PlanterTomato Vegetable Gardening

Making Pasta from Wheat Berries

OK, I hear you saying, "what is a wheat berry?"  It's just the term for wheat that has been separated from the hull but is otherwise unprocessed.  In other words, it's whole wheat.  In my posting on July 7, I showed you how to thresh and winnow the grain to yield these wheat berries.  In this posting, I'll show you how to grind the wheat and make it into pasta.

Once you have your wheat berries, you need to grind it into flour. There are a number of different devices on the market that allow you to do this ranging from hand cranked grinders to dedicated grain mills.  If you want to know more about the subject, check out my previous posting Flint Corn & Grain Mills Used to Grind Corn, Wheat and Other Grains. I have a KitchenAid mixer and the company makes a variety of attachments including a grain grinder and a pasta roller/cutter.  That's what I used to grind my grain, but you can use whatever grinder fits your budget.

While the KitchenAid is a good appliance, trying to grind from wheat berries to flour in one pass is not a good idea.  It puts too much stress on the motor and I've read plenty of posts about people who destroyed their mixer.  The best approach is to grind the grin in three or four passes. Start by doing a coarse grind and then progressively grind the grain to a fine powder.  On the KitchenAid grinder attachment, you do this by rotating the dial on the front of the grinder.  I did four grinds and ground a pound of flour in about 10 minutes.  One other tip...put small amounts of grain into the hopper at any given time or you'll clog your grain mill.

Once the flour is ground, use 3 large eggs and 2 cups of flour for as much pasta as you would like to make.  Beat the eggs and incorporate them into the flour. Then lightly flour a cutting board and knead the dough for about 5 minutes.  You want to keep the flour from sticking to the board so add some flour as needed, but try to use as little as possible as this can lead to tough pasta.Once the flour is kneeded, set it aside in a bowl for 15 minutes.  You're now ready to make the pasta.

I used an attachment on my KitchenAid mixer to flatten the pasta.  I set the roller attachment for the widest setting and ran the pasta throught the rollers.  I then turned the adjustment knob to a narrower setting and ran the dough through again.  There are a number of settings that go from very wide to very thin.  Choose a setting that corresponds to a pasta thickness you like.  You would use the same proceedure if you have a hand-cranked pasta maker.  If you are going all manual on this, roll out the pasta to your desired thickenss with a rolling pin.

I then changed the attachment on my KitchenAid, replacing the rolling attachment with the pasta cutter attachment.  I then ran the pasta through this and let the pasta "noodles" fall onto a floured cutting board.

If you intend to cook the pasta immediately, you don't need to worry about the noodles sticking together. They can be seperated with a spoon when you drop them into boiling water.

However, if you plan to use the pasta at a later date, you might want to place the noodles on a pasta drying rack so they stay seperated.

If you don't have a KitchenAid pasta maker attachement or a manual pasta machine, you can lay the rolled pasta onto a cutting board and cut the noodles with a knife. The pasta wont' be as uniform if you do this, but don't worry; it will taste just as delicious.

Fresh noodles cook in just a few minutes.  Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Drop in the noodles.  Cook for for 2 or more minutes till done. The cooking time depends on the thickness of the pasta, so just taste it as it cooks and find the right time for your tastes.  Serve immediately and dress with pasta sauce, butter and parmesian cheese, pesto, or whatever is your favorite topping.

Whole wheat pasta is brown, not white. Don't let the color fool you.  Whole wheat pasta is really yummy.

Bon Apetit.

Growing Wheat In Your Backyard Garden

In October of last year, I planted an heirloom wheat variety called Frassinetto.  In this posting, I'll let you know the results of this experiment as well as explain how to thresh, winnow and store the grain.

Frassinetto Wheat

Frassinetto is a variety of wheat from Italy that is reported to produce excellent flour for pasta.  It is rarely grown today because modern varieties of wheat are so much more productive.  For example, a trial done by the University of California in 2009, measured the yield of various wheat varieties and Frassinetto proved to be one of the least productive -- about 1500 pounds of dry grain per acre versus modern wheats that produce from 5,000 to 7,600 pounds per acre. ( Click on the below table to see the data on various wheat varieties.)

To put this in perspective, the 100 square foot plot that I set aside for my wheat would produce only 3.5 pounds of dry grain if I got the same results as those in the University of California's trial.  As noted in the table, Frassinetto grows to 55 inches, much taller than modern varieties that reach only 30-40 inches in height.  Frassinetto's height is not an advantage, it is easily blown down by the wind and this seems to explain in part why this variety is lower yielding.  In the trial, about 40% of the Frassinetto plants tipped over, a condition called "lodging."

An Attempt To Improve Frassinetto's Yield

To try to maximize my yield, I provided support for the wheat plants.  I placed stakes in the field every few feet and then ran twine between the stakes at about 18 and 36 inches above the ground.  The wheat seeds would grow through this lattice work and it was my hope that they would provide enough support to prevent the wheat from tipping over in the wind.  As it turned out, this system did help a good amount of wheat still lodged; I didn't measure this in a rigorous way, but I would guess about 15% lodging versus 40% in the University of California's trial.

Results

As mentioned above, if I got the same yield as that achieved in the University of California trial I could expect to harvest about 3.5 pounds of Frassinetto.  As it turned out, I harvested 5.2 pounds, 49% better than the trial.  But my experience also shows that while adding support improves Frassinetto's yield, the varieity still yields far less grain than modern wheat varieties.  In theory, I might have harvested 14-17 pounds of dry grain from the same plot if I had chosen a modern wheat.

