Barley

[Kristin]

We’re considering planting barley for our members for the first time this year. Erik, I bet you’ve done this before, and maybe others on this board have too. Could you describe how you harvest yours? Anyone have a good source of weed-free seed? Can we plant it as a row crop? How easy is it to remove the hulls for human consumption?
Best,
Kristin

[goodcompanion]

Haven’t done it before. This will be our first year too.

I understand that barley must be planted in warm dry soils. The seed will rot in cool wet soil.

I am thinking of trying to plow early, planting buckwheat, and discing that in in june to plant barley for the ale project.

I think, as with oats, given a stone will with adjustable spacing and a fan mill, and some patience, you ought to be able to hull them.

I would hope that a vigorous stand of it wouldn’t need weeding. Hope is pretty much all you have with grains and weeds in my limited experience. I’ve never tried to row crow or weed it, though I understand that it’s possible, it seems like an awful lot of bother.

My two-year old likes the old 60’s folk scare song, Charlie and the MTA. But when that was wearing a little thin, he thought he’d stump me by asking not for “a charlie song” but “a barley song” instead. Well, damned if I didn’t know two barley songs. They are now both regulars in the bedtime song circulation. If anyone wants to learn a barley song, just let me know.

[Crabapple Farm]

We’re also going to be growing Barley to harvest for the first time this year. We grew some as a cover crop a couple years ago, for the heck of it. We planted it as early as seemed reasonable, at the same time as oats. It came up fine, and our soils are definately cool and wet. My 1920s era “Productive Farm Crops” says “Barley culture is so similar to that of oats that very little special information need be added.” but says if growing both, plant the oats first. The Canadian “Organic Field Crop Handbook” mentions that the six-row varieties tolerate late planting and hence pre-planting cultivation.
Our experience is that the barley had better cover than spring wheat for weed suppression, not quite as good as oats, but that will probably vary by variety. We’re gonna grow “Robust” this year from OGS/Fedco.
For harvest we will use a cradle, as we don’t have a binder yet. I’ve heard that attatching rubber disks onto a mill will make it an effective de-huller, but haven’t tried it.
-Tevis

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