Grain
Discusses more on harvesting, threshing (removing the seed from the stalk, winnowing (removing everything but the seed itself) and the author's results with his crops.
We grew old verities that have long stalks and are more suitable for harvesting by hand. We used a sickle but, if needed, corn knives or even machetes could have been used. You will find the straw has endless uses in a SHTF homestead too. Threshing is not all that hard when the sheaves are dry. Hulless oats need to be harvested a week or so early and cured indoors where the birds can’t get it. When the birds start to pay it some attention to it in the field, bring it in.
1. Grab a hand full of stocks by the root end and whip the head end down into a metal wheelbarrow to thresh the seed.
2. Placing the stocks head end first into a plastic feed sack, place a cement or wooden flat surface and beat the seed heads with a plastic baseball bat to thresh.
This worked with hulless purple barley, Kamut spring wheat, Juan spring triticale, and Panicum hulless (nuda) oats.
We used a sickle (corn knives or machetes would work) for harvesting but a plastic feed sack and a plastic baseball or rubbing the seed heads on hardware cloth (screen) for the White Popping (milo-seed) sorghum which grew 7 to 8 feet tall.
We used a sickle (corn knives or machetes should work) for harvesting but a plastic feed sack and a plastic baseball or rubbing the seed heads on hardware cloth (screen) for White Proso (milaceum) millet for threshing. Millet seed heads ripen gradually, from the top down so harvest when the tops are ripe and the bottom grains have lost most of their green. Bing them in where the birds can get at them for a week or so to complete ripening and curing
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