Plant in fall or as soon as the ground can be worked in springtime. It helps harvesting if you plant in rows, but it’s not necessary, nor is thinning. If you are buying grains from a local supplier, ask for information on height and best varieties for garden sowing. Harvesting


You have a couple of options when it


comes to harvesting. Harvest grains like oats before they are quite ripe (you will be able to dent a grain with a fingernail) to prevent too much grain loss. If you leave them to get fully ripe, the grains will fall before you can collect them. Barley, on the other hand, is much better


left to ripen fully before cutting. After cutting the stalks down, leave them to cure, which is what farmers used to do with “stooking”, or stacking sheaves in an upright position to allow the grain to cure or dry. Once the grain is dead ripe (seeds will be


brittle and too hard to dent with a finger- nail), whether still growing or curing, you will need to thresh it to beat away the grain from the stalks and the hulls. Some people use the foot stomping method – put the grain in a box or on a clean, abrasive surface and rub the grains together, even between gloved hands for small amounts, to remove the hulls or stalks. Finally, you have to separate the grain


from the chaff – left over bits of stalk and hull – perhaps using a fan, a hair dryer or the wind, to blow the light chaff away from the grain as you drop it from one pan to an- other.


Wheat Decide whether you want to plant winter


or spring wheat. The hard red varieties are what is mainly grown in Canada. Both are good for making general purpose flour to make bread. One variety is Marquis wheat, which was the staple variety on the prairies


Two rows of barley growing in an inhospitable space.


before all the hybrids came in. Oats


Look for ‘Toral’ oats, a tall, stiff-stemmed


grain which ripens in mid-season. This va- riety is hull-less, again, keeping harvesting and processing less complicated. ‘Streaker’ is another hull-less varieity Barley


The easiest barley to deal with is a new


variety called ‘Sunshine’, which is hull-less, early maturing, six-row head type with rough awns (beards).


Clockwise: Rye, another potential back yard crop, oats and, bottom right, wheat. Another choice is waxy hull-less barley,


sold as Super Barley, which offers high nu- tritive values with the wonderful advantage of having a hull that pretty much falls off on its own.


Cooking whole grains


Soaking your grains can make them more digestible, but they will need to be slow cooked for an hour or so. The result is a chewier product that is much more satisfy- ing than the soft results from commercially prepared products. But that’s all to the good if you are dieting or trying to deal with dia- betes or cholesterol issues. You will also need to find a way to grind


your wheat, if you wish to make flour. You can find these at most health food stores, which also sell whole grains for grinding. Nutiritional values of grains


A single cup of grain contains about 400 calories as opposed to a cup of, say, tomatoes. Wheat is high in gluten, which is a protein compound found in certain members of the grass family, but not all. Nutritional value depends on whether you are buying whole grain or whole wheat, a refined product. Look for whole grain, which means that the flour contains all parts of the kernel, includ- ing bran, the outer part of the kernel, which contain the vitamin B and minerals as well as the most fibre. Barley is low in gluten. It is a good source


of iron. One cup contains about 190 calo- ries and six grams of fibre. Barley is a whole grain product. Oats are gluten free. They are a good


source of vitamin B1 (thiamin), vitamin B2 (riboflavin) and vitamin E. Quick oats give about 110 calories per cup, 2.5 grams of protein, 20 grams of carbohydrates and 3 grams of fibre. `


www.localgardener.net Foodie 2012 • 17


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