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.
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!
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.
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| Making seed balls |
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| Creating furrows |
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| Seeding |
Julia and I celebrated a day well-done with ice cream bars and hitting the hay (by spreading it on the field). Go team!
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