planting more ancient Cereals.

[tombear]

Well that went off in my hand! The title was going to be changed to

"Planting ancient cereals, take two" but it autocorrected my rendering of cereals and as I went to change it and my phrasing it posted.

Planted 3/5s of the bere barley seed from 2 years back, should still be 75% viable according to my contact on Orkney. Will plant the rest tomorrow as the weathers supposed to be good. IF we get a crop that should give us enough seed next time to be able to broadcast as again I've been a might previous and planted them using a grid exactly three inches apart. Took about 5 hours. Herself planted out some Emmer and two strains of einkorn she's had on the windowsills for a few months as well as carlin and black carlin seedlings, which she's netted up.

Theres a gap between the start of the bere and the wall to the lower back garden that needs re weeding and a good rake, then we will broadcast and rake in the rest of the wild oats, see if anything grows, if there's space there I'll stick in the spring spelt, doubt it will do owt but I should give it another chance. Not sure what to do with the rest of it, see if will malt for some beer?

i've forgotten what else is going in, there is a plan and we will keep on top of the weeds this year. I'm glad we didn't start too early as we had snow and a bit of frost this month.

ATB

Tom

 

[Orchard]

Sounds great Tombear! Would you mind sharing your contacts for 'old' organic seed-stock please?

 

[tombear]

Hi! This thread covers it I think.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125237&highlight=Bere

Had a bereavement this time last year so all my carefully laid plans went up in smoke and I've since managed to lose the ancient strain of. rye and the small oats. I didn't think I should hound the source again so until I can find someone else I will have to make do with what we have

ATB

Tom

 

[Orchard]

Thank you very much!

Sorry to hear about your loss, I hope this year's more successful

Cheers
Nick

Hi! This thread covers it I think.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125237&highlight=Bere

Had a bereavement this time last year so all my carefully laid plans went up in smoke and I've since managed to lose the ancient strain of. rye and the small oats. I didn't think I should hound the source again so until I can find someone else I will have to make do with what we have

ATB

Tom

 

[richardhomer]

I look forward to hearing how you get on.

 

[tombear]

Thanks! We went out today so the sowing will be finished off tomorrow morning, shouldn't make much difference.

Picked up some hops and brewing yeast while we were in Burnley, we got a great big bag of unhusked barley end of last year that should be ready and I reckon there will be a couple of pounds of the spring spelt left over after the trial patch is seeded that they can use fo flavouring. There's a long term plan to use bere to brew some ale but I thought they could practice making some "normal" beer first.

atb

tom

 

[John Fenna]

Although I do not grow cereals I am pleased to see you are using Bere.
Every year when I visit Orkney I buy a load of Bere flour - it is the tastiest flour for bannock that I know of and along with the Oatmeal I buy at the same place is ideal for Oatcakes of distinction!
I get it from Barony Mills - the only down side of buying from the Mill is that it takes hours ... due to the chat and friendly, helpful service - great folk at the Mill!

 

[tombear]

It's from the lovely folk at Barony I got my initial stock of seed and Rae has been very helpful with advice since. I got a bag of their Bere meal at the same time and I have to agree it's gorgeous stuff. If I hadn't earmarked the last of my silly money for a couple of pancheons and a pottery colander I'd be very tempted to get a 20kg sack of the stuff sent down.

I'm kicking my self for losing the Hebridean rye and bristle /small oats.

at

Tom

 

[tombear]

Just finished planting the cereals, one 38 foot by 9 foot bed of bere planted 3 inch apart., one and a half 38 by 2 foot beds of spring spelt broadcast quite densely and covered with a inch of riddled soil and a 16 by 2 foot bed of wild oats, as the spelt. Will water and weed as required. There's also a about 8 foot by one bed of Einkorn and emmer put out as seedlings. Not sure if they will take. It's traditionally a oats and barley area around here in the Rossendale Valley, west Peninnes.

Over night I heard from Rae and their bere will be going in next week. Got a new copy of their bere meal price list if any one wants me to PM them a file of it.

ATB

Tom

Quick bit of maths is we made about five and a half thousand dibbed holes to plant the bere!