 How to Shock, Thresh and Winnow Grain

Wheat should be harvested when the head of the wheat has turned yellow or tan/brown.  If you remove some of the seeds and rub them in your hands, the grain will feel hard. The shape of the grain head is also a good indication since it will begins to bend towards the ground as the plant prepares to release the grain seeds.  

If you want to harvest a bit early or if some of the grain is not quite ready, you can "shock" the grain and allow it to dry for a few weeks in the sun.

Shocking is the process of tying the grain into small bundles and stacking them up in the field.  This is the way grain was harvested for thousands of years before modern machinery came into existence. (see below painting by Vincent Van Gogh and my versions of the same)

Once the wheat is dry you need to remove the grain from the grain heads, a process called threshing.  Traditionally this was done with a flail.  The grain is laid down on a sheet and beaten with this simple wooden implement.  

There are many variations on how to thresh.  I've seen people step  on the grain with their shoes, place the grain in a pillow case and thresh by hitting the outside of the pillow case with a rolling pin, and even one gent who created a threshing device from a bucket and a chain.  The chain was attached to an electric drill then this was inserted into a bucket that was filled with wheat heads.  The spinning chain struck the grain and dislodged the grain from the chaff.

I tried the pillow case method and found it very inefficient. So I tried stepping on the grain with a pair of sneakers.  The treads in the sneakers did a remarkably good job or stripping away the chaff and was a fine method for small harvests like mine.

After threshing, your left with a large pile of wheat seeds mixed with chaff. The chaff is the dry seed casings.  To seperate the wheat from the chaff, lay a sheet or tarp on the ground.  Set up an electric fan at one end of the tarp and turn it on. Then drop the grain and chaff mixture in front of the fan.  The wind created by the fan will carry off the lighter chaff, while the heavier grain will drop right in front of the fan where it will collect on the sheet.  You can then scoop up the grain.  In practice, I found that running the grain/chaff through this fanning process twice did the trick.

 

To store the grain, place it in a plastic bag or vacuum seal bag and drop it in the freezer. In my next posting, I'll explain how to grind the grain and provide a recipe for whole wheat pasta. 

Floriani Red Flint Corn

Last summer, I grew a variety of flint corn called Longfellow.  This variety has long, thin ears and produces a low sugar corn used to make tortillas, corn bread and other dishes that require this type of corn.  A reader of this blog, was kind enough to send me another variety of flint corn to try called Floriani Red.  I had an opportunity to do so earlier this week and would like to recommend it for those interested in growing staple crops in their gardens.

Floriani Red is a relatively rare flint corn that originates from the northern part of Italy.  The corn hulls are a beautiful red color and the grain itself is a deep yellow. I used some of the grain sent me to make pollenta, an Italian side dish that is made from medium-t0-fine ground corn that has been cooked with water and butter.  Floriani corn was cultivated in Italy specifically for pollenta so it's no surprise that it worked wonderfully well for this dish.  The Floriani Red has a rich corn taste and the pollenta was more interesting visually because the red hulls end up as little red flakes in the final dish.  (Pollenta made with yellow corn is uniformly yellow)

Corn is the easiest grains to manage because it only needs to be ground, versus other grains such as wheat or oats that need to be threshed (loosening the grain from the chaff) and winnowed (separating the grain from the chaff) before grinding.

For more information about grinding corn, see my prior post on grain mills and on grinding corn.

If you would like to grow Floriani Red corn, you can purchase seeds from Fedco, Heritage Harvest Seed, and several other suppliers.

Special thanks to Kelley who was kind enough to send me this variety to try.

How To Choose Sweet Corn Varieties

In this posting, I'll describe the historical development of sweet corn and describe various the various categories that are available to home vegetable gardeners.

The History of Sweet Corn

Corn has been cultivated in the Americas for somewhere between 8,000-10,000 years.  For most of that history, the corn grown was high in starch and low in sugar. Generally referred to today as "field corn," this type of starchy corn is traditionally used to make a variety of foods such as corn bread, tortillas, tamales, polenta, and hominy. It is also used as fodder for animals. (For more information about these starchy corn varieties, check out my posting on dent and flint corn)

Sweet corn is a naturally occurring mutation of field corn.  A change in just one gene within the corn plant results in an increase of sugar content from 4% in field corn varieties to over 10% in most modern sweet corn.

There is debate among scholars as to when this mutation occurred, but at least some scholars believe that the first sweet corn mutations occurred over 1,000 years ago in the area around Peru and Bolivia.  Research done by Paul Frederick on the growth of the New England Corn Industry suggests that native Americans in the U.S. also cultivated some sweet corn, but it was not a particularly important crop relative to field corn varieties.  Frederic's explanation for this is that native peoples were less interested in growing sweet corn because it is less hardy than field corn and because the sweetness declines rapidly once the corn has reached maturity, thereby eliminating any flavor advantage of sweet corn over field corn.  In other words, from the perspective of flavor, it reverts to the flavor of field corn so quickly that the trade off in hardiness wasn't worth it.

Photo: Mayan Corn God

According, A. T. Erwin who wrote a book about the history of the canned corn industry, sweet corn as we know it today has it's origins in New England.  Erwin believes that sweet corn was introduced into Plymouth, Massachusetts by the Iroquois in 1779.

