Loomio
Tue 9 Nov 2021 3:50PM

Growing grains and pulses

KB Katie Bliss Public Seen by 14

A draft proposal for growing grains and pulses at Love Land

KB

Katie Bliss Tue 9 Nov 2021 3:53PM

Hello :) this is a thread for people interested in the potential of growing novel / heritage cereals and pulses at Love Land and trying things out! I have had a go at getting ideas down on paper here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oBMmtSFp2d6QX99TmWz7Z22HUe40X2_o/edit that we can build on.. please do comment and feedback!

If you are interested to get involved say hello here, share your thoughts and we will arrange a little get together sometime in the next few weeks to think about how it can work and put a proposal together :)

There is a lot we could do so just need to work out what is realistic for now. We may also want to look at applying for funding to cover some of the time / costs.

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Finn Wed 10 Nov 2021 9:45AM

Very cool concept! I encourage anyway interested to listen to the Farmerama podcast series "Cereals" which is a brilliant introduction to regenerative community grain production in the UK.

In the market garden there is 6 plots each 15m x 24m. As long as weeds are kept on top of i think it would be a good use of space to have a plot of grains! Current plans are looking like it may just be half of the 6 plots that will be growing veg on it next year, with the rest gone to green manure.

KB

Katie Bliss Fri 26 Nov 2021 11:28AM

Thanks for this Finn :) One of the plots in the market garden would be awesome - we will have to think about how to manage weeds.. intercropping could potentially help, in future we could think about sowing into a low growing clover which could help but dont think we will have time to get that going this year and think the green manure we put in will be too competitive - but will have a think!

I listened again to the podcast and realised that I know all of these grain brains - so am slowly getting in touch with them all! One is Andrew Whitley who has this great project in scotland https://scotlandthebread.org/2016/07/15/soil-to-slice-growers-gather/ and there is a possibility we could form part of a wider network of community grain growers... and am part of the SW Grain network https://www.instagram.com/swgrainnetwork/ and they are super excited about this too. I am going to try to get to their next meet up in January if anyone fancies coming along!

I met up with Harriet who is researching a local heritage naked oat and it is super interesting - lots of cultural history as well as a beautiful crop. We do need to start thinking about seed as some of them go in quite early. I have some her at my folks farm but also thinking to go to the seed banks. The guys at SW Grain Alliance were also keen on the idea of us growing some of the varieties they are trialling elsewhere - so will chat to them about that.

I think i am maybe getting slightly carried away need to think how much is managable and realistic with the time we have this year! I would love to have loads of time to spend on this but not the reality at the moment! It does seem there is some potential funding out there - going to try to look into it if I feel well enough this week (i have covid at the mo :( - so good reason to focus on the things I actually want to do rather than work!)

I would also like to make a meeting for anyone interested in this idea to get together. Perhaps we could do something online later next week to kick us off and then meet in person soon?

KB

Katie Bliss Fri 26 Nov 2021 9:55PM

Thinking about putting in something for FEAST funding https://feastcornwall.org/feast-criteria/

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Duncan Sat 27 Nov 2021 9:44AM

Thanks loads for all this Katie. Super exciting, especially the SW grain network. Loved their little chat about allotment scale harvesting.

Up for coming too in Jan if I can and meeting next Thursday to hatch a plan for year 1.