Hello, and welcome to the Los Angeles Bread Bakers blog! On this blog, we will be chronicling our journey growing wheat in Southern California, discussing the meaning of this endeavor, and explaining both our process and the history behind this important experiment. Look forward to information on California landrace wheat, photographs from planting and—eventually—harvesting, and figures and facts about the project.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Grain at your Front Door
One of our goals is to grow “local”
wheat.Here’s another way go local:Plant a Plot of Good Grain! Right in your back yard. Or your front yard or side yards. In pots and window boxes.
Your acreage may not be large,
but wheat is decorative landscaping, good for the soil, a nice garden backdrop,
attractive along walls and fences.
And it is a good start toward
making your yard edible.
Prepare the soil as you would
for garden crops.Plant wheat seeds one
and one-half inches deep, about two inches apart.Experts recommend about 36 seeds per square
foot.Give your plot or pot a thorough
watering to get the seed going, then sit back and enjoy watching it grow.Wheat in the ground needs water only every
couple of weeks, and, unlike that old fashioned lawn, you don’t have to mow it.Wheat will be ready to harvest in 4 to 6
months, but in the meantime, it will put on a nice show.
Do you need a reason to plant
You’ll be helping maintain grain
diversity.You can grow very rare
varieties of wheat, find out how they do in our climate, taste ancient grains
like Emmer or Kamut as a cereal, bowl of grain salad, or a tasty flatbread. You can supply kernels to a seed exchange.(One 3’
by 3’ plot, can grow 2500 seeds.)
Where to get seed?
Bob’s Red Mill grains test as
lively and viable, and they include Spelt, Kamut, and grains like Amaranth
Heirloom & ancient wheat
seed can be purchased from several suppliers:
Rare seed is sold in packets of 300
seeds, enough for ten square feet, or a few large pots.You might be the first in your neighborhood
to harvest Russian Vavilov, Alaskan Spelt, Black Einkorn, or Brazilian Amber.
So join this grass roots
revolution.Grow a patch of wheat.Seed savers and seed banks will thank
you.Your 300 seeds could yield two or three
pounds.Working together we can find
larger plots where we can grow that into three hundred pounds.That half ounce of rare wheat seed has been
multiplied by almost ten thousand, providing enough for a farmer to plant three
acres, and that could yield three tons of that rare wheat seed which cost you,
the initiating grower, $3.50.
You can tell your kids and your
neighbors that you did your part in restoring one of the great wheats of the