Well folks, the small backyard crop of bere barley is now in, the heads are laying spread in a sunny place with good ventilation and I will turn them over everyday to help the dry out.
Theres about a bucket full we are saving to use as seed and those I will rub through a quarter inch riddle to break them up and remove the arns. Then they will go into a linen bag and hung in a cool, dry place.
So what the best way to process the rest to use as human foodstuff? The odd head wasn't as ripe as I'd have liked but others had reached the point where the berries were close to falling off all by themselves. Since I want to run most through a grain mill to make meal I will need to get the hulls off them at some point. The ones earmarked for brewing Saxon/Viking type ale I'll leave whole , less removing the arns.
Because there's a relatively small amount I can ponce about to get the best results. I do have that giant stone mortar to hummel the suckers if required, a oven/ rings and heavy steel pans in the shed if further drying or heating would be required.
About 2/3 rds of the straw was packed tightly into the pelliasse by the middle son. I'll leave it in the sun to completely dry. The eldest fell asleep on it yesterday evening and didn't complain of any bites. I made it so long ago ( it's a half width copy of some surviving early 19th century British army issue examples from a fort in Canada, I forget which ) that I treated it with permethrin before packing it away iin a zip top bag, I don't know if that would still be working? The rest and the weeds have gone to the compost bin.
ATB
Tom
