Jordy Buck wrote:I'll add to this old thread. After growing this for a few years in Michigan (it's now going somewhat feral on my property) I can say it's functional if you get good at growing it. The grain hull is super hard, like flint corn. I'd recommend fermenting it (12-24 hours in water), roasting it, or both. That seemed to make the hull weak enough to be easily enough chewed. Cooking further softened them.
Watching NHK World television on one of the public channels here in California, I saw a show about a married couple employed at a special garden in Japan for medicinal plants that was 300 years old. Part of the segment showed Jobe's Tears being grown and harvested. The man stripped a small handful from the plant and brought it home. He put them in a regular blender and buzzed it up for a few pulses, took the result outside and winnowed by gently tossing and catching in the bowl he used, the hulls blew away in the gentle breeze. Then he and his wife boiled the remainder in a cloth pouch and had it as tea. He was also sprouting ginseng and tending some plants at home for his 'work'. He and his wife were in their mid eighties!
