Description
In addition to detailed cultivation and processing information, Lazor argues the importance of integrating grains on the organic farm (not to mention for the local-food system) for reasons of biodiversity and whole farm management. Including extensive information on:
- The history of grain growing and consumption in North America
- The twenty-first century and the birth of the local-food movement
- Considering your farm’s scale and climate
- Understanding soil fertility and structure
- Planting your crop (including spring vs. fall cereals and preparing your soil)
- The growing and ripening process (reproductive, milk, hard-and-soft dough stages)
- The grain harvest
- Preparing grain for sale, storage, or end use (drying, cleaning seed, grain handling)
- Seed breeding and saving
- Machinery, infrastructure, and processing (both home-scale tools and larger farm equipment)
- Grinding grains for livestock rations (including how to put together a ration based on protein content) and sample rations for dairy cows, pigs, and chickens
- Processing grains for human consumption
- Additional resources and information for new grain farmers, and more…
Beginners will learn how to grow enough wheat for a year’s supply of bread flour for their homestead, and farmers will learn how to become part of a grain co-op, working alongside artisan bakers and mills. Never before has there been a guide to growing organic grains applicable both for the home-scale and professional farming scale. This will be a classic for decades to come and a crucial addition to any farmer’s, homesteader’s, gardener’s, agronomist’s, or seed-saver’s library.
Product details
Published 2013
Chelsea Green Publishing
Hardcover with colour photos throughout, 448 pages.
ISBN: 9781603583657
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.