Seed Week guest Charlotte Bickler from the Organic Research Centre sets out what you need to know in order to share grain seed in the UK. Towards a Decentralised Grain Economy “There is a growing movement across the UK towards decentralised grain economies, where grain is traded directly from field to fork without getting embroiled in […]
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Watch Gaia’s latest film – Llafur Ni (Our Grains)– about a farmer’s 20-year quest to find and revive the Welsh black oats his grandfather once grew. Welsh organic farmer Gerald Miles has been on an epic quest to rediscover the rare black oats his grandfather once grew in Pembrokeshire fields overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. For […]
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Reviving Rare Oats, Spreading Bere Barley and (Re)Developing the Machinery to Process Them At the start of February, as the snow fell and the sky brooded, the grain growers of our Welsh and Scottish networks grabbed a coffee, signed on to Zoom, and settled in for a long day of talking oats, bere barley […]
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In late April of this year Mike Hyatt, who farms Baleveolan Croft on The Isle of Lismore, contacted me asking if I knew of anyone malting grain on a small-scale in Scotland. Mike, like many crofters, is patiently waiting for our small-scale de-huller to be developed; once it has been built, the crofters can bring […]
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In August’s bumper installment Jason shares his time-saving seed cleaner, rhubarb and custard tomatoes, and the uplifting prospect of an Irish Indian Summer… After that spell of great weather mid-July and having been away for a week there is now a backlog of seeds ready to be processed. Crimson Flowered Broad Bean, Irish Green Pea […]
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In September’s penultimate installment Jason is threshing, drying, picking and processing a plentiful supply of seeds in a seasonal sprint to outwit the changing weather… Its all starting to come together now, literally and metaphorically. Apart from the Cucurbits most of the seed crops are either harvested or at least starting to be harvested. All […]
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