Setting ourselves up for grain farming

We are really chuffed that with a grant gratefully received from Cambridge Sustainable City this year we were able to buy some essential kit for growing and processing grain crops at CropShare in the future! We have experimented with barley and rye in the past and want to continue with small-scale grain farming.

Happy reapers at our Rye harvest in 2013

I went on a small adventure today into deep Norfolk, where the road signs end, to pick up one of those pieces of kit: a manual grain thresher kindly stored for us by Lee of Walnut Farm.

Lee with his creeping comfrey and other fantastic plants

While I was there Lee, who is a permaculture teacher amongst doing many other things, check out his website here, gave me a homegrown creeping comfrey plant to take back. Leaves of this plant as it spreads will be feeding many a tomato and more besides on the farm, so thanks mate!

The next part of kit was waiting for me when I got back to the farm-we got a new shed! This will help us massively, providing a storage space for barrels of threshed grain, our new scythes, hayrakes and pitchforks. All made possible by the Cambridge Sustainable City grant, so massive thanks to them.

Hanging out in the shed

Meanwhile back at the farm, CropSharers had already done a full morning’s work, and planted out about 1500 plants of leeks, lettuce and cabbage. No messing about! Plants were then fleeced to protect from birds and the elements.

Planting out globe articokes and companion flowers

Planting out globe artichokes and english marigolds

I went to check out the oats, which will be threshed with our new machine come harvest time. The plants have started stem extension and have almost unrolled their final leaf- all good and looks like a promising little crop.

Oats are growing!

Next to the oats we have succesional sowings of broad beans, the most forward of the sowings is now starting to form pods. These beans will be an early crop on the farm and be a welcome end to the hungry gap.