Hey Marshall !!

[digitS']

And, anyone else who wants to chime in !

My Hulless Oats are up!

I seem to have deleted the pictures of the oats last year. Here's the thread: Nude Avena

I have a question about pole beans: Do you know what the relationship is between Rattlesnake, Oregon Giant, and Cascade Giant varieties?

Steve

 

[ninnymary]

Steve, you know I am always fascinated when I see your rocks! How do you plant seeds in them? Is it hard to do so? Do the rocks make it hard to plant in rows? It is just very hard for me to imagine planting in soil like that. Yet you seem to be very successful at it.

Mary

 

[897tgigvib]

Today I was able to make out teeny green grassy leaves just emerging.

I planted mine a bit differently. One, two, or three seeds every 4 or 5 inches or so both ways, depending on how many seeds slipped into place in my hand. Kind of expecting uneven emergence. A couple nights it got down to 39, and we had a couple drizzly days, but today warmed back up.

The Hulless Oats and Quinoa are new crops for me.

This summer I am purchasing a hand cranked Oat Roller. I already purchased my hand cranked oil press mainly for the Sunflower seeds, but it'll make oil from a good number of other seeds. I seriously want to try making Fennel Seed oil!

 

[digitS']

I'll start with the oats. I don't know if it was on the linked thread from 2011 but I used them as one might brown rice.

There is a hull - it just isn't like the hull with other oats. I had to dry them thoroughly before pounding on them, winnowing, and then going over them by hand. It was a bit tedious. I have to say that I've just grabbed a head of wheat, rubbed it between my hands for 15 seconds, blew away the chaff, dropped the seed into my mouth, and began chewing. That was wheat - not oats, however.

Once I got a cup or so cleaned, I cooked the oats like rice and since it seemed so much like brown rice - just used them in a very tasty rice salad . I didn't have enuf to do more than that and what is growing here will be used for some autumn wreaths. There should be a little extra seed for another brown rice salad .

Oil!!! Next you will be telling us about your biodiesel generator and moped, Marshall !

Mary, I have a hard time remembering gardening in any other soil! When I moved to my present home, I was relieved to know that the soil here had rocks . . . I was afraid that I'd moved to a part of this valley that has sand.

Whether it is more like "pea gravel" as in one garden or heavier stuff like in that picture - there is some clay that is mixed into it. If the snow has recently melted when the ground is first cultivated, the rocks are covered with dirt. After about 1/2 inch of rain has fallen on them, the rocks on the surface are washed clean. There they lie looking like a stone mulch.

If they are much larger than about 1" and have been pulled over the seeds, the rocks can really interfere with germination. I use a rake to cover the seed and try to just keep the rocks moving. Hopefully, the lighter soil is what drops off over the seeds. I don't work too hard at completely removing the rocks because -- I can't! They go down hundreds of feet and must comprise about 1/2 of what is in every cubic foot! My gardens are several thousand square feet. I don't even want to think about how many rocks there are in the top foot of soil in that amount of area :/.

The seedlings pop up fairly well. I think that the roots of the plants may have a fairly easy time working their way down amongst the rocks.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

No Biodiesel generator here...but it has been kicking around in my Neanderthal brain for decades to grow ethanol and fix my motors to high compression and other modifications so I can thumb my nose up at the oil bazillionaires!

The oil thing is for edible vegetable oils, absolutely fresh, and eventually oils made from seeds with flavors, such as Mint oilseed, Fennel oilseed, and I can try things like Basil oilseed.

The Oat Roller is in the Lehman catalog, that squarish looking one. Not sure yet which Corn Grinder to get, but it'll be a good one, but not a 500 dollar one either.

Thank you for the info about thresshing the hulless oats by hand.

My seed for them came from Bountiful Gardens. I went to their office in Willits to get them.

The Breadseed Poppy have not yet sprouted.