Cleaning and Millet Project event

Grain Lung reporting here. Between the milling and cleaning, my lungs are stuffed to the max with particulates. Respirators helped a bit, but these small particles are inescapable.

After milling on Friday, I spent the weekend at Open Field Farm cleaning all my grains. There's a two screen cleaner that essentially shakes grain through two perforated screens to separate the wheat from unwanted material.

The top screen, called the "Scalper", lets grain fall through the holes and the large things surf on top and fall into a tray that spills out one side. The bottom screen has holes too small for grain to fit through, but allows small objects like mustard seeds to go through while the grains fall into another area to be collected in a bin. A fan blows across the second screen to push out light matter that made it through the scalper. So, you have 3 elements of separation: one of big things, one for small things, one for light things. This works assuming that what you don't want is the same size and weight as the wheat.

That wasn't the case for me. Mustard was the same size as red fife and so I was losing red fife with one screen, gaining mustard with another. Lots of screen changing, wind shifting, and reruns. I'm thinking of starting a mustard business.

Mustard seed and grains caught in screen

After five hours of this, I had to hit the road for the Millet Project event at UC Berkeley's Gill Tract in Albany, CA. I'm so glad I went! A bunch of my friends showed up in support and I tried many millet-based edibles, including millet beer. And it was heartening to see that many people are interested in seed diversification. Many people talked to me about my farm and want to support my efforts to grow Southeast Asian crops. A couple took a photo of the farm name, Ca Phao Farm, because they love Vietnamese plants. Can't wait to have even more next year. Great work, Millet team!

Japanese Millet

Pearl Millet