Diorama of Iroquois growing corn

Various Types Of Sweet Corn

• Sugary Corn - Sugary, or "SU" corn varieties, were the original sweet corns.  These corn varieties currently have sugar content of 9-16%, a major increase versus field corn that has 4% sugar.  SU corn tends to be hardy, but as mentioned above, it losses its sweetness very quickly once the corn has matured or been picked.  As a result, SU corns need to be consumed immediately upon harvest, or preserved by canning or freezing.  One key advantage of SU varieties is that they are able to germinate in cooler soils, so they may be a good choice for you if you are a Northern gardener.  SU varieties also tend to have the tenderest kernels and some folks claim the most authentic corn taste. Common SU varieties include: Silver Queen, Country Gentleman, Golden Bantam and Jubilee.

Silver Queen

• Sugar Enhanced - Sugar Enhanced, or "SE" corn varieties were developed at the University of Illinois during the 1950's. They have an additional gene that expresses sweetness in corn.   These varieties are 14-35% sugar. Importantly, they retain that sweetness for up to 4 days after harvest or maturity.  This makes SE varieties an excellent choice for home gardeners. One downside is that SE varieties are less tender than their SU cousins. Some well known varieties include: Bodacious, Kandy Korn, Maple Sweet, Tuxedo, and Peaches & Cream.

Peaches & Cream

• Super Sweet - Super Sweet, or "SH2" corn was also developed at the University of Illinois in the 1950's.  Super Sweet varieties have massive sugar content -- 28-44% and they tend to retain this sweetness for an extremely long period of time - up to 10 days after maturity or harvest.  Fans of Super Sweet corn will tell you that kernels are crisp, while detractors view SH2 kernels as tough. Common SH2 varieties include: Illini Gold, How Sweet It Is, and Early Xtra Sweet.

Early Xtra Sweet

• Synergistic - "SY" corn is a hybrid cross between SH2 and SE corn varieties that produces some characteristics of both. Specifically, the tenderness and flavor of SE varieties with the increased sugar content and storage capabilities of SH2 corns.  Some examples include: Montauk, BoJangles, Honey Select, and Applause.

Montauk

• Bt and Round Up Ready - These are sweet corn varieties that are genetically modified for use by commercial agriculture. I am listing these here because GMO's, or genetically modified organisms, are a hot topic in the news these days and because there have been reports that Bt corn may soon be available for sale to consumers at Wal-Mart. Genetically modified corn varieties are ones where an additional gene has been introduced to the plant in order to provide it with resistance to pests, pesticides or herbicides.  In the case of Bt corn, genes from the bacteria Bacillius Thuringiensis are introduced to the corn plant in order to make corn toxic to corn borers, a variety of insect that damages corn crops.  Round Up Ready corn is sweet corn that has been modified with the genes from Agrobacterium Sp. CP4. This gene conveys resistance to the herbicide glyphosate (Round Up).  This allows farmers to spray their fields with Round Up to kill weeds while leaving the Round Up Ready corn plants unharmed.  Kinda like the neutron bomb that kills people but leaves the building intact.

Corn Borer

Other Choices

When you shop for sweet corn for your garden, you will be faced with color and maturity choices that cut across all the groups.  So if you only like white or bi-color varieties you will be able to find some that are SU, SE, SH2 or SY.  The same applies to early and main season varieties.

• Maturity - Early season varieties mature in 65-75 days while main season corn takes 75-100 days depending on variety and your climate.
• Color - Sweet corn comes in yellow, white, bi-color and in rare instances other colors such as blue or red.

Cross Pollination Issues

While not specifically related to particular styles of corn, I want to make you aware of this issue as you plan your garden. Corn is pollinated by the action of the wind taking pollen from the tassels of the plant to the silk on the immature ear.  

As a result, corn crops can easily be cross-pollinated by other varieties if they are planted too close.  Such cross pollination can effect the color of the corn (for example, a white corn variety will produce yellow or bi-color kernels) or the flavor and texture of the corn can be negatively impacted (For example, SH2 varieties that are cross pollinated end up very tough and starchy). 

A general rule of thumb is to separate corn varieties by either time or distance.  If you are growing two varieties, select ones that mature at different times - for example a 70 day variety and a 90 day variety. Tassel formation and pollination will occur at different times, reducing the likelihood of cross pollination between the two varieties. Alternatively, plant different varieties in fields that are 250 feet apart. There will be some cross pollination at this distance, but not sufficient to materially impact the crop.  If you want to completely isolate your corn crop, separate fields by at least 700 feet.

Global Warming Puts 50% of Worlds Wheat Crop at Risk

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm growing a rare heirloom variety of wheat called Frassinetto this year.  This is my first experience growing wheat and so when I see a headline about wheat it catches my eye.

According to researchers at Stanford University in California, it appears that global warming is having a greater impact than expected on yields of wheat.  Using satellite photography, scientists have determined that warmer weather is causing wheat in India to mature too quickly.  The impact of this premature ageing is to reduce both the yield and the quality of the wheat harvested.

So how much wheat is being effected in this way?  As much as 50% of the worlds wheat may be at risk due to warming.

To learn more about this, check out this article published in the New Scientist.

 

Four Reasons Why You Can't Really Use Homegrown Ingredients to Make Beer

I've been experimenting with growing grain in my suburban backyard.  It's fun to think of growing grain and then converting it to beer. In this posting, I provide information about the ingredients in beer and the four reasons why growing your own ingredients isn't practical.

