Old fashioned cereals, again.

[tombear]

Well I got that wrong, I heard back from Alan and the Bread Wheat is Red Lammas although there must have been some cross pollination as those single spikelets came from somewhere. Anyhoo they are planted now so ill just relable the pot and see how they do. It was around in the 1650s, I can't find out when it was first grown so far

so still looking for emmer and einkorn seed....

atb

tom

 

[tombear]

Much to my surprise the winter spelt has already sprouted! 3 days that took!

atb

tom

 

[tombear]

Just posted off a form to SASA which will get me some ancient islands small oats seed and some Hebridean rye. depending on the number of seeds I'll plant them indoors or out to increase the numbers for next year.

Atb

Tom

 

[Tengu]

On North Rona they grew barley and oats but the climate was horrible; also very windy and salty.

I noted, however that the soil was rich and also always damp; the plants that could stand such dire climes seemed to do very well.

I often wonder what cerials they used.

 

[tombear]

The oats are from three sites to increase the likelihood that some will thrive here, South Uist, Lewis and Benbecula.

The spelt and Red Lammas are shooting up, what I thin out ill try planting outside to see if that will halt their growth until the spring, perhaps with some straw packed round to keep the worst of the frost off.

The small oats, rye and the pound of bere will be planted in the spring.

atb

Tom

 

[British Red]

Much to my surprise the winter spelt has already sprouted! 3 days that took!

atb

tom

My Winter Wheat is well up now

 

[tombear]

Excellent! Do you get much frost down there? If so are there any tricks to get the sprouts through the winter?

Frost and snow can be a bit of a bugger up here in the Pennines, even at the relative low level we are.

 

[British Red]

It gets down around -10 to -15 most Winters. The trick is for you to stay in the warm with coffee and leave the wheat to fend for itself

Its grass. Its frost hardy

 

[tombear]

Cool, anything that thrives on neglect I like!

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

The small oats ( 250 ) and Hebridean rye (190) have arrived and both are for spring planting so I can sort out the beds when I'm doing them for the bere barley. Assuming they grow and ain't eaten by birds etc that should give enough for a Decent sized planting the year after

atb

Tom

 

[British Red]

Sounds interesting - be fun to try to calculate the right time for spring sowing

 

[tombear]

Yup, I'm hoping that I can fudge a date from the average weather for each given week up there in the islands in relation to it here and when they plant it there.

ATB

Tom

 

[British Red]

Its just not date driven really Tom - its all about the friability and moisture content of the soil. You don't want it too cold and wet as the seed rots in the ground. But if you leave it too long, it cannot ripen.

 

[tombear]

Perhaps local historical records can give me a clue. Now its almost entirely put to pasture, I'm racking my brains trying to remember if I've ever seen any of it under a cereal crop at all. Somebody must know!

Atb

tom

This is a quite useful PDF, if school kids can do it I should be able to do something...

http://www.croftingconnections.com/attachments/Crofting Connections Seeds 2013.pdf

 

[cranmere]

I just came across this guy who is producing flour from various old grains.

http://bakerybits.co.uk/bakery-ingredients/flour/lammas-fayre-flour-mill.html

 

[tombear]

Good job I've just spent up buying leather or I would have to get some of that flour, despite the price. Well more the cost of the postage.ATBTom