Anyone growing grains?

[38ExtraSpecial]

Anyone growing wheat or rice?

Some YouTube videos popped up on it. Probably big brother trying to confirm that I want to put away more food than I need for the next 3 days

Rice looked a little more complicated but the wheat looked like it was a good ROI and way less needy.

You might get more nutrition out of the same acreage of other vegetables but it sure is nice to have some bread if you ever want it.

 

[peterk123]

I am sitting on 30 pounds of flour right now. We will be adding more. I have not purchased bread or pasta for the past few years. Both are inexpensive easy to make. If I had the acreage and time, would grow it. You need quite a bit of space to grow a substantial amount.

We have some friends here with 20 acres and we are going to help them with growing potatoes though. They will give us half the crop. We are shooting for 500 pounds between the two families.

 

[mousegunguy]

Rye and corn are the classic New England grains. Rye & injun bread.
Oats do ok here too.
I also grow amaranth with great success.
Most wheats don’t wanna grow here.

 

[Delkancott]

I had ten acres of wheat two years ago. Couldn’t get anyone to come harvest it. To me grains arent something to grow unless you have some space and infrastructure to harvest, dry, separate and store. You’re better off with traditional storage vegetables like roots and tubers.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

I’m not looking to put away hundreds of pounds a year. Just looking for something that might be different and easy to grow from seed each year.

If climate is an issue then forget about it.

 

[Uzi2]

I’m not looking to put away hundreds of pounds a year. Just looking for something that might be different and easy to grow from seed each year.

If climate is an issue then forget about it.

Toss some out there, what do you have to lose?

There are several youtubes on small wheat crop planting and harvest.

I've planted it here (KY) and it did very well.....it's really just another grass. I broadcast seeded about a 1/8th of an acre using my backpack leaf blower with a hole drilled into the side of the wand and a large funnel taped into the hole. I poured the seed into the funnel and the venturi effect sucked it down and blew it out the end of the wand.....it worked awesome!
I use that same method for dispersing fertilizer and pelletized lime.

I only harvested about a couple of pounds from it (just stripping the heads into a bucket) and left the rest for the birds and deer but I know it will grow well. It also partially reseeds itself for next season if all the seed isn't eaten.

People have been hand planting and hand harvesting wheat forever.....but it can get labor intensive if it's a big patch.

 

[VTHunter]

Trying Keto, no grains for me...

 

[Fritz the Cat]

I've pretty much eliminated grains from my diet so i won't be growing any. Harvesting, drying and threshing are going to be tedious without machinery.

 

[clampett]

I have some land in central NH. A few years ago the lot next to mine was logged. When they were done, and they removed their equipment, I spread 1/2 a bag of wheat on the muddy areas.
It started to grow, it looked just like grass, but it wouldn't grow taller than 2-3 inches.
I even spread some starter fertilizer on the wheat, but it still wouldn't grow taller, and it never produced seed.

 

[kiver]

I have been buying wheatberries. The cost has increased quite a bit. Growing it seems very labor intensive

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

Labor intensive yeah but when the world comes to an end what the hell else are we going to do with our free time if there is no NES?

 

[Uzi2]

Labor intensive yeah but when the world comes to an end what the hell else are we going to do with our free time if there is no NES?

Stand a guard post?



This is feed wheat from my loal feed store. $16.50 for 50lbs. Might need a little more cleaning but it's a fraction of the price and it is the exact same stuff that some places charge four times as much.
I put another hundred pounds of it away the other day.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

Stand a guard post?



This is feed wheat from my loal feed store. $16.50 for 50lbs. Might need a little more cleaning but it's a fraction of the price and it is the exact same stuff that some places charge four times as much.
I put another hundred pounds of it away the other day.View attachment 600202

That’s a good deal.

 

[Uzi2]

I have been buying wheatberries. The cost has increased quite a bit. Growing it seems very labor intensive

See my post above. All the wheat comes from the same combines, some is just cleaned a little more and you'll pay dearly for that. You'll have plenty of time to clean wheat in SHTF.
Buy feed wheat and put away four times as much.