Basic Beer Brewing

Beer is made from just four basic ingredients: water, yeast, barley and hops.  The later two ingredients can be grown by gardeners and this raises the tantalizing possibility of not only brewing ones own beer, but doing so from home grown ingredients.  Let's look in greater detail at barley and hops....

Hops

In beer production hops are used as a preservative and a flavoring agent, giving beer its classic bitter taste and aroma.  The female flower cluster of the plant humulus lupulus (hops) is harvested and dried.  These flowers are then added to the beer during the brewing process where they release alpha and beta acids.  The alpha acids give beer it's bitter flavor, while the beta acids add aroma.

As a plant, hops are a perennial vine that grow 12-15 feet high.  They are extremely cold hardy and can be successfully grown in zone 3 through 8.   Hops are fast growers and will wrap themselves around trees, telephone poles and anything else in your garden.  So successful are hops that many consider the plant to be invasive. Hops seeds and rhizomes can be purchased from both seed companies such as Jungs Seeds, Raintree Nursery and a number of stores that cater to home-brewers.

I've never grow hops, but fellow gardeners and home brewers who have, often report that while easy to grow, hops are not easy to grow in a way that makes their alpha and beta acids consistent from plant-to-plant or year-to-year.  Herein lies the first problem.

Reason #1 - To make good beer, home brewer needs hops that are consistent with regard to their  alpha and beta acid levels.  This is hard to achieve in a home garden.

I've been referring to hops as if there were only one type of this plant in the world.  The truth is that there are dozens of varieties and each of these differs dramatically in their bitterness and in the aroma that they impart to the beer.  (See the Wikipedia for a list of some common varieties) This highlights the second issue for those interested in growing hops for home brewing...

Reason #2 - Most beer recipes require two or more different varieties of hops.  If you want to drink several types of beers, this means a home grower will need to successfully and consistently grow many hops varieties.  For example, a recipe that simulate Sam Adams Boston Lager requires the addition of Hallertauer and Pearle hops.  A recipe that I have for Bear Republic Racer #5, a craft brew, calls for five different types of hops - Chinook, Cascade, Centennial, Columbus and Amarillo. 

 Barley:

The second major ingredient in beer is barley. Barley provides the sugars that are fermented by yeast into alcohol.  As grain, barley does not possess these sugars and the grain needs to first be malted for use in beer.  In this process, the barley seed is soaked in water so that it begins to germinate and starches within the grain are thereby converted to ferment-able sugar.  Germination is then suspended by air drying so the barley can be used by brewers.  In some cases, the grain is then further processed by roasting.  This malting and roasting the grain contributes importantly to the final color, taste and mouth-feel of the beer.  The longer the grain is roasted, the darker it's color and the stronger it's flavor.  For example, home-brew versions of Guinness Stout use British Crystal Malt (provides a reddish color and carmel sweetness to the beer), Black Patent Malt (has a very sharp flavor and is used to make Porter and Stout style beers) as well as English Pale Malt and in some recipes wheat.

It's certainly possible for gardeners to grow barley.  The issue is really that that beer recipes generally require more than one variety and more than one malting style.

To begin with, there are three major categories of barley  based on the number of seeds at the top of the stalk (two-row, four-row and six-row barley). Two and six row barley are the ones that are most frequently used in brewing.  They differ in the amount of protein they contain and therefore in the taste and mouth-feel of the beers they produce.  European beers are generally made with 2-row barley while American brewers tend to use six-row.  Within these broad groups, there are many different varieties and these differ in their flavor characteristics as well as the ease of which they can be germinated for malting.  Most professional malting companies will use several varieties of barley to try to keep their products uniform.  These grain and malting variations form a highly complex palette from which a brewer can choose to formulate a beer recipe.

Reason #3 - As with hops, if you want to grow your own barley for brewing you'll probably need to grow several varieties, not just one. 

Reason #4 - These grains need to be malted (a complex enough process to begin with) and most beer recipes require between 2 and eight types of malted grain; malting this many styles is probably beyond the scope of what any home gardener/brewer has the capability and time to do.  For perspective, Austin Homebrew, is a company that sells malt grains to home-brewerssells over 56 different varieties of malted grains on their web site.

The Bottom Line

There's a difference between creating a beverage that would be recognized as beer and one that would be enjoyable and worth the effort.  You can grow one type of barley and roast it, and one type of hops and dry it.  From these ingredients it is possible to create beer.

However, to make a beer that would be as good as commercially available beer, you'll need several varieties of malt (barley) and hops.  This is very really just beyond the scope of what can be produced from the home garden and processed at home.

Grinding Your Own Flint or Dent Corn

In this posting, I describe the steps you need to grind home grown flint or dent corn and how to calculate your yield in bushels per acre.

Regular readers of this web site know that I've been experimenting with growing grain in my small suburban backyard.  In September, I harvested my first batch of flint corn.  After removing the kernels from the cob, I had about 8.5 pounds of dried corn seed to convert to corn meal.

Removing the Corn From The Cob

Removing corn from the cob without the use of some sort of sheller is impractical, even for very small quantities of corn.  Hand cranked shellers operate by pulling the cob through a set of teeth that separate the corn from the cob.  These devices range in price from about $30 for a plastic model (doesn't look very durable) to over $230 for a top of the line model offered by Pleasant Hill Grain.  While a good-grade metal hand cranked sheller can be purchased for $80, the price was still a bit high for me given the small quantity of corn I needed to shell (About a grocery bag full of dried and de-husked ears) 

Searching for an alternative solution,  I found a simple $8 hand sheller that worked quite well.  To use it, just place the sheller over the top of the ear and twist the device while pushing down.  The rotation of the teeth within the sheller remove the kernels from the cob.  Using this device, I was able to shell all my corn in about 30 minutes.

