Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[SuburbanFarmer]

You are awesome my friend.

[Montegriffo]

Not me, farmer Paul is the awesome one.....

[Montegriffo]

Paul is just about to start a 15 year research project paid for by the thatching straw association. He is going to monitor 4 different types of straw which have been mounted on panels on A frames. Every 2 weeks he has to record temperatures, moisture content, condition etc to try to scientifically work out which soil conditions grow the best thatching straw. They are going to be mounted on top of sea containers on an East West axis and he'll be paid £1000 per year for making the recordings.

[TheReal_ND]

That's cool. How'd he get that gig?

[Montegriffo]

That's cool. How'd he get that gig?

He's a member of the local thatching straw cartel. On the board as it were.
In truth, I suspect it was too small a job for anyone else to take it on. The farm is too small (100 acres) to survive without diversification, hence the camps like my juggling convention.
Drum camp in about 3 weeks, that's a good one, lots of great music in the evenings but you have to put up with drum workshops all day. Some really cool African bands playing weird percussion instruments made from gourds etc.
Literally drum circles and scantily clad hippy chicks, you'd hate it.

[TheReal_ND]

You're right I hate smelly puss-puss.

Must be nice to be part of a community though...

[Montegriffo]

Nah, there's mobile showers, a wood fired hot tub and a sauna in a converted horse box trailer. Not all hippies are filthy.

[Montegriffo]

That was the traditional technique, small bundles of wheat tied with a few stalks of wheat, called shocks. You probably know that.

I do. I'm hoping to avoid the whole waste and effort of picking it up, if I can just grab a big handful and cut.

I have seen some small handheld scythes at the hardware store. I'll try that, if the clippers can't do it.

So, Farmer Paul was out with his scythe tonight and it reminded me to ask him about harvesting and threshing by hand.
He recommended a sickle for cutting. Like you say you are best to avoid the picking up and sorting after you have cut it. Grab it near the base in small handfuls and use a serrated bladed sickle to cut it. A bread knife would do the job too. Place the straw neatly on the ground so that you can go back and tie it into sheaths later.
For threshing he recommended using a bicycle. Lay out a large sheet, turn a bicycle upside down in the middle of the sheet and get someone to turn the pedals while you feed the wheat slowly into the spinning wheel. He has used this method himself and says it works really well.
Trick is knowing when to harvest, if you leave it too late the ears of corn will fall out as you cut it so you have to harvest when it is still slightly green.
Apparently a food processor is fine for milling it into flour but you will need a sieve to stop it from being too gritty. He has used a coffee grinder before to mill small amounts.

These guys can probably help with any questions you have, http://1-acre-farm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/ ... -hand.html

'Fagging-hooks' and 'sticks' are small hooked scythe-like tools used to cut crops and straw close to the ground. The fagging-hook is used at arm's length.

According to the Museum of English Rural Life at Reading:

'the smooth-edged hook succeeded the serrated sickle for reaping corn in many places about 1860-1870. Fagging tools have sharp blades and are heavier and wider than sickles and used with a different action. Instead of grasping the corn, the reaper held back the stalks or drew them towards him with a short crook called a fagging stick and slashed through the straw rather than sawing it as with a sickle. A larger quantity of corn was cut at one swing, though time was taken up with sharpening the blade. The hooks are still used today for trimming hedges and cutting crops close to hedges or walls that cannot be reached by machine.'

fagging stick


A fagging stick can be used to make harvesting more efficient. A stick with a right angled bend is used to grab a larger bunch of wheat for you to cut with your sickle or fagging hook.

fagging hook

http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness ... tools.html

[TheReal_ND]

lol fags

[Montegriffo]

Thought you'd enjoy that.....