One of the workshops I attended on Saturday at the FoCuS event was given by John DeRosier who farms grains and legumes in the Paso Robles area. I didn't take many notes at that talk, but he also did a three-hour workshop at Outer Aisle on Sunday morning. Penny and I attended about two-thirds of that talk and here are my notes from it.
Organic components are what gives soil its color. Clay soils are good for growing wheat and oats; sandy soils are best for rye, triticale, barley. (One of the things I learned from him on Saturday that I think he did not say while we were there on Sunday was that very small growers of grains should only try to grow hull-less grains. It takes proper equipment to remove hulls from grains that have them.)
Grain has fibrous roots, so growing it is good for texturizing soil and building humus. Legumes have more of a tap root system; they can handle more marginal soils. John does dry land farming, so the crops are grown in winter when there are rains. That way there is no need for irrigation.
Growing grains is relatively easy, according to John. It seems that there are two things particularly to manage: 1) the timing, in order to maximize the available moisture from the rains, and 2) cultivating the land to control weeds which can crowd out the plants. A wide stirrup hoe is good for this, or a wheel hoe.
Planting a cover crop is a good way to prepare the area for planting a grain. A low-growing cover could also be planted at the same time as the grain.
If you sow the seed by broadcasting (as opposed to with some kind of seed planter), you would need to sow 15-20% more seed. Grains can be started in flats; they love transplanting.
Grains are wind-pollinated. You don't need to grow a particularly large area of grain; a single long row could work. Corn does not pollinate quite so easily; that is why you need to grow a larger area of corn to get adequate pollination.
The grains can be planted close together in their early stages; at this point the new growth shares nutrients with nearby plants. But when they get larger they can deplete the nutrients if they are too densely planted; they would need to be moved to have more space between them. They need acid in the soil in order to be able to absorb the minerals in the soil (just like human bodies need acid in the stomach for digestions - this comment was from Jakob Jaggy, MD).
When grains are harvested, there is a lot of straw waste. Either it needs to be removed from the area, or, if it is to be left to be digested into the soil, it make take a year to do that. John suggested a four-year rotation: cover crop, grain, bean, then lie fallow or another cover crop. You can speed this rotation up if you have irrigation.
He suggested avoiding vetch in the cover crop if you are planting grains. The seeds look like wheat, but they are poisonous. It could be hard to keep the seeds separate from the grain. Cover crop should be cut and incorporated while it is still moist; it needs the moisture to break down.
Whole Grain Connection is a website with information on grains. John suggests one variety of wheat to try growing where we live: Sonora. Eric and Christine have these seeds at Outer Aisle.
I'm sure there was much more, but we chose to leave and get home in time to do some things on our land. One thing John talked a bit about on Saturday that he hadn't talked about by the time we left on Sunday was cleaning the grain. He said there are some simple methods for separating the wheat from the chaff, but that getting really clean grain can be challenging.
One discovery we made at Outer Aisle that day was a catalogue (and website) called Lehman's. They sell all kinds of non-electric machinery and home goods. The catalogue looked really fascinating so we ordered one.
When we got home, we got the new garden bed in place and Penny filled it full with all the spare dirt and compost we had around. So, we have one more space for planting this year. It may be where we try potatoes this time around. So far, we have not had success with potatoes and they are supposed to be quite easy to grow. We are determined!
One thing I learned from some online research: aphids supposedly cannot stand bananas! So, we who eat a banana each every morning, are saving our peels and depositing them directly in each of our beds. We'll let you know if it works!
We also met with our neighbor on Sunday afternoon to have a conversation about a joint chicken project. I really would like to have about half a dozen laying hens. We do know that where we live we would need to build a very serious enclosure and coop to keep them safe. And, since their presence might attract additional predators, we want to know that we can keep our cat family safe. So, we have some things to work out and we are now thinking that we are aiming to get the chicks in spring of 2012. We will use the rest of this year to learn more and get their housing ready for them!
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