Wheat

As promised.

I think I promised, didn't I? To explain the wheat, that is.

As part of a spring training interpretive exercise, one of our staffers brought in some Red Fife wheat and explained its history as well as the steps that go into preparing wheat for market. Flailing away, as it were...

Um, anyway. At the end of his presentation he gave us each packets of Red Fife. So I planted it.

On my balcony.

Yes, that's right. On my balcony. It gave me a bit of a laugh over the summer, actually. Me, the smallest scale wheat farmer in history. As you can see, though, I got a crop. A few of the stems came up fully awned, which isn't characteristic of Red Fife, but overall it looked pretty good. This wasn't all of it -- I'd already eaten a few heads by the time I brought in everything else.

You read that right, by the way. Eaten. Raw wheat makes a surprisingly good snack while you're watching television. A bit messy if you have a fan going (I did manage to do some accidental winnowing, and I definitely need to vacuum when I get home), but otherwise kind of fun. And after all, isn't that what wheat berries are? Raw, whole wheat? It sounds less weird if you refer to it as eating wheat berries, I guess.

And what happened with the rest of the wheat? Well, I saved a couple of heads' worth to try to plant again next year... and I ate the rest.





And that's why I need to vacuum. Silly chaff.

Later, all. It may be another slow week for the blog, depending on my program schedule. I guess we'll see.