 

[tombear]

Found them! In a draw full of period sewing patterns and pre 1960s military manuals, 190 Hebridean Rye seeds and 250 Small/bristle/black oats! Will get them into the ground asap! Ok a year older than when they should have gone in but if I can get some to germinate I can try again on a bigger scale next year.

atb

Tom

 

[John Fenna]

Got a new copy of their bere meal price list if any one want me to PM them a file of it.

I am OK thanks - I will be at the mill in just over a month

 

[tombear]

Well that's me jealous! It's 28 quid to ship a 19.5 kg sack, no My Hermes out there on the fringes I reckon!

Herselfs just ordered me a bunch of heritage seeds from eBay vendors, now someone has decided that Afghan purple carrots are a superfood the price has shot up since 2014.

Also on the way
Half long Guernsey parsnips
Tender and true parsnips
Snow White carrots

also to get , belatedly, into the seed trays are wild sea cabbage, kale thousand head, wild garlic, wild basil, wild Tyne, wild marjoram, rocket salad, a spring onion selection ( will plant them straight into some big tubs out front )

Raining at at the moment, hopefully it will clear up a bit so I can get the cereals in. The wife and eldest two are off to the Scouts St George's day march in town so most of the workforce will be elsewhere.

atb

Tom

 

[tombear]

Beautiful morning , if a bit windy so I finally got the Hebridean Rye and Small oats in, drilled 120 holes for the former and 180 for the latter as some of the seeds that looked a bit marginal I doubled up. Question wether any of them will germinate but I'll keep them weeded and watered as required and see how they do here. I better label them up with their planting dates and looked up the approximate harvest dates before I lose track!

atb

Tom

 

[tombear]

Much to my delight the bere barley sprouted, all of them by the look of it, yesterday with all the sun and watering of the last few days it suddenly shot up a inch. I've just sent the lad out with a torch to see if any of the others had come up today as I've been either out or out front planting herbs after a trip to the garden centre.

The wild oats and spring spelt have also sprouted but the small oats and Hebridean rye are still not showing but they did go in at least a sen'night later.

At the garden centre we also got a couple of packets of heritage type seeds, bleu de solarise leeks and Hamburg turnip rooted parsley, we'll see how they do .

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Any thoughts/plans to grow Quinoa?

 

[tombear]

Don't think so, apart from the spuds the middle son is insistent on I'm avoiding anything that wasn't in Europe by the Norman conquest. No good reason just trying to keep it Anglo Saxon/ Viking.

beres up a good two inches when I watered it just now.

Going to to mark and dig and sieve some beds for the root veg next. Not today despite it being quite lovely, got some sort of throat bug. Puts me off even sitting out back dipping the sulphur matches I cut and shaped on Friday, enough to nearly fill a sweet tin. Should last me and the lads.

atb

tom

 

[tombear]

Small oats have come up. Going to plant out the seedlings and new seeds over the weekend and get them netted up. Mainly being root veg we'll have to dig down and riddle the soil as its full of stones. First off a sweep with the metal detector to see if there's anymore tools buried.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Beet root (Beta vulgaris) is/was native to the North Sea coastal area. Ethnobotany people tell me it was harvested and cultivated for the greens.
Besides sugar beet varieties, what we see for table fare is an artificial selection process which began in the mid-late 1800's after Gregor Mendel's publication on inheritance (for which he chose to use peas as an easily understood illustration.)
Purple, red and yellow carrots are legitimate. Orange was a commercial growing decision.

 

[tombear]

We have bulls blood beets growing in the propagators as well as white and purple afghan carrots, when we put them I outside I'll direct plant the rest of the seeds so we should get them a few weeks later. There's kale and wild sea cabbage going out when big enough, good king Henry, sorrel and a bunch of wild varieties of herbs oh and two lots of parsnips, supposedly old varieties the name of which I forget. There's a lot of carlin peas gone in and field beans I think they are called. Oh and wild rocket, got quite a lot of that as seedlings and seeds to go in. I'm looking forward to seeing how the turnip rooted parsley does, I'd never even heard of it before last week.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Pity it would be so awkward for me to front up with some bison. I've got ideas for your veg already, most impressive diversity.