Topic: wheat,corn,cereals,etc?

[Si D]

Name a type of veg and I'm sure someone will put their hand up to say that they've had a go at growing it.

But I've never seen any reference to anyone growing cereals on a lottie.  Just wondering why?  Is it that it takes up too much space to provide a good harvest?  Is it just very difficult to grow. Or is the processing of it it after harvest too difficult?

Indeed, what sized area does it take to product the average loaf of bread or bowl of porridge?

[Barnowl]

Don't quote me on this, but if you get an average yield of about 3 tons of wheat to an acre, I think that works out at about 2.5 oz of grain per square foot.
 
Assuming wholemeal, so all the grain is used, if you used a 4ft x 8ft bed that would produce about 5lbs of flour.

How many loaves would that be?

[Barnowl]

PS 3 tons per acre is pretty high although by intensive farming yields can hit 4 tonnes per acre. I think around 2 tons is the norm in the UK, but stand ready to be corrected - my farming days were a few decades ago

[Si D]

Assuming wholemeal, so all the grain is used, if you used a 4ft x 8ft bed that would produce about 5lbs of flour.

thanks
5lbs is arounf 2 and 1/2 bags I'd guess so not too bad but a smaller yield than spuds in terms of cals, and much more agro to turn it into flour!

[Thegoodlife]

wheat harvest only hit around the 2-2.1/2 an acre 3-4tonne is the norm this year due to the summer & some fields up here in donny after the floods were black & no good for nothing. wouldn't bother growing any cereals on a plot as there are a number of issues that can pop up disease,brown rust etc & aphid attack, not forgetting a free for all for the rats ,mice, crows, sparrows etc.

also i dont think they do an allotment size combine ;D ;D

I would go to your local farm in the summer & ask if you can have some im sure they would be happy to help.

but if you do go ahead with the idea then let us know how you get on

[asbean]

This year we're going to have a go at rice - got the seeds:

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/product/663

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

the plotholder next to me grew wheat. She had terrible trouble finding someone to grind it into flour for her. Just a few loavesworth, possibly for Wicca ceremonial purposes

[Eristic]

Don't forget that a byproduct of growing wheat is wheat straw. The art and craft departments can pay more for the full length straw than the farmer gets for the corn and the straw combined. (joke).

[powerspade]

I have been hoping to grow Wheat to have a supply of straw but I am having problems finding a supplier. Any one know of a supply?

[robkb]

the plotholder next to me grew wheat. She had terrible trouble finding someone to grind it into flour for her. Just a few loavesworth, possibly for Wicca ceremonial purposes

There's a book called "Close To The Veg" where an allotmenteer describes the same problem. The wheat grew well, but when it came to making it into flour he reckoned it was so much trouble it wasn't worth the effort.

Cheers,
Rob ;)

[Baccy Man]

the plotholder next to me grew wheat. She had terrible trouble finding someone to grind it into flour for her. Just a few loavesworth, possibly for Wicca ceremonial purposes

There's a book called "Close To The Veg" where an allotmenteer describes the same problem. The wheat grew well, but when it came to making it into flour he reckoned it was so much trouble it wasn't worth the effort.

Cheers,
Rob ;)

Grinding it is easy (although I have a grain mill) the problem is the low yield even if you covered your entire plot in it you would only get a few pounds of flour.

Powerspade you can buy wheat seeds from any agricultural suppliers or most farmers will sell you small quantities or you can buy it as bird feed.
If you have difficulty fining it then this company sells 25KG sacks for £12
http://www.food4wildbirds.co.uk/whole-wheat-p-2012.html

[jeanaustin]

Hi
We carried out a 'growing wheat, harvesting it, making flour and cooking with it' project on our allotments last year, in conjunction with pupils from two local schools (one is for pupils with special and additional needs of all ages, the other infant age) who visit our allotments.
We grew our wheat (seed was provided by a local farmer and we sowed it in September 2006) in two areas:  one was in our wildlife area where we cultivated an area and sowed the seeds - in this area we also grew with it cornfield annuals (corn cockle, poppies and corn marigold) to show the pupils what an old fashioned corn field would look like but we were able to harvest some of the ears of wheat although the local population of bank voles got most.  The other area was on an allotment, growing it in rows - this we cut by hand and made into sheaves and allowed these to dry.  The pupils visited several times whilst the corn was growing and watched its progress.

We then had pupils in small groups with supervision and threshed it, the pupils each had a tray and extracted the grains by hand and this was then winnowed to remove the chaff.  The grains were milled by the pupils using two hand mills, one was an old 'corn sample mill' (looks like a mincer) and the other a stone hand mill.  The flour then needs to be seived to remove the very coarse bran. 

We did 'cheat' a bit with the infant school pupils - due to time and the fact that they did the threshing etc at our allotments - and we had previously milled some of the corn and made it into biscuits - adding about an equal amount of ordinary flour.

With the other pupils, we ran the project several times with small groups of pupils and we carried out the threshing, winnowing, milling processes at their school with them; one of the groups then used to flour to make pancakes - which they all decided were delicious, the other groups were going to use their flour in their cookery lessons later.  They all had very great fun.

Its not really economical for the amount of grain you'll get to grow wheat on an allotment but for a fun thing, its an interesting project.   

[loopyloulou]

simon, knowing ur local, i regularily visit the newhall mill in the newhall valley on theyre open days (the kids adore a free visit to a working flour mill, complete with a go at the old stone hand gridnding jobby and watching the water turn the wheel and so on and so forth, anyhoo, they have a local farm that donates the stuff to them and pots of seeds for visitors to fondle, might be worth asking them? the flour we buy from there is coarse and we were advised it was best for crumbles but it is delish and you donate what you see fair but we love it so much (the whole day) that wed pay more than shop bought just to help make sure they keep going! anyhoo point is theyd possibly be the people to ask, can hunt for a website (its here somewhere in my tumbleweed favourites box...) or if is just the flour youre after go on the open days stock up and enjoy having someone else do the hard work 4u :D anyhoo hope that helps :D anyone else wanting the website just for a ganders more than welcome! lou x  :)

[powerspade]

Thnxs for the info Baccy Man

[Si D]

simon, knowing ur local, i regularily visit the newhall mill in the newhall valley on theyre open days (the kids adore a free visit to a working flour mill, complete with a go at the old stone hand gridnding jobby and watching the water turn the wheel and so on and so forth, anyhoo, they have a local farm that donates the stuff to them and pots of seeds for visitors to fondle, might be worth asking them? the flour we buy from there is coarse and we were advised it was best for crumbles but it is delish and you donate what you see fair but we love it so much (the whole day) that wed pay more than shop bought just to help make sure they keep going! anyhoo point is theyd possibly be the people to ask, can hunt for a website (its here somewhere in my tumbleweed favourites box...) or if is just the flour youre after go on the open days stock up and enjoy having someone else do the hard work 4u :D anyhoo hope that helps :D anyone else wanting the website just for a ganders more than welcome! lou x  :)

Thanks Lou.  I've always wanted to visit the mill but its open days always correspond with me being elsewhere - I must make more of an effort really. 
BTW, nice to see another local - which site is your plot on?