Gardening with Grains. Brie Arthur
I was totally ignorant of an understanding of what pasta was. As far as I was concerned, it came from a box that was purchased at the grocery store. The end.
A DIGRESSION: Later in life, when I discovered the undeniably delicious flavor of beer, I was once again faced with the reality of ignorance. I hadn’t considered what malted barley actually was; it was just decoration for the bottle’s label.
As the “local” micro brewery scene expands across North America, does anyone ask, “Where was that barley grown?” or “How local is local?” Would beer drinkers even recognize a barley plant if they saw one?
But back to the wheat: I have a tendency to go overboard in the garden. What started off as a novel fascination quickly blossomed into a full-blown obsession. First of all, I had no idea wheat would be so pretty! Additionally, it was inexpensive and easy to grow. I quickly learned that wheat has a lot more to offer than just seasonal beauty.
MY FIRST GRAIN BED: As I was sowing that first crop of wheat seed, I didn’t know what to expect. It was the middle of December and the Carolina temperatures were dropping quickly. I don’t own a tractor, and as I prepared the space for that original suburban grain experiment I wondered if growing my own wheat was an effort in futility. What would I actually get out of it? Would my neighbors be offended? No one else was growing it, so there must be some reason why it has never been part of a landscape, at least in my lifetime.
The bed or “wave” as we call it, is situated in full sun and bisects the front yard. It runs about 100 feet long by 8 feet wide and still includes the choice trees, which create the taller screening from the road. Inspired by the Serpentine planting at Chanticleer Garden, this bed creates two distinct areas: a street-facing lawn and shrub border and our private garden space closer to the house. This arrangement allows me to experiment in a way that is a perfect crossover from traditional landscape to agricultural cultivation. I am keen to keep the space tidy and be a good neighbor while providing a more conventional welcome for visitors.
Did you knew… wheat can improve your soil? The strong roots will break through compacted soil and act as a natural tiller! And what about using the hay as compost to improve your topsoil? Just mow the stalks in place and they will add essential organic matter that will feed your next crop. How about growing your own organic birdseed? Yep, grains do that too!
Much to my surprise, the seed germinated quickly, popping through the bare earth as bright green sprouts, an amazing contrast to the tan of the dormant centipede turf surrounding the bed. Every day, I would stand in amazement as the seedlings grew stronger, unaffected by the nightly frosts. Within two weeks, the green was so dominate it looked like spring at Christmas.
The winter months passed and the wheat continued to thrive. With longer days and spring rains, it stretched toward the sky. One day, flower stalks appeared and gently waved in the wind as their pollen floated about, ensuring an abundant harvest was on the horizon.
SO MUCH BEAUTY: It wasn’t until the wheat dried, which happened almost overnight, that I felt the strongest connection to God and country. Here in my suburban front yard, I had literal amber waves of grain, and I would bow down, camera in hand, totally fascinated by each seed that had developed. “America the Beautiful” would fill my head on repeat – and then I would stand at attention wondering, “What on earth do I do now?”
What I did was wake up very early in the morning, before the late spring temperatures rose into the 90s, and begin hand harvesting with my trusty Okatsune pruners. This was the most beautiful thing I had ever grown, so I carefully gathered each handful, wrapping a rubber band at the base, thinking of how I would make beautiful table arrangements with my newfound best friends. I had no intention of eating such a lovely plant! Five wheelbarrow loads and about a thousand Instagram posts later, I called my dear friend Erin Weston and declared I had her next product to offer at Weston Farms. Wheat would be the perfect complement to her gorgeous line of cut magnolia wreaths, garlands and bouquets. We both squealed with delight, as if we were the first people to ever discover the ornamental quality of a plant that has evolved for more than 10,000 years.
TOO BEAUTIFUL TO EAT? Of course, my logical, engineering-savvy husband decided we had to eat at least some of the harvest. New questions started to emerge: “How do we get the seed out? How do you refine it into flour?” Thus began the research on threshing, winnowing and grinding and how to do it with a modern sensibility in the suburbs, sans a combine. The more we learned, the more my obsession began to take over my being. All of my social media posts now included the hashtag #CrazyGrainLady. I needed to store each and every photo to reference back at a future date.
My dear friend Erin Weston of Weston Farms was delighted with the wheat harvest!
As promised, David rose to the challenge and created a homemade thresher consisting of a paint bucket with a lid, a drill and a long rod with chain link attached to the end (photo on page 153). We used box fans to blow the chaff away and invested in a hand crank grinder to achieve the ultimate goal of flour – all for a few zero-food-mile tortillas. Now this was eating local!
Harvesting my first wheat crop using hand pruners.
Admittedly, this is a lot of work, as many authentic experiences are. And though I would never expect most people to go to these lengths, I have been overwhelmed with the level of curiosity that people have expressed. I will also mention, if you are counting carbs and depriving yourself of your favorite meals, you can eat as much bread as you want if you grow your own wheat and then hand harvest, thresh and grind it – this is serious exercise!
“How much flour do you get?” That’s the first thing people ask. Surprisingly, you can yield significant amounts of flour from small amounts of square footage. We average 15 pounds of whole grain, organic, ground flour from an 850-square-foot landscape bed in our front yard! This realization of yield combined with beauty made me really consider the potential of the sunny, suburban landscapes that sprawl across the globe.
I experienced so much joy from growing wheat it didn’t seem fair that everyone wasn’t enjoying this same satisfaction of this beautiful plant. Not to mention the ease of growing, which would surely leave every person with the confidence of a green thumb. But more than that is the fascinating history of the evolution of grains and people.
Did you know… human beings first evolved into settlements as a result of cultivating grains?
In cultures across the globe, cereal crops are the defining characteristic for human settlement. Prior to the grain revolution, populations migrated seasonally, as hunting and gathering was the primary means of supplying food. When grain crops began to be cultivated, communities developed and the human experience was forever changed. Now fastforward 10,000 years and observe the lawns of suburban developments, covering more than 180 million acres across the United States. I see this land as untapped opportunities, full of potential to be cultivated in a way that would reduce food miles, increase our ability to sustainably manage land, eliminate food deserts and improve the nutritional quality of the food that we all consume.
Throughout this process I couldn’t help but wonder why a plant as beautiful and fundamental to life on earth as wheat would be absent from home gardens. How had novelty crops risen to commonplace while vital carbohydrates are ignored entirely by home gardeners and the local food movement?
POACEAE, THE GRASS FAMILY
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