Grinding Corn

There are many different styles of grain mills at a range of prices.  For those interested in learning more about various grain mills, please see my prior posting, Grain Mills for Grinding Corn & Other Grains. Since our family already owns a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, I decided to purchase the grain mill attachment for that device.  It proved very serviceable and I would recommend this to anyone who both owns a Kitchen Aid and is processing only small amounts of grain.

To operate the grinder, you remove a small cover on the front of the stand mixer and insert the grain attachment.  Then tighten the attachment screw on the side of the mixer to lock the grain mill in place.  You then load grain into the hopper at the top of the grain mill and turn the mixer on to full power. 

An auger within the mill drives the grain against a rotating grinding stone that converts the grain into meal or flour.  The coarseness of the grind is controlled by an knob on the front of the mill that adjusts the gap between the grinding stone and the auger -- the smaller the distance, the finer the grind.  The Kitchen Aid grain mill let you adjust the the grind in 12 increments.

One caveat.... some reviewers of the Kitchen Aid grain attachment on Amazon.com mention that they damaged their stand mixers by trying to grind the grain from a kernel to flour in one pass.  At their suggestion, I ground my grain in two stages; first doing a coarse grinding and then adjusting the grinding wheel to produce meal at my desired final level of coarseness.  I found this system worked and did not seem to over-tax the machine. 

Below is a photo of corn meal ground at level #1 (most course)

Below is another photo showing the second grinding at level #6.  This produced meal that was on average about about the size of grains of sand.

One more thing to note... while I was very happy with the results I got using the Kitchen Aid attachment, I'd like to point out that that it does not produce meal that is anywhere near as consistent as commercially purchased corn meal.  Most of the meal will be the size of sand but some will be as fine as flour. As a result, the mouth-feel of polenta (an Italian dish made from boiled corn meal) made from my home-ground meal was different than that produced by store-bought corn meal.  I actually prefer the results from the Kitchen Aid, but those expecting an eating experience that is identical to store purchased corn meal may be disappointed.

My Corn Yield

I'm very pleased with the results of my first experiment growing flint corn, particularly since I grew an heirloom variety (Longfellow) that dates back to the time of the Pilgrims. Calculated on a yield per acre basis, I got 107 bushels per acre from my little suburban plot.  For perspective, the average yield per acre on farms in top corn producing states like Iowa and Illinois is 157 and 164 bushels respectively according to a 2004 study by Purdue University.  Importantly, these yields are for modern corn varieties, not heirloom ones like the variety I grew. Yield per acre has increased steadily over the last 80 years due to the introduction of modern varieties; in the 1930's, farms in Indiana produced just 30 bushels per acre on average according to the same Purdue study.

Corn Math

If you decide to grow flint or dent corn, here is the math you'll need to calculate your yield on a per acre basis.

• Bushel - this was once a volumetric measure but has since been converted to weight because of the inconsistency between crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat.  A bushel of corn is now standardized at 56 pounds per bushel without cob, and 70 pounds per bushel with the cob.
• Acre - There are 43,560 square feet in an acre.
• First calculate your yield in bushels by dividing the weight in pounds of your shelled corn by 56.
• Next calculate the acreage by dividing your garden space measured in square feet by 43,560 square feet.
• Finally, divide the results of the two previous calculations. (Your yield in bushels divided by your space in acres) The result will be a bushels per acre measure that you can use to compare to commercial and/or historical yields.

Photo: Longfellow Flint Corn

Growing Wheat In Your Home Garden

 In this posting, I tell you how to grow wheat in your home garden and provide information about an heirloom variety of that is reputed to be excellent for pasta and bread.

Regular readers of this web site know that I've been experimenting with growing grains in my backyard garden.  In the fall of 2009, I successfully overwintered hulless barley and this Fall, I harvested an heirloom variety of flint corn called "Longfellow." (see below photo)

Since I've been on a bit of roll with these grains, I decided to try my hand at growing wheat.  I choose a variety called Frassinetto for the experiment.  This type of wheat was developed near the town of Frassinetto, Italy in the 1920's and is reputed to be an excellent variety for making pasta or bread.  Frassinetto wheat has a protein content of 14%, a very respectable number, even when compared with modern hybrids.

Planting Wheat

When overwintering wheat, plant 8-12 weeks prior to when the ground freezes.  This allows the plants time to establish themselves before the Winter sets in but keeps the plants small enough so that they are less likely to be blown down by Winter wind and rain. (I cover this topic in greater detail below)

Commercial farmers use seeders to precisely plant seeds.  I planted my wheat by creating rows every 4 inches and dropping seeds about every 4 inches.  This was a reasonably precise, but very tedious approach.  An alternative approach, is to scatter the appropriate quantity of seeds over the area you intend to plant and then rake the seed into the ground. 

I've seen recommended planting rates of anywhere between 2.5 to 10 ounces of seed per 100 square foot plot.  I suspect that the large variation in recommended planting rates reflects differences in planting technique (using a seeder versus raking the seed into the ground) as well as different germination rates between various wheat varieties.  If you decide you want to try your hand at this, here's what I'd recommend...

