Visiting St Fagans today we saw some folk laying out wheat for the little tractor that pulls the tourist wagons around to run over the heads to thrash them off the stalks. I paid no real attention but herself engaged the workers in conversation. Anyhow it turns out they are going to thatch some round house and had grown a field of spelt. Since they wanted the straw more than anything the seed was pretty much a bi product. Some would go for seed, some for cooking in the Iron Age village they are rebuilding but a lot was being left for the birds.
So the long and the short of it they gave us a few handfuls and since we happened to be passing when they were packing up and let us glean all the spilt stuff I now have a third of a carrier bag of spelt seed for planting in October.
Some of the gleaned stuff was a bit damp but I can easily gently dry the lot when we get back to the cottage on the lid of the bush oven in front of the fire.
atb
Tom
So the long and the short of it they gave us a few handfuls and since we happened to be passing when they were packing up and let us glean all the spilt stuff I now have a third of a carrier bag of spelt seed for planting in October.
Some of the gleaned stuff was a bit damp but I can easily gently dry the lot when we get back to the cottage on the lid of the bush oven in front of the fire.
atb
Tom
