Nude Avena

[digitS']

Terra Hulless Oats (Avena nuda)

Fedco Seed says, "It is probably the earliest as well as the highest yielding with the largest seed. This high-protein grain with pleasing flavor is easier to thresh than most other oats, though it still has a small hull which must be removed."

I don't know . . . the seed they sent me in the packet didn't look like anything that I could easily hull and throw in a pot for breakfast mush .

The packet was ignored until very late so these have just headed out. Isn't that color nice? I've always enjoyed that about oats, especially when I had acres of it. Now, just this tiny row.

I have been telling DW that the Avena nuda had better do well or we wouldn't have anything for breakfast thru the winter .

Steve

 

[momofdrew]

I have never grown oats... not enough room.. how do you harvest it?

 

[digitS']

I just ran the combine thru it, Pam.

Half-ton an acre dry farming . . .


Steve

Oh! You mean this little row in the garden!!

I'll get to that - before the weekend is over, promise.

 

[Southern Gardener]

 

[digitS']

Before grain begins to drop its seed - I'll cut it, tie a piece of baling twine around it, bring it home and hang it in the carport. Here was the wheat harvest a year of 2 ago:

Once it has finished drying, I'll throw the sheaf out on a tarp covering a concrete floor and walk on it. Beat it a little with a board . . . Then, gather the seed and chaff into a bucket. The straw can be tossed at this point.

The grain goes up to the top of a ladder and I pour it back down on the clean tarp. Or, I go as high up on the ladder as is necessary for the wind to carry the chaff away. This will probably need to be repeated once or twice.

That's how I do it .

Steve

 

[Greenthumb18]

Wow Steve! that is quite amazing. I wish I had more room it would be nice to have an area with wheat growing in there. What do you use the wheat berries for, make flour? And the straw do you use it for livestock or maybe as mulch in the garden.

Nice picture!

 

[digitS']

Greenthumb, this is the 1st year in about 10 when I have not had black-tip wheat.

There are thousands upon thousands of acres of wheat in eastern Washington. And in my garden . . . I've got several square feet. There might have been 100 square feet last year that produced that crop hanging there under the roof.

The chickens get some of it - it is favored by them above the millet that I have also had forever. They would eat all of both except DW has other (ornamental) uses for the grain.

My grain crops now may include the naked seed oats. I've just got to figure out if it is useful. (Or, have DW tell me that it is .)

Steve

 

[lesa]

One year I planted winter wheat. It was so pretty in the spring, I never got around to tilling it in. When it was ready to be harvested I was thrilled. Thought it would make great arrangements. Waited a couple days more to harvest- went out to find it all flattened and ruined!! Lesson learned- when it is standing tall and looks wonderful, don't wait! It won't get any better!

 

[digitS']

Lesa, I know of only 1 other person who has grown this nuda Avena. He says there are now volunteers all over his garden!

I don't suppose that is a good thing. In the garden as in the rest of life, timing is everything.

The finches let me know when to harvest the millet. I've got about 3 days, tops! They will move in and take it all if I don't carry it off with the 1st sign that they think it is ready.

For arrangements, having some green in the stems is a good thing and it indicates that the seed is still fast in the head. It will just take some experience to know when to harvest. Farmers talk about "in the milk" and "in the dough" - all testing between the index finger and the thumbnail. That should be good enuf for food. Ornamentation, however, is not quite the same thing.

Steve :rainbow-sun

 

[digitS']

I decided that the best thing for me to do with the naked seed oats is get some more seed from it. So, I left it right up until it began to shatter.

This is very late to harvest but I planted this very, very late. I've still got millet that hasn't even made heads! That stuff had better hurry up. Like corn, it won't survive a frost.

Brought it home wrapped with baling twine but separated it into 4 bunches and used rubber bands for hanging. That is probably what is on that wheat last year. Rubber bands do a better job holding onto the stems as they shrink with drying.

In a couple weeks, I'll beat the seeds out of these sheaves and we will see what those seeds look like. I'll be happy to sample them at the table . I hope that they aren't too fibrous. Maybe I can plant a hundred square feet in '12. That might make a contribution to winter breakfasts!

Steve