• If you can plant fairly precisely, plan on using 4-6 ounces of seed per 100 square feet.
• If you plan to cast the seed and rake it into the ground, plan on using 6-10 ounces per 100 square feet.

Whatever approach you take, the seed should be planted at a depth of about 1 to 1.5 inches.

Maturity

When planted in the spring, wheat matures in 16 to 18 weeks.  However, when overwintered, it generally takes between 38 to 42 weeks.  Since I planted my wheat on the first day of Fall, I will probably be harvesting in mid June (somewhere between June 16-June 23).

Yields

Reported wheat yields vary dramatically based on type of wheat grown, location, and weather conditions.  For example, in a trial done in 2009 and 2010 by the University of California, measured wheat yields for various varieties were between 1,300 and 7,600 pounds per acre. (see table below)

Frassinetto was one of the wheat varieties included in the trial and came in at the very low end of the scale, with a yield of just 1,500 pounds per acre.  If I were to achieve the same yield , I would expect to harvest about 3.5 pounds of wheat on my 100 square foot plot.  Pretty meager!

However, the test also included some interesting information that may allow me to bump up my harvest if I intervene effectively. If I can prevent lodging, the yield might rise to something closer to 6 pounds.

The Impact of Lodging & What to Do to Prevent It

In the trial, Frassinetto wheat had a 40% lodging rate versus an average of 6% for all the varieties in the trail. "Lodging" is the term used to describe grain plants that have toppled over.  This can be caused by either the roots of the plant becoming displaced (generally if the soil is very wet) or by the bending and/or breaking of the stalk itself (caused by wind, rain etc.).  Lodging can severely impact grain yield and a shorter varieties of wheat have been developed to help combat the problem.  Not surprisingly, Frassinetto was the tallest wheat included in the trial, growing to 55 inches in height versus and average plant height of 38 inches.

To reduce the chance of lodging, I decided to give the wheat additional support.  To do this, I placed stakes in the ground every few feet and then connected them with yellow twine.  The twine will help keep the wheat stalks standing if they encounter strong winds over the Winter.   I ran the string at two heights -- 16 and 32 inches above the ground.  There's no magic to those particular numbers; I just placed support at about one-third and two-thirds of total estimated height of the plant.

Next summer I'll let you know if this latest experiment in grain growing worked and whether the extra support helped.

Frassinetto and other wheat varieties can be purchased from Sustainable Seed Company if you are interested. 

If you go with other varieties, the University of California data suggests that you could harvest as much as 17 pounds of grain from a 100 square foot plot. 

Flint Corn & Grain Mills Used To Grind Corn, Wheat & Other Grains

In this posting, I'll show some photos of my sweet corn and flint corn and let you know a little about your options to grind flint corn into corn meal.

In a posting last month, Not All Corn is Sweet Corn, I described the types of corn you can grow in your garden (sweet, dent, and flint) and provided basic growing information.  This is my first year growing Flint corn and I'm very pleased with it's progress. 

As the old saying goes, corn should be "knee high by the fourth of July" and mine was.  However, it is now over 9 feet high and I can see tassels forming on the immature ears.  If all goes according to plan, I'll harvest the flint corn at the end of August or early September.

Flint corn is a variety of low sugar corn that is used to make corn bread, polenta and tortillas.  It is left to dry in the field and then ground into meal.

Photo: Old fashioned grist mill located in Sweden

Options To Grind Corn Into Meal

I've been exploring my options for grinding corn and other grains such as wheat, oats and rye and want to let you know what I've learned about the subject.  Here are the main types of grain mills on the market:

Hand Grain Grinders - Hand grain grinders can be less expensive than those that run on electricity and they probably are more durable.  However, it can take 5 minutes to grind just two cups of grain and you'll get a workout in the process.  If you live off the power grid, a hand grinder is your only choice, but for the rest of us, electric is the way to go.  There are three types of grain mills on the market but hand grinders only come in stone and burr varieties. (see below) Manual power does not provide enough speed to drive impact mills.

Electric Grinders - There are several types of electric grinders on the market:

• Stone - This works just like old fashioned water driven grist mills. The grain is ground between two heavy stones.  The bottom stone has grooves in it that become shallower as they radiate from the center of the stone to the outer edge.  When grain is dropped into the mill, it falls into the channels and the rotating top stone progressively grinds the grain into smaller particles as it moves through the narrowing grooves towards the outer edge of the stone. 
  

 

Photo: stone grinding wheels

Stone grain mills are probably the best on the market.  If you plan on grinding lots of grain (from your garden or purchased whole from a health foods store) it's probably worth investing in a stone mill.  A brand that has a good reputation is the Hawo manufactured by Tribest.  There are several models and they cost $400-$600. 

• Burr - work like stone mills but use metal plates instead of stone to do the grinding.  They generally don't grind as finely as stone but they can be a bit little less expensive. 
  

A brand called the Family Grain Mill is made in Germany and has a good reputation.  It is sold as a hand operated device for about $140, but you can add a motorized base if you want to upgrade.  The electric base will set you back another $280.  The Family Grain Mill is probably a good option for those that don't want to invest too much before knowing whether they want to do much grinding.  Go with the manual version and then add the electric base later on. 

• Impact - With impact mills, the grain is pulverized by two metal wheels that have interleaved sets of raised metal plates. There is a small space between the plates and the grain is ground by passing it through these small spaces at very high speed. 
  

