Saturday, November 6, 2010

Harvesting After Frost - Coriander and Wheat

Hard frost has hit, but gardening work continues for a while longer. Compost has been spread on the garden (note to self, take frequent breaks to save the back). Leaf raking in process.

Neighbour's Mountain Ash (aka Rowan, Genus: Sorbus), not sure which species. The photos were taken during a brilliant rose-coloured sunrise. The photos are shown as-is, unedited.

Harvesting continues. The coriander (cilantro) is at perfect harvesting conditions, falling off the plant with relatively little effort (relative to the wheat harvesting).





Below is Threshing Box Experiment #1 for the wheat. Should be self-explanatory from the photos.


I have not got around to winnowing the grain yet. Not sure if there is really any easy way to do this. No matter what method, it is time and labour intensive at this scale. Harvesting machines rank high on the labour-savingness scale. So far my other half has been meticulously separating the hulls from the grains during the occasional movie watching.

Utrecht Blue Wheat (above) after hard frost. Quinoa behind and on the right.

5 comments:

The Blog Fodder said...

Wonderful photos. Happy harvesting. Do you have a Canadian Wheat Board permit book, by the way? Then you are a real farmer and can deduct some expenses.

Jake said...

The wheat looks great, have some I plan to grow next season! Keep up the good work!

gardener said...

Thanks for posting the pic of the Utrecht Blue Wheat. I've ordered these seeds from Salt Spring Seeds – enough for a pot on the balcony this year. Beautiful blue. Did you have any problems growing the wheat?

Jo said...

Balcony Gardener: The Utrecht Blue Wheat was easy to grow. Considering it is a type of grass, treat it similar to growing grass (regular watering in early stages).

Toward the end of summer, when the heads have filled out, stop watering it so that it will turn golden and blue colour.

Anonymous said...

I pity your wife's fingers. I've been doing the same thing with some Utrecht that I grew last year.
The seed arrived as portions from the heads not just the kernals as you'd expect wheat to be. I now understand why it came that way.
Utrecht is a very PRETTY wheat. But like all things pretty, is high maintenance.