Posted on 01/18/2013 11:50:46 AM PST by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
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Indeed the taste test will tell.
My project with the superhots is trying as many different jerk recipes as I can possibly find. Just hope they have decent germination and I don’t manage to screw them up somehow.
I’m considering making a superhot only bed about 500ft from the rest of my peppers and both bagging the different varieties to self pollinate them but also saving random seeds from all of them to see what kind of crosses I get.
My wife grilled some boneless pork ribs with a jerk sauce she threw together with some chocolate habaneros...the neighborhood will never again smell as good as it did that particular evening...
You’ve been added. I usually try to post between noon and 1 or 1:30 pm on Fridays. I am honored by your request, and welcome. Looking forward to your comments.”Grin”
Critters are hard to kill.LOL
I don't like critters. I do not like them at all. Not in my food, or in my seeds. That just won't do. ;)
/johnny
Will do.
We’ve been growing a fair amount of sorghum grain for the table and have a variety we like from J.L. Hudson seedsman. Fantastic pancakes. He sold it two or three years back and I haven’t seen it since. Large, white grains and massive, drooping heads. The stalks go into silage with corn field leftovers and sunflowers. The chickens love it.
I’m tinkering with the idea of building a small scale thresher, too. Various designs I’ve looked at leave something to be desired and I would like a small scale grain processing set-up in the barn for family and critter feed.
LOL. Me too, but my daddy always just laughed at me, and said something like well, it didn’t eat much or hey it’s just a little protein. UGH!
Is this grain one that you can make sorghum molasses from?
I have been, too. I grow a bit of rye and wheat here, and hand threshing it is a serious pain in the arse.
BBQ joint not far from here has an antique one in front of their place, and I keep meaning to go by and take pictures of it for reference. It's about 7 ft long, and looks like it can either be hand cranked or put on a belt from a tractor (like anyone has those anymore).
Let me know what you come up with. I've looked at a lot of youtube videos of folks trying to build their own.
/johnny
So far I just grind my wheat in a coffee grinder along with a little flax seed and then substitute it for about 1/3 to 1/2 of the flour in the recipe.
I haven’t tried the sprouting thing - not spontaneous enough for me. Simply waiting to grind the wheat until you are going to use it, gives a big plus in nutrition.
Hubby is growing some white winter wheat. I will be using my new grain mill to see how fine I can get the flour, once he has it harvested and dried.
I don’t think you could refine any molasses from the grain, but the stalks have plenty of sugar in them and you could definitely cook it down like maple sap to get your ‘lasses.
Are you sure that’s not a fanning mill? Those were used to clean the threshed grain and many of them are still around. I’ve got a line a ‘Clipper 2’ model and it has a few extra screens.
The thresher beats the grain off the stalk and then, should, knock the hull from the grain as well. The fanning mill removes the hulls and foreign debris. Getting the grain free of the hull is the big trick, IMO. Especially oats.
What I’m thinking of is a sloping drum with internal ribs or grooves that act as stationary resistance to an internal shaft rotating on the same axis with an array of rubber fingers that strike the ribs and the grain caught between. Gravity would feed the drum (or trough) and exhaust the materials. The ribs would retain the grain just long enough to get the hell beaten out of them before exiting. Sketching ideas is about all I’m doing now because the barn has no heated space to work in yet.
Oh well, sooner or later I’ll get something to do the job. Like you, I’m flailing in the dark, too.
We have several mills but not - the - mill yet. I do like the fresh grain taste of mill to dough bread and we all want to explore other grains - especially to beat the grocery and feed bill.
Anything has to be better than using the paddle attachment for my KitchenAid to whack heck out of grain heads to get 'em to release the grain.
/johnny
I’d be interested in knowing the name of the sorghum variety if you don’t mind telling. I got 1/2lb of milo seed this year and a couple heirloom varieties of sorghum from Baker Creek and SESE.
We’re going to grow sunflowers for the chickens too. Just have to come up with a clever deer repellant device.
I hadn’t thought of needing a thresher. That sounds like a hubby honey do thing.
Has anyone tried the ‘HoneyDip’ stevia variety? It’s tempting me at Burpee but at $11/plant it’s not something I’m just going to ‘add to cart’ impulsively.
That sounds delicious. Now I’m hungry. I’ve got a Habanero mix that supposedly has some of the Chocolates. I’m just hoping I have good germination luck this spring and the demon damping off stays far far away.
Well, I don’t have “the mill” yet either, but I did buy a hand operated, inexpensive, stainless steel grinder mill, that is supposed to grind to a very fine level for making bread.
I am reading that blend tech is supposed to be a really good choice for electric or hand operated mills.
A lot of times I have just put grain into the woven plastic bags feed comes in and walked on it of beaten it with a hose. One link I watched had a wannabe Amish dude walking on his shocks when placed on a board with a few layers of hardware cloth over it. Then he winnowed. I’ve spent a lot of time pouring grain from pan to pan in front of an electric fan. There is a better way and I’m gonna find it.
I haven’t seen him list it again but I seem to recall he just called it ‘grain sorghum.’ In any event, the seeds are probably 1/8-3/16 diameter and the heads are about the size of small canned hams or a Nerf football. If you wnat, I’ll send you some seed but you’ll have to grow out your supply over a few seasons. FReepmail me with your information if you want.
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