Photo: Impact grain mill "stones"

Impact grinders are noisy but they are the least expensive motorized grinders on the market.  They can be purchased for $170-$250 dollars. Nutrimill is a well known brand

Fo Kitchen Aid Mixer Owners

If you have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, you probably know the company sells a variety of attachments such as a pasta cutter, vegetable shredder and meat grinder.  In addition, Kitchen Aid sell a burr-style grain mill attachment that gets decent reviews and costs about $140.  If you already own a Kitchen Aid mixer and don't know if you are going to be grinding much grain, this is probably an excellent way to get started.  Note: Be sure to buy the right attachment for your model of Kitchen Aid mixer.

Since our family owns a stand mixer, this is what we plan to do.  If we find ourselves grinding more grain (homegrown or store bought) we always have the option to upgrade to one of the more expensive stone models and sell the used Kitchen Aid attachment on eBay.

An immature ear of Longfellow corn

Oatmeal from Groats

In April, I posted about my experience growing hulless oats.  I planted oats in a small area of my suburban garden to see if I could successfully overwinter them and also to get a feel for the process of growing grain in a backyard garden.  In this posting, I describe the process of harvesting, threshing and winnowing the grain.  I also share some a tip about how to cook it.

So What Are Groats

When oats are first harvested, they have hulls covering the inner seed.  With these hulls on, oats are called "whole oats."  Once the hulls have been removed, the oats look very similar to rice grains.  In this stage, they are called "groats."   Groats can be eaten as is, or further processed as follows:

• Steel-Cut oats - have been processed by slicing the groats into smaller chunks.    If you've ever had McCann's Irish Oatmeal, these are steel-cut oats. Quaker Oats also sells steel cut oats, but I've never seen these in my local grocery store.
• Rolled oats - This is what most people call oatmeal.  The groats are first steamed and then run through metal rollers to flatten them out.  Quaker Old Fashioned oatmeal is rolled oats.
• Oat Flour - Oats can also be made into flour by grinding the groats into a fine powder.

Harvesting Oats

When the oats have turned a golden color in the field, it's time to test to determine if they are ready for harvest.  You do this by hulling a few seed heads and then pinching the seed.  If it produces a milky white liquid, the oats are not ready to harvest.  If the oat is soft and doughy, then the you're ready to cut and harvest and dry your oats.

I harvested using a hand scythe.  For a small suburban plot, a hand scythe works just fine.  Alternatively, you can use an electric weed trimmer.  Whatever implement you use, once cut, bundle the oats together with some twine and store in a dry place for a few weeks.  This process drives additional moisture from the grain. 

Threshing and Winnowing

Threshing is the process of removing the grain from the seed head and the chaff (stalk).  There are many ways to do this.  Since I had a very small amount of grain to process, I just stripped the seed heads from the chaff by hand and then rubbed the grain together in a pillow case to remove the hull from the grain.  (I placed the seed heads in the pillow case and rubbed the outside until the hulls fell from the seed.)

For larger quantities, the traditional way of removing the hulls is to use a flail to beat the hull from the grain.  A flail is a three foot long piece of wood attached to a two foot long piece of wood by a metal chain or leather thong.  A plastic baseball bat can also be used.

Once the grain has been threshed, you need to separate the seeds from the hulls and stalks. This process is called winnowing.  The idea is to blow away the chaff and hulls from the grain.  I did this using an electric fan and a plastic serving tray. 

To do this, turn on the electric fan and drop some of the threshed grain in front of the blowing fan.  Since the chaff and hulls are light, they will blow away and the the heavier seeds will fall down into a tray beneath the fan (see below illustration from book Home Grown Whole Grains)  I winnowed further by shaking the tray in front of the fan in a process that resembles panning for gold.  At the end of the process, all that's left in the tray was groats.

Storing Oats

Once removed from the hull, oats will go bad in four or five days unless you do something to stabilize them (oil in the grain goes rancid).  Commercial grain sellers put the grain into a kiln, or hot oven, but the easiest storage technique for home growers is to put grain into a plastic bag and store it in the freezer.

Photo: Raw Groats

 Cooking Oats

As mentioned above, you can process oats further, but we decided to just cook the groats as is.  You can cook groats in a pot on the stove but we used an electric rice cooker to do the job.  Just place an equal amount of groats and water into the rice cooker and turn it on.  The rice cooker does all the work and in about an hour we had delicious cooked groats. 

Photo: Rice cooker

My daughter had the groats with Cinnamon and sugar.  My son had them with maple syrup and apples and my wife had them as a savory breakfast by topping with a little butter, salt and pepper.  Oats cooked this way were a total winner; everyone loved eating them versus traditional rolled oat oatmeal.  Groats have a much nuttier flavor and are far more tooth-sum - no mushy oatmeal texture.

If you have access to a health foods store, you can probably buy groats and try them before attempting to grow your own. 

Best wishes to all my readers on Independence Day.

Photo: cooked groats

Not All Corn Is Sweet Corn

Every year I grow sweet corn in my garden.  However, this year, I'm also growing a variety of corn that is not meant to be eaten fresh and is not sweet at all.  In this posting, I'll discuss different types of corn that can be grown in the home garden.

Let's face it, homegrown tomatoes and sweet corn are the reason most of us get started in vegetable gardening.   Each year, I grow a variety of sweet corn called Silver Queen.  It's a very popular regional variety that was grown extensively in the mid-Atlantic states.  I won't go into detail about this variety since it is well known.  However, I grow it both for its wonderful flavor and for sentimental reasons. 