 

[Uzi2]

View: https://youtu.be/vW7_cTn6YpE



View: https://youtu.be/PylQCiFBtH4


Pay attention to the Part 2......he's putting away feed wheat......the same stuff I'm putting away.

 

[Yazz]

I have 15 5 gallon buckets of whole grains. All sealed. I think I'm good.

 

[Uzi2]

I have 15 5 gallon buckets of whole grains. All sealed. I think I'm good.

Only you know your needs.

I processed (nitrogen packed) more than 15 buckets the first day I started putting away grains in buckets 25 years ago and have steadily added since. Between ammo and buckets of grain, when I moved, I ran out of weight capacity on the truck long before I ran out of cubic space. I had trouble pulling the hills in western MA and NY.

My "tribe" will not go hungry or run out of ammo.

 

[Yazz]

Only you know your needs.

I processed (nitrogen packed) more than 15 buckets the first day I started putting away grains in buckets 25 years ago and have steadily added since. Between ammo and buckets of grain, when I moved, I ran out of weight capacity on the truck long before I ran out of cubic space. I had trouble pulling the hills in western MA and NY.

My "tribe" will not go hungry or run out of ammo.

Oh I should be good. Lots of good hunting grounds!

 

[Uzi2]

Oh I should be good. Lots of good hunting grounds!

Hopefully, but there's a big difference between "should" and "will".

Consider this, You and lots of other people are thinking the same thing. During the depression last century, vast areas of the country were just about completely hunted out and game became very scarce in some parts. Also, taking game for "one" is a loss unless you have the means to preserve all the excess meat that cannot be consumed before it spoils......think summer heat. Meat will go bad within hours. Have you got a few hundred pounds of salt to salt it or large pots and a stove capable of cooking up fifty pounds or more in very short order? Got wrapping materials to wrap it in, or grinder to make sausage that can be smoked for preservation?

If you think the woods are crowded with hunters in good times, just imagine what it would be like in very hard times.

Prepping is a lifestyle, not a one and done thing. Rotation of goods and constant building of your supply as insurance is key. Excess if there is any can always be bartered or given as charity.

Also consider that you will need others around for security reasons. You have to sleep sometime and it's easier if someone is watching your perimeter. They'll have to eat too and if there are some that didn't have their own supplies but trade their skills instead, the food has to come from somewhere. I choose to be at least partially that source for people who would come here.
In trade for that, I immediately get two doctors, a currently flying military helicopter pilot, several strong backs with construction knowledge and skills, a couple of successful lifetime farmers and cattle owners and all have good marksmanship skills.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

Cast boolits at the campfire and make black powder.

Labor intensive yeah but when the world comes to an end what the hell else are we going to do with our free time if there is no NES?

.

 

[Uzi2]

Cast boolits at the campfire and make black powder.

.

Very romantic view.....but most people don't know how to make black powder ( present company excluded) or know where to source the materials and even fewer would have the ability to cast bullets.

 

[Yazz]

Hopefully, but there's a big difference between "should" and "will".

Consider this, You and lots of other people are thinking the same thing. During the depression last century, vast areas of the country were just about completely hunted out and game became very scarce in some parts. Also, taking game for "one" is a loss unless you have the means to preserve all the excess meat that cannot be consumed before it spoils......think summer heat. Meat will go bad within hours. Have you got a few hundred pounds of salt to salt it or large pots and a stove capable of cooking up fifty pounds or more in very short order? Got wrapping materials to wrap it in, or grinder to make sausage that can be smoked for preservation?

If you think the woods are crowded with hunters in good times, just imagine what it would be like in very hard times.

Prepping is a lifestyle, not a one and done thing. Rotation of goods and constant building of your supply as insurance is key. Excess if there is any can always be bartered or given as charity.

Also consider that you will need others around for security reasons. You have to sleep sometime and it's easier if someone is watching your perimeter. They'll have to eat too and if there are some that didn't have their own supplies but trade their skills instead, the food has to come from somewhere. I choose to be at least partially that source for people who would come here.
In trade for that, I immediately get two doctors, a currently flying military helicopter pilot, several strong backs with construction knowledge and skills, a couple of successful lifetime farmers and cattle owners and all have good marksmanship skills.

