'Trail of Tear' Beans
February 13th, 2024That's what I think Teph (Steve) gave me. Maybe plant with some maize.
I've no idea if they will require support, but as I only have 15/14 (one looks a bit iffy) I space them among two plots 9:6 given the soil differences.
Six will go in the 60 yellow maize plot by the green house and the other nine will have a small dedicated plot
Wheat
January 12th, 20132024
- 28th January Roughed out some 4㎡ east of the relocated greenhouse.
- 1st February Tidied and ready to sow
- 10th February Soaked wheat from 2020 but don't know if it's bald or bearded.
- 12th February Four 8 foot rows were sown
- 13th February Remaining 2020 wheat sown in four more 8 foot rows.
2023
15th August
Seems it was hairy, but only cropped 100g. Managed to find one head of bald so will keep that
20th April
I have a small amount of one type not sure if it's the hairy or bold type. I also noticed a single plant that must be from last year, maybe a seed from autumn ?
I'm also making my first loaf of 50/50 wheat and maize.
For protein see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_quality
2022
Can't believe it's been 7 years since my last efforts. Sowing some old grain from way back then, some will go to flour.
Jan 19th
The reeds didn't work as at the first dawn a pheasant was pulling away the reeds
Mar 7th
Although I covered the beds with material, the pheasant(s) pulled a bit of that apart, but worse is that mice crawled under and ate most of the seeds on the second bed. Have sown more today and covered alternatively. Picture to follow :)
June 15th 2015 A layer of reeds stooped the birds from eating the young seedlings as they did in 2013/14. So after 3 years I may have found a solution.
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Hazlenuts
July 18th, 2020Hazelnut Collection 2023
- January 31st 2024Roasted and blended up some 300g to nut spread with maybe 50g or raw nuts.
- October 8th Collected some 560g. It seems a bit late in the 'season' it seems
- September 27th Collected some 1Kg+
- September 18th Collected some 650g and shelled to get 260g of nuts. Some 5% may have been empty ✓
- September 8th Collected some 1Kg+ and shelled 540g to get 100g of nuts. Some 60% may have been empty ??
- September 17th Collected some 1.7Kg to get 170g of nut-butter, which I burnt :(
Hazelnut Spread 2023
July 17th 2023 I had made some from some roasted nuts and today blended it with an equal amount of ground raw nuts, as they didn't release as much oil.
Given the weight of the edible product, some 16% once shelled and dried or roasted, then the almost 1.45Kg required some 9Kg of nuts to be collected (some 6% maybe unusable).
25th Sept 2022 another 160g roasted
23rd Sept 2022 + 230g kernels > Roasted 160g
22nd Sept 2022 Now 600g fresh > Roasted > 495g
18th Sept 2022 750g kernels > 650g when dried : Another 500g not yet dried
3rd Sept 2022
It seems as though some have escaped the squirrels attention. I managed to collect 1.54Kg yesterday. (there were some that never made it to the scales) Those salvage from the ground were 'empty' and probably one that came off very early or maybe some just don't make 'nuts'
Once shelled I have 320g of nuts > now they are left to dry. 9th Sep: 250g
With sadness I remember when I thought i could collect hazelnuts, that was before I embellished the land with a more exotic environment that wild creatures would thrive in their new found succulent food takeaway. And yes the squirrels have their feasts on pears, apple, corn and of course hazelnuts, to name but a few.
But this is about a realisation that was brought to my attention by Gavin. I had noticed the shear number of half eaten hazelnuts on the ground, saying half is generous as many only had small parts of the nuts eaten.
The following two images show what looks like a half hearted attempt at eating the kernels. I had thought the holes in the middle were part of the growing strategy of the hazelnut as ripe hazelnuts often have small gap in the centre.
However Gavin open some untouched by the squirrels and discovered a 'pip', the real kernel. Similarly I have opened a couple, which are shown at two stages in the images below. So the squirrels are not lazy as I imagined just very picky.