Oldest entries at the bottom, latest harvest at the top.
August 3
Last of the Gopal Barley (B15)
Last of the Yavaros 79 Wheat (W23)
More of the Serra Wheat (W20)
Last of the Bishop Wheat (W67), this one really reminds me of Red Fife except it needed another week or two.
Last of the Belford Barley (B25)
Another bundle of Spring Dinkel (W08) and of Einkorn (W10). These are making nice heads, but are not ripening as a field at the same time. In the Small Grains class at Tillers International, it was pointed out before the 'combine' which combined cutting and threshing, my Dinkel's behavior would be acceptable. One would cut the field when it was ripe enough to be risking loss of grain from the some of the very early stems, but the major was ripe, and a minority needed some time in the shock to finish drying. As a seed business, sometimes I can spend the time to cut each each stalk, one by one. I put a date on each bundle so I could select for consistency of ripening.
August 2
Last of the Vicar Oats (O2)
Last of the Blue Durum Wheat (W68)
Last of the Ghirka 1512 Wheat (W03)
Last of the Pacfic Bluestem Number 37 (W04)
All of the Red Bobs Wheat (W06). A few of those stems were not quite ready and will get tossed. However, it appeared that the birds were starting to be a problem and there a chance of thunderstorms tonight. Any not ripe grains will give the chickens a treat.
All of the Huron Wheat (W17).
Some of the Serrra Wheat (W20) which has the most amazingly large heads for a Spring Wheat, but, the plants are not ripening uniformly. That's fine when I'm willing to cut each stalk one by one... not so good for a field!
More of the Spring planted Einkorn (W10).
A little more of the Hourani (W64-ShS and W64-HGC), the rest is not ripe enough, yet. Last of the Sin El Pheel Wheat (W15) and Milagree Wheat (M14). Earlier this week, we had 0.7 inches of rain. The Hourani, Milagree and Sin El Pheel did not like this
August 1
We attended a tour of 3 gardens in city of Detroit.
July 31
another bundle of Vicar Oats (O2). I used rows of oats to split my plots and isolate wheat/barley from each other. As a result, I have a lot of oats to cut. Because the oat patches are long and then, they cross from the wetter to drier side of that garden plot. Since I can, I'm cutting them in smaller batches at the peak of ripeness.
More of the Yavanos 79 Wheat (W23)
Then it began to RAIN just enough to drive me into the barn, then stopped! The last real rain we had was June 28th.
July 30
Last of the Len Wheat (W19)
Last of the Baart Early (W18)
Globe Strain 1506 Wheat (W12)
Last of the White Sonoma Wheat (W01)
Naked Food Barley 112-470 (B05)
Last of the Karan 3 (B12)
Start of the Pima Wheat (W11)
July 29
Marshall Wheat (W21)
Full Pint Barley (B13)
Chushi Gangdruk Barley (B30)
Dika Wheat (W?)
Ble Dur Arcour (W58)
Hourani Wheat (W55)
Black Eagle Spring Wheat (W24)
July 27
Nusso Oats (O7)
Hulless Oats (O1)
Terra Oats (O6)
Mozart Oats (O5)
Swan Oats (O4)
another bundle of Vicar Oats (O2)
Last of the Sardinian Barley (B27) from around the edges of the plot in the shade of the Amaranth
Last of the Karan 351 Barley (B11)
Last of the Naked Food Barley 111-621 (B19)
Last of the Himalayan Barley (B24)
Starting the Belford Barley (B25)
Red Fife Spring Wheat (W25-K)
Hourani from two sources (W64-ShS W64-HGC)
Nice looking Tadinia Wheat (W22)
Baart Early Wheat (W18)
Yavanos 79 Wheat (W23)
Golden gorgeous looking Len Wheat (W19)
Ghirka 1517 Wheat (W03)
White Sonora Wheat (W01)
Milagre Wheat (W14)
Globe Wheat Strain 1506 (W12)
Pacific Blue Stem Wheat (W04)
Kamut Wheat (W65)
The Blue Durum Wheat (W68) came out nicely.
I cut nearly all of it. I find the plants on the edge near a path is the last to ripen. This leads to me to believe that mature dates taken from any plot smaller than 5 ft by 5 ft might be longer than what you'd get with a field.
And from the newly created garden this Spring:
Golden Emmer and several lines of other Emmer
Last of the Terra Oats (O6)
A bit of Bere Barley of several strains
A bit of Marquis and Red Fife Wheat
July 26
Swan Oats (O4)
July 23
All of the Einkorn (W10 JS) which was the LAST of the Fall Planted grains!!!
All of the remaining Sumarie Mochi Barley (B06)
More of the Swan Oats (O4)
More of the Vickers Oats (O2)
More of the Nusso Oats (O7)
All of the Sang. Barley (B43)
19th thru 22nd we enjoyed our time at the Seed Savers Exchange summer camp out in Decorah Iowa.
July 18
Dango Mugi (B28)
Himalayan (B24)
Naked Food Barley 111-621 (B19)
a few more bundles of Sardinian barley (B27)
July 17
Blue Emmer
Black Emmer
White Emmer
Working away on the 'eat' plot of Banatka and wishing I had built a cradle for my scythe... next season. This is the ripest I've allowed wheat to get before cutting. It's beautiful.
