!! SEPP to Boot: Stephen's Experience (BEL)

BRK #329

A very Happy Taco Tuesday to you...!

At feeding time (early morning), it's one big happy family. I look at the back of their heads with fatherly adoration.



When you buy replacement wheels for your hand truck, they provide an excessive amount of additional hardware. We'll be sure to save these bearings and spacers for future projects.



Spent some TLC time in the gardens around Basecamp today. Things look good, and plants seem healthy.





Had to perform a bit more caterpillar excision today. Here's the before and after:





Wrapped up our gardening tasks today by harvesting some Sepp Holzer Rye Grain from the "Gulag": a fenced-in, meshed-in growing paddock that discourages rodents, deer, and birds from stealing our precious, precious Sepp grain.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BRK #330

It was a hot one today...! Basecamp temperature was recorded with a high of 104 degrees F. I'm grateful it wasn't until after the event season this year.

And thankfully, we were up at the Lab today, where it seems to be just a bit cooler - maybe due to the altitude. In any case, Doug was still suffering through it today:





Dez had done a few repairs and tweaks under the hood, though it looks like an additional hose replacement is in order. I'll pick it up this weekend.

Meanwhile, I had to ask a kitty to slink away from it's napping spot: I had jalapeno plants I was trying to resurrect.



And here's a picture of that same kitty's sibling, staring balefully at one of my feet.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

What types of small grains have you been growing besides Rye? Is the Sepp Holzer Rye its own variety? How do I get my hands on some? I've grown Rye successfully, and even harvested and ate it, but I'm really interested in increasing my involvement with all sorts of small whole grains. I live in a very very different climate--Northeast New England in the foothills of the whites. I feel your pain about the heat, though as I grew up sans air conditioning in Central Kansas in the 80s.

Any info on your grain production/sowing/harvesting/using would be gobbled up by this permie!
Thank you for your posts--especially of the kitties.
-Ellen

BRK #331

The end of the week is rapidly closing in on us. I'm still reeling from Event Season, perhaps. All I know is that I have time to read books in the morning again.

Meanwhile, we stopped by Allerton Abbey this morning to do a bit of work. Paul has asked that we chip away at the reconstruction efforts over there each week, so today was the day. Here's the before and after of clearing the path to the back door of the Abbey. It's a drastic change, and I'm responsible for its neglect. With a small team and then Event Season breathing down our neck, it's a task that had been sidelined due to lack of time and personnel.





Everything we cleared is now mulch for a couple of the Abbey hugel berms.

Fellow Boot Shai was also in the mix today, clearing the other half of the pathway.



Also took a look at a pair of eggplants that never seemed to have taken off like they could have. Not sure what the story is there. We'll keep an eye on them until the end of the season to find out if there's any fruit.



Finally: another cat picture. Batman AKA Little Puff steals away from the kids to take a nap. A leaf bends down to serve as a tiny blanket.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

Ellen Schwindt wrote:What types of small grains have you been growing besides Rye? Is the Sepp Holzer Rye its own variety? How do I get my hands on some? I've grown Rye successfully, and even harvested and ate it, but I'm really interested in increasing my involvement with all sorts of small whole grains.

Would you believe that the Sepp Holzer Rye is the only grain we're growing at the moment? If I recall correctly, seed showed up here somehow a short time after Sepp Holzer's visit to the area, years before I arrived here at Wheaton Labs. If you visit here one day (or at Holzer's place in Austria?), maybe the grain will somehow show up at your place in New England. However I feel compelled to mention that based on what you shared regarding your location and what I know of the grain, it might not be a good match. It works well here because there's apparently a similarity in the terrain and climate between WL and Holzer's place in Austria.

Regarding other grains: I think it would be well worth our time to start growing our own oats, for example. I'm thinking of what I'd like to grow on my acre at the Lab once I'm granted stewardship, and that's something I've strongly considered. Millet and the inscrutably-maligned buckwheat (seems like no one round here wants me to make buckwheat pancakes until they taste them...!) are also on my short list.