My first taste of homegrown sweetcorn was as a teenager.  My father and I visited his friend and fishing buddy Tom Cofield, at his home in Maryland.  Tom and his wife prepared Silver Queen as part of the meal and I probably ate 4 ears that night, forcing the Cofields back into the kitchen to make another batch.  In addition to being a very nice guy, Tom was Outdoor Editor for the Baltimore News, an avid fisherman and hunter, and, with Lefty Krey, co-developer of the "Deceiver," a classic salt water fly lure.  Thanks Tom for introducing me to this wonderful variety.

Not All Corn Is Sweet Corn

While most gardeners grow sweet corn (Zea Saccharata) like Silver Queen, it's also possible to grow other types that are higher in starch and lower in sugar.  These varieties of corn have a sugar content of about 4% versus sweet corn that has a sugar content of about 10%.  Starchy corn varieties are used for making corn meal that goes into dishes such as tortillas, tamales, polenta, and hominy grits.  Actually, there are three types of high starch corn:

1. Flint Corn (Zea Mays Indurata) - has a very hard outer layer and very low moisture content.  It is sometimes referred to as calico corn or India corn and comes in a variety of colors including yellow, red, orange and blue/purple.  Flint corn dates back thousands of years and was the corn eaten by the first colonists at Plymouth Massachusetts.  These first settlers adapted corn to traditional english recipes, replacing oats with corn for porridge or wheat in pancakes.  Corn eaten in this fashion was probably part of the first Thanksgiving meal.
2. Dent Corn (Zea Mays Indentata) - is softer than flint corn and each kernel has a small indentation on the top of the kernel from which it gets its name. (see photo below) Dent corn is generally white or yellow but is used in the same way as flint corn - ground into flour for use in pancakes, bread, etc. 
   
3. Popcorn (Zea Mays Everta) - popcorn is an extreme form of flint corn with a soft starchy center and a very hard exterior.  When the kernel is heated, moisture inside builds up pressure until the kernel explodes.

Photo: Flint corn from Slow Food USA web site.

Photo: From Seeds of Change web site showing SOC Oaxacan Green corn clearly showing the "dent" on the top of the kernel.

Longfellow Flint Corn 

Flint and dent corn can be purchased from a variety of suppliers including Johnny's Selected Seeds, Seeds of Change, Sand Hill Preservation, and Victory Seed.  Varieties of dent corn include: Bloody Butcher, Silver King, Hickory King, and flint corn: Blue Hopi, Dakota White, and Apache.

I'm growing a variety of flint corn called Longfellow.  This variety has golden-orange kernels on a cob that is about 12 inches in length.  It is an heirloom variety from New England and grows to 8 feet in height in approximately 110 days.  Sadly, this venerable old flint corn variety is disappearing rapidly (It's on Slow Foods list of 1,000 unique American seeds, fruits, nuts, livestock and game that are threatened)  I purchased Longfellow seeds 2 years ago from Baker Creek but they no longer offer this variety.  Sand Hill Preservation will also occasionally have it for sale. 

 

Photo: From the Living Crop Museum web site, Wilmington College of Ohio

Growing & Harvesting:

Flint & dent corns are grown just like sweet corn:

•  Sow directly into the garden when the weather has warmed up and there is no danger of frost. (soil temperature over 60 degrees Fahrenheit)
• Plant in blocks to ensure good pollination.  Plant seeds about 1 inch deep and 15 inches apart or every 7 inches apart in rows spaced every 30 inches.
• Corn requires lots of nitrogen, so apply compost prior to sowing.
• Allow corn to dry in the field for several frosts prior to harvesting.  Then husk and leave in a covered area to complete drying.
• Once dried, the corn can be ground using a hand turned grain mill ($70 and up) or grain attachment for your Kitchen Aid mixer ($130).
  

Oats on the Way: An Experiment Growing Grain In Suburbia

In the fall of last year, I planted a small amount of oats as an experiment to see if I could overwinter them.  As the days have gotten longer, the oats are now shooting up.  In this posting, I'll let you know a little bit about timing a grain harvest.

I've never grown grain other than corn until this past year, so I've been watching the progress of my first crop with great enthusiasm.  Because I want to process the grain with a minimum amount of effort, I'm growing a variety of oat called Avena Nuda, which goes by the common name "hulless oats."   Actually, the oat does have a hull but it is much more delicate than traditional oats and can be removed by simply rubbing the oats between your fingers.    This weekend, I checked the oats and determined that they are not yet ready for harvest. Here's how you tell...

 As grain matures, it moves from a "milk" stage to a "dough" stage and then finally to a stage when the grain is hard called "dead ripe."  The milk stage is immature; when you press on the grain, a milky fluid will emerge from the kernel.  At the dough stage, the kernel is soft and can be dented with a fingernail, but there is no milk present.  Finally, at the dead ripe stage, the kernel is hard. 

Oats are harvested when the kernel is at the dough stage.  This is usually when the oats are 2"-5 feet high and the leaves of the plant have begun to turn brown.  Once harvested, the grain is cut, tied in bundles and allowed to cure where it will not be rained upon for several days to several weeks depending on the temperature and humidity.  When the grain reaches the "dead ripe" stage, it is ready for threshing.

Below is a close up photo of one of the kernels.  I could tell from the color it was not ready yet, but for the purpose of illustration, I pressed down on the grain and it did in fact prove to be at the milk stage.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of this first grain harvest and let you know how to thresh and grind grain.  Hopefully, this will inspire you to add grain to your garden as well.