July 16
Finished the Fulcaster (W59)
Finished the Red May (W60)
Started the Swan Oats (O04)
NFB 113-834 Barley (B23)
Started the Nusso Oats (O07)
All of the Austrialian Bald barley (B16)
Finished the Karan 16 Barley (B03)
July 15
Unterengadin Winter Wheat (W52)
Rouge de Bordeaux Winter Wheat (W48)
Winter Dinkel (W46)
Maris Wigeon Winter Wheat (W54)
Vermont Read 1898 Winter Wheat (W49)
Red May Winter Wheat (W60)
Fulcaster Winter Wheat (W59)
July 14
I was admiring the Sardinian barley today. I could have made some selective cutting of what is ripe, but, I'll wait a few more days to see if I can do a 'clear cut'. Some of the heads are ready:
But overall, the plot needs just a bit more time. From last year, I know that they don't shatter as easily as the Bere. As they ripen, the heads will droop, and, then, hang straight down. I'd like to cut before they spend more than a day or two 'hanging straight down.
Phoenix winter wheat (W53)
This Einkorn (W41 AS) was planted last Fall with seeds from Oregon. This is the beginning of my "Survived the Michigan Winter" line. I'm pleased with the results this cycle. From this year's harvest, I will select for large heads with strong stems.
Sadly, only 20% of this Fall planted, Pacific NW sourced Emmer (W42AS) survived. I'm looking forward to see if these 'survivors' do better this winter.
Fulcaster winter wheat (W59)
Michigan Amber winter wheat (W47)
Finished cutting the first plot of Sangaste Rye.
Finishing cutting the Karan 163 spring planted barley (B02)
July 13
Emmer (W42)
White Not Awned (W35-Wh-NA)
July 12
Ukrainka Wheat (W40)
Sirvinta (W51)
Cutting and documenting is going faster than I have time for photo blogging.... in the next few days, rain is possible. That will give me some catch up time.
July 11
More Michigan Tall North (W36) taken from a plot East of our fruit trees. This area gets shade in the morning.
Red Clawson (W39)
July 10
The Bere barley that I can begun to cut yesterday was finished today. Wow, did that ripen fast.
Began to cut the Karan 16 Barley (B03).
Began to cut Karan 163 Barley (B02)
Cut the most ripe Robust barley (B01)
At last the Banatka winter wheat which is white and has amazing awns, as well as a plot I called "Red Awned Banatka" I've learned that Banatka should be just white and awned, so, this find strain was contamination in my original seeds. I like it, just need a name.
A plot of Michigan Tall South (W37) growing west of the fruit trees. This strip gets full sun.
July 9
Michigan Tall North, W36, Awnless
Red Fife, seeds pulled from commercial wheat berries for flour
I've begun to cut the Bere Barley (B08) planted this Spring. It lodged more than I'd like to see, hopefully, due to my close spacing.
July 8
This early "strain" of beautiful awned white winter wheat has been grown for a few years in our garden (Michigan Tall North). I've been selecting and replanting based on the size of the head.
I won't know for sure until I thresh all my types and tabulate the results, but I confident this one will be in the top yield per square foot in the early harvest category. You might wonder why I select for early in addition to yield (and someday I hope to add taste to the process). I harvest mostly with a hand sickle I do not want everything to be exposed to the same weather risk and be harvested at the same time!
Gathered a few more stalks of Karan 19 barley.
Michigan Amber winter wheat is one of my precious grow-outs this season. I received two 5 gram samples from the USDA.
A mouse has begun to carefully choose the most ripe heads each evening. Today, I cut 10% of the most ripe stalks. The seeds were hard enough, I just want to be sure to hedge my bets.
I cut some of the earliest stalks of Sangaste Rye to sure I'm covered in the event of a weather/critter accident. Here's a photo from when they were greener.
July 7
Yamhill wheat was a selection I made because it often appears in university trial reports. I thought I should grow it as reference. This soft white wheat released in 1969 was developed for the Pacific Northwest. Several sellers recommend using for wheat hay and forage. I only had 75% survive to harvest, however, this area was a little more weedy than desired. While sorting the stalks into 'seed grade' and 'eat grade', I was pleasantly surprised how many nice heads in this first season in humid Michigan.
My Karan 19 barley plot is very small. I had poor germination this Spring, as a result, I will harvest this strain stem by stem as they ripen. That method is a lot more work, but it's what I do when I start with limited seed stock and don't want to chance the mice & chipmunks. Here is an earlier photo when they were still greener:
July 6
The awns on Turkey Red winter wheat were so 'open' looking I was concerned it was going to drop the seeds.
So far season, Red Awnless (W35), holds its seeds more loosely than the others. Of course that will make it easy to thresh, but will leave a few rogue plants next season. This strip will be rotated to potatoes next year so they won't cause any issues.
As the heads ripen, they turn a dark red color.
July 5th
The first of my Spring planted grains ready for cutting was a barley. Naked Food Barley 108-414 had a little lodging, however, they mostly fell on each other and the adjacent oats. I'll increase the spacing next year.
July 4th
Next came a winter wheat I call Michigan Short South winter wheat.
July 2
After a period of darn hot weather, the cutting season began with Plainsman V wheat. I planted my original 25 seeds last Fall.
