Bere disaster

[tombear]

Overnight heavy rain and wind has pretty much flattened the bere patch, about a week before I reckon it was due for cropping. Is there owt I can do to save it? It's small enough a patch I could stand them up again but I don't know if that would break the stems more? Stems on the edge that have blown down before have sort of angled back up and carried on growing.

The berries when squeezed ooze milky stuff. They are still a pale green and only some of the lower leaves are yellow.

The rest of today is supposed to be dry but after that its showers and sun for the next ten days, until they change the forcast.

Atb

Tom

 

[Toddy]

Aww.....
Mine's looking kind of sorry for itself too :/

Thing is though, the grain will still ripen and dry out, it's what it's meant to do after all, just that it'll be a beggar to harvest and if it stays wet and sodden it 'might' go mouldy.

Best of luck with it

M

 

[British Red]

As Mary say you will still get something if you can get the ears out of the dirt - otherwise rot will set in. Also mould and perhaps even Ergot (?) are now a risk for you. I had a similar failure with long stemmed wheat so I feel your pain.

 

[tombear]

Cheers folks, that's cheered me up some and after a full days sun they they perked up a bit, no heads are actually in the dirt and the BBC forecast has been revised to a lot sunnier for the next 5 days although Monday will still get more rain.

ill make sure I keep any iffy ones separate when the heads are cropped, If we get any viable ones these will be my seed for a much bigger patch next rather than for eating. I'm thinking of putting in wind breaks, the hedges ain't high enough yet to keep the wind off.

Mind, to cheer me up herself insisted on buying me three long yards of a rather fine cotton and wool cloth and two lots of just cotton made at the Queen Street Mill museum which we visited with the inlaws today.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Another sunny day and mores perked up, I've had more damage from gormless visitors treading on the heads than have actually touched the ground and may spoil...

atb

Tom

 

[British Red]

Now you know why farmers talk about the weather!

I always think those who criticise farmers should work 80 hours a week for a year and then have all their work written off by a storm so that they are tens of thousands in the hole before gobbing off

 

[santaman2000]

Now you know why farmers talk about the weather!

I always think those who criticise farmers should work 80 hours a week for a year and then have all their work written off by a storm so that they are tens of thousands in the hole before gobbing off

They need to remember their manners: If you're going to say something bad about farmers, don't talk with your mouth full.

 

[tombear]

Growing this AS stuff has been very enlightening, ok we are just having a practice, messing about almost but imagine, scaled up, if that was our next years food and seed crop out there. OK, from ignorance and lack of time we haven't weeded or picked off critters as much as we should so we have lost more than a real gardener or small holder and we had the benefits of unmetered water to make up for nature but its given us a taste of how precarious it was growing these just about domesticated strains.

I can see the appeal of hydroponics now!

atb

Tom

 

[British Red]

Thats it Tom - if you haven't tried to grow your own, its simply something you cannot grasp - how precarious it is "getting a crop in".

 

[tombear]

Hi all!
the Bere perks up anytime there's some sun, which has been a gratifying amount this last week, the replanted test pots worth is almost ready. Looking at the iPads calendar thing I have the 90 days down for in three weeks today, the 1st of August but I think I may have made a pigs ear of when I thought I had planted it and the simple counting on of the 90 days.

Its definitely into the milk ripe stage and heading towards yellow ripe

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

Some of the test pot are definitely yellow ripe and I can see me cutting those and bringing them in within a week.

Excuse the state of the garden, not really had the chance to get into it for three weeks to do any weeding worth the name.

the dropped heads I will keep seperate from the uprights to see if any mould or infection shows, in fact I will examine each head and try to grade them. Hopefully this 7 by 10 foot ish plot will provide enough viable seed to plant a third of the garden next year. Then again it may all go bad!

atb

tom

 

[tombear]

Heard back from Rae up on Orkney and from the pic it looks like my patch is way off being ready and 1st of August may be about right!

The birds seam to be prefaring the multitude of insects so far, the wild oats seams to be enticing the neighbours cats ( normally something I'd rather keep away as they butcher the birds and shrews ) and of course the psychotic robin hangs about the wall next to the bere and tends to attack everything. In just over a week the kids will be off school and they can act as scare crows.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Well as far as I can tell most of the bere is at the right stage to harvest, the odd late opening up head still has a slight greenish tinge but most are yellow and hard. I'm tempted to leave them longer but the birds are getting to some and after about 4 pm tomorrow we are forecast rain on nearly every day, with some heavy, for at least a week.

So I'm going to cut the best/ strongest stemmed ones for next years seed and hang them up in the shed to completely dry out. Ill have to find out how to process them properly. The weedier or partly bird eaten ones I will grade and dry out in the same way and consume/use. I just hope I have enough viable seed for next springs bigger patch.

Atb

tom

 

[tombear]

After much closer inspection much less than half of the bere was ready to be cut, I think I've got enough for seeding next spring already but with any luck the standing stuff will ripen over th next few days.

Closest to the camera is the best stuff, biggest seed heads, plumpest seeds, strongest stems. Furthest is the second grade stuff and some still slightly green stuff which had broken stems, had been pecked at or some other defect but I want to see if it will ripen. We will probably consume this stuff.

The next likely sunny day is Thursday, but the forecast is changing all the time.

atb

tom

 

[tombear]

Well that worked out better than I feared. It was sunny most of the day and since rain is forecast until after we go off the Wales for 16 days I decided to harvest the rest of the Bere. Overall I don't think I've lost much, a few heads to birds, a few of the bent to the ground ones to insects and a few never grew right.

Assuming that nowt goes wrong with the drying etc i should have plenty for the spring planting and enough for a play at making into flour.

On the rights the biggest and best to be saved for seed and on th left the smallest and weakest to be eaten.

Theres more than there looks there but until they are dried and thrashed and weighed I won't know how much its increased by.

atb

Tom

 

[British Red]

One for the mouse
One for the crow
One to rot
One to grow

 

[tombear]

On this small scale I think I did a lot better than that, Very roughly about 1 in 10 didn't grow or got eaten and each planted seed that did grow to be harvested has at least 20 seeds, some 30+ If all goes wll ill be able to do a decent sized plot in the spring. I do need to sort out some hurdles for wind breaks, which I what caused most damage/ loss.

Sooooo, when they have completely dried out what's the best way to remove the long spikey husk part, on the small scale? I've made some linen draw string bags to store them in. From what I've read the seed will be viable for 2 years.

atb
Tom

 

[British Red]

Thresh and then Winnow Tom The spikey bits are awns

 

[tombear]

Ok, so i put the separated berries in a bag and whack them with a length of hosepipe. But how hard? I'm quiet cable of taking it too far and powdering them! The winnowing seams easy enough.

Atb

tom

 

[British Red]

Do it on a sheet in the barn.....not too hard...you aren't beating something to death - more a repeated gentle to firm thwack. Doing it where you can see it shows if you are hitting hard enough. You don't need to separate the berries - put the lot in

 

[tombear]

Cheers, that sounds doable.

Good job we harvested when we did, it plastered it down and it looks like it will continue the same.

Hung up in front of the big windows I wonder how long they will take to totally dry out? Come Friday we are way for just over a fortnight so we'll see how they are doing after that.

atb

Tom