Last fall, I planted some winter wheat in a small part of our front yard. After allowing our flock of chickens to scratch, weed, and manure their 16 ft. by 32 ft. enclosure, we moved their mobile chicken coop, and I broadcast some winter wheat seed. It seemed to barely grow over the winter, and I feared I had planted it too late in the season to get established before the cold came, but come Spring it sprang into life and started to head out. Our beautiful little plot of wheat, bristling in the wind, made us understand the sentiment of “amber waves of grain”. It was quite a site from the carport.
Nice Heads of Homegrown, Homestead Wheat
The heads of grain had started to dry out, and were drooped over facing the ground, letting us know that it was time to harvest. I couldn’t find my corn knife/sickle, so I fired up the weed-eater. I made sure to cut in only 1 direction so the stems all ended up in semi-neat rows. Such a small amount took only a few minutes, and I was soon bundling up the straw/wheat combo into sheaths. I then raked all of the smaller bits into piles. The yield was somewhat low, but still a success.
Bundles and sheaths of wheat. The wheat grew right around some of our new fruit trees
What’s nice about growing wheat is that in March I was able to inter-plant some white clover right into the stand, where it germinated,and grew, biding it’s time. The wheat shaded it during this abnormally dry summer, protecting it from drying out too badly, and that the wheat has been cut, it should take off.
The 2 best sheaths of wheat, ready for further drying.
We may end up planting a lot more this fall, and actually try and get a usable amount of wheat, barley, rye, and/or oats, both for us and our birds. I’ll need to brush up on the timing, and seeding rates in my copy of Gene Logsdon’s Small Scale Grain Raising though.