Oh I hear you. Planes made.

 

[MisterHappy]

The early Europeans arrived, and tried wheat. Didn't work out well in NE, so they paid attention to what the locals did, and went with corn.

As noted above, NE is not ideal for it.

Oh I should be good. Lots of good hunting grounds!

I spoke to a re-enactor at the Lexington Patriots' Day a few years ago, and asked why the colonials were all equipped with Fowlers, as opposed to more rifle-like arms. He pointed out that at the time he was recreating, there were most likely no deer east of the Connecticut River in the Massachusetts colony. It was mostly cleared, farmed land, and the rest was hunted out.

 

[Uzi2]

The early Europeans arrived, and tried wheat. Didn't work out well in NE, so they paid attention to what the locals did, and went with corn.

As noted above, NE is not ideal for it.

I spoke to a re-enactor at the Lexington Patriots' Day a few years ago, and asked why the colonials were all equipped with Fowlers, as opposed to more rifle-like arms. He pointed out that at the time he was recreating, there were most likely no deer east of the Connecticut River in the Massachusetts colony. It was mostly cleared, farmed land, and the rest was hunted out.

What time period?

 

[MisterHappy]

By the time of the Revolution, most of the land that could be cleared and farmed, was. That's why all the stone fences through the woods exist. Between the land being cleared as much as possible for growing stuff, and year-round subsistence hunting of deer by everyone that wanted dinner, deer were few and far between.

Before modern conservation (bag limits, seasons) methods, being a wild animal, especially a tasty one, was a tough gig.

Pilgrims landed in 1620; Boston was founded in 1630. By 1647, white folks were in what's now Framingham, 20 miles inland. That gives 100+ years to modify environments, and extirpate Bambi & Co.

 

[Uzi2]

By the time of the Revolution, most of the land that could be cleared and farmed, was. That's why all the stone fences through the woods exist. Between the land being cleared as much as possible for growing stuff, and year-round subsistence hunting of deer by everyone that wanted dinner, deer were few and far between.

Before modern conservation (bag limits, seasons) methods, being a wild animal, especially a tasty one, was a tough gig.

Pilgrims landed in 1620; Boston was founded in 1630. By 1647, white folks were in what's now Framingham, 20 miles inland. That gives 100+ years to modify environments, and extirpate Bambi & Co.

Granted, people expanded out from the coast, but the population densities in all those small towns was very small. Those who moved out of the Boston proper area had large plots of farmland/woods and people were spread out. I'm finding it difficult to comprehend the deer population being anywhere near hunted out given the much-unsettled land further west and north at that time. I think it was a local thing. People just had to travel further to bring back game but the game was out there.

 

[MisterHappy]

Granted, people expanded out from the coast, but the population densities in all those small towns was very small. Those who moved out of the Boston proper area had large plots of farmland/woods and people were spread out. I'm finding it difficult to comprehend the deer population being anywhere near hunted out given the much-unsettled land further west and north at that time. I think it was a local thing. People just had to travel further to bring back game but the game was out there.

But that travel was on foot, or possibly by cart, if you were lucky.

 

[Uzi2]

But that travel was on foot, or possibly by cart, if you were lucky.

Yes, that may well have been the case, but that doesn't mean the deer population was hunted out.

The need to travel further out prompted people to build remote shelters.....aka "hunting camps" where they stayed, much like hunters do today. Hunters go where the game is, even if it's 50-60-100 miles or more away. If they had to hoof it, they could be there in a few days with good boots on their feet. If they were lucky to have a horse drawn or oxen drawn cart to carry their gear that was a bonus.
Hunting parties even today, leave their villages sometimes for weeks to bring back game for consumption or sale. I'm sure they did the same back in the 1600 and 1700 and 1800s.
The bird hunters probably stayed near the coastal marshes or larger lakes and ponds where the flocks of geese and ducks resided.