Comic therapy

Remember how I said I think blackberry removal is like zombie slaying? I started a comic strip about it.

Stay tuned!

New and old

I planted the rest of the millet in a recently disced plot in time for the rain! Hopefully the birds won't eat all the seed.

The red fife is sparse, I'm guessing because it needed more cold than we got. Sonora is still grassy and green, a few sending up flag leaves. The rye, however, is a giant that comes up to my chest and has heads. The Triple IV has heads and looks like a good stand. They reached anthesis or flowering a couple weeks ago, with their anthers hanging out. The rains knocked off all anthers, which left me concerned that they didn't get pollinated in time and begin producing kernels. But, as I've learned from farming, don't freak out until you really need to freak out. So I messaged the North Coast Grain Growers group about whether the lost anthers affected yields. O.J. Lougheed assured me that the grains pollinated before dropping anthers, so I should be nice. Phew!

Triple IV

I spend most of my time removing blackberries cropping up in the field so that they don't impede harvest. I imagine myself as a zombie slayer, returning these resurrected roots to the earth. Perhaps I can come up with short films spoofing farm work.

Lately, I've dedicated myself to building the North Coast Heritage Grain Alliance. There are many burgeoning grain operations, but in order to grow we need shared processing equipment (because buying something alone creates a big hole in your wallet) and to learn this lost practice from each other and together. Much education among ourselves and to the public about whole grains is key to securing cereals for food security. So, I've been calling up old farmers to seek advice and working with new farmers to create a processing facility. The long-time, big growers tell me it's going to fail, but it could work if all the small growers coordinate and connect with our neighbors to provide healthful, wholesome grains.

The Millet Project

So far, two great things have come from contacting Ann Thrupp at Berkeley's Food Institute. 1) I got introduced to Nina Ichikawa, a strong supporter of immigrant farmers through her policy work and journalism.  2) I was introduced to Amrita Hazra of the Berkeley Millet Project. Amrita asked me if I'd be interested in running a test site for growing millet. My answer: Yes!

Millet is eaten throughout much of Asia and many parts of Europe. It was a Chinese staple for 8,000 years! It's not a surprise considering that it's drought tolerant and doesn't mind highly alkaline or acidic soils. Many people around the world, though mostly outside of North America, still heavily rely on millet as a staple in their diet. As a farmer who aims to grow culturally-appropriate food using place-appropriate techniques, millet sounded like a great crop to experiment with.

I originally intended to test the millet at my site, but I thought it might be a good way to promote Julia's experimental farm, Yokayo Ranch, as a research site available to university researchers. Plus, she has horses, and who doesn't get interested by that? I asked Julia if she'd like to participate, and with her ok, I created a planting procedure and coordinated a work day in which the researchers could come see our site.

I'm interested in seeing how millet grows when directly sown into soil at 1 inch depth, when made into seed balls coated in nutrients, and when planted into roller-crimped rows. Of the non-roller crimped area, to see if straw coverings make a difference.

Patricia and Gavin of The Millet Project joined us on Monday, Apr 20 (a sensible day to be in Mendocino) for lunch, cultivation, seed preparation, and planting. I had fun hanging out with them and appreciated their curiosity and enthusiasm about millet, but from very different angles. Patricia is a chemist who works on biofuels, while Gavin is a Haas business student who is interested in small food businesses. Between all of us, we're interested in making more millet available to eat!

After lunch, we prepared our seed batches by making seed balls. Aubrey, one of the farm staff at Yokayo Ranch, ran the cement mixer that we put all the seed ball ingredients into.

Making seed balls

Creating furrows

Seeding

After we placed seed into four 36" rows for each variety, we filled the furrows with dirt to hopefully protect from birds. We'd like to dry farm the millet, but we're unlikely to get rain for months; we'll irrigate to jump start germination, then leave the rest to nature.

Julia and I celebrated a day well-done with ice cream bars and hitting the hay (by spreading it on the field). Go team!

Triple IV Heads

The typical stages of grain growth goes as follows:

• Tillering stage: one leaf, tillering
• Stem extension: nodes appear, flag leaf
• Booting: first awns visible
• Inflorescence
• Athesis: flowers pop out
• Milk development: gets plump and milky if squished
• Dough: plump seeds
• Heading: head is 1/2 out
• Ripening: hard kernels

The Triple IV heads are already out, whereas the Red Fife on the south side is still in the tillering stage.

Dough before dough before dough$

 

April showers bring mustard

The rains reinvigorated all the plants, including, of course, the weeds. It's promising, however, to see grain heads pop out. I enjoy seeing them peek out from the stalks, which is shown in the photo above. On the left is a small braid, next to it an unabashed display, and in front of that a spiraled leaf atop an emerging head.

Rye is stunted. Mustard patch in the distance

Mushroom logs

Melange of green

FIeld progress

Mar 9

Red Fife

Mar 12

A little unhappy before the last rain

Sheep corral area is free of mustard

Mar 26

Red Fife (with extra mustard) after recent rain