Lentils

Harvesting with Hege

We went to harvest today because forecasts predicted some rain.  The ripest of the crop at this point are the lentils.  Alas, the lentil plants were short and close to the ground, so we harvested pounds of dirt along with the few lentils that hadn't dropped.  Wild radish and morning glories choked out many of the lentils, making up a plurality of collected material.  After a full day of sitting on a combine in the hot, humid heat, Doug declared the lentils a crop failure. 

Lentil and Weed Cohabitation

Sad salad

Close-up of this awful salad

Solar drying

Ripe lentil plant

French green

Green (I know they don't look green, but that's the type!)

We received a tip to till or disk a shallow layer before planting, thereby disturbing the layer the lentils will grow in and exposing weed seeds.  Then, we're to propagate the weeds by watering them, only to mow them once they've grown.  That way the seed will be used up without creating more seeds.  Too bad all the other seeds will last 50-100 years.