspberries, got a crop despite the drought.
Heritage wheat growers John Letts and Henry Astor are the main stars in these two Oxford Real Farming Conference sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znkEL4iKaeQ&list=PLNSHtMBQRdj9JNG5Tzuz2srLtxmUS6pT2&index=18
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQRHhmGnc2Y&list=PLNSHtMBQRdj9JNG5Tzuz2srLtxmUS6pT2&index=80
John plays with a real landrace wheat he's developed.
I've got some Spelt and fibre flax for trying this year.

I think gardeners' reluctance to try wheat and other grains is not so much concern about how much space it would take, as confusion about, or bad experience with, the processing of the wheat. I've grown wheat and rye as cover crops many years, and allowed small patches to mature to try to get grain. I did once get enough rye to at least have my own cover crop seed for the next year; one year the wheat all fell over and disappeared while I was waiting for it to get the ripeness Logsdon calls for (afterward I suspected the problem was probably mice, or birds); and then one year I got almost a gallon of wheat berries. But when I decided to try using some, months later and pulled the pantry out of its dark place in my pantry I discovered it was full of bugs and mold. Either it wasn't dry enough, or I imported the bugs to start with and their work  caused the mold. I think I could maybe prevent this in small batches in the future by freezing the grains (except those set aside for seed) for a few days before storing. I haven't given up.  And I get around the difficulty of threshing (winnowing is easy with a fan and a couple of vessels) by just giving sorghum heads, and oats to my chickens. Incidentally, I recently decided I should replace the 50# bag of emergency wheat berries deep in my pantry with a fresh one, and started giving the old berries to the chickens. I thought it best to soak the wheat berries, and often have whey to use for the liquid. I also throw in some whole corn, which they seem to turn up their beaks to, in favor of cheap no-doubt-GMO but cracked corn. They LOVE it and eat it all, Wheat is higher in protein than corn. Probably even home raised open-pollinated dent corn

I buy most of my bread! I know, I know, permies should be baking their own. But, the bread I buy is made of Enriched Flout [unbleached wheat flour] and malted barley flour. It is labeled as Hawaiian-style Enriched Bread.

Again, I buy it as a 1/2 loaf which lasts me for 2-3 weeks, tastes GREAT, and holds together well when I pack in some butter, mayo, mustard, and a good deal of sandwich meat. Doesn't get too soggy with the Mayo and Mustard because of the buttering either.

It isn't an over-bearing wheat flavor and doesn't have the cracked wheat kernels - just a nice smooth, but firm texture.

Try it - you might like it and decide that YOU can actually mix and bake the same thing!    :-)