The harvests of Soft Red Wheat, Hard Red Wheat, Sungold Spelt and Danko Rye went well this summer. This was followed by “cleaning” and bagging the grain. The cleaning is a two-step operation using an Oliver Eclipse 334 air screen cleaner before passing the seeds across an Oliver HC160 gravity table. The good seed can then be analyzed, tested, and bagged.
We use a CV-TEK vacuum bagger which pulls oxygen out of the bag and heat seals the 50 lb plastic bags closed. For more information and images of these systems, see our website https://www.grapewoodfarm.com/the-mill
We now have a warehouse stocked with pallets of our 2021 harvest grains, and here you can see a portion of the warehouse:
Now the cycle begins again with preparing the fields for planting later this month. We will be trying a couple of different varieties of grain this year, But don’t worry --- your favorites will still be there.
In addition to our grain, we plant cover crops on the non-crop fields. I must share with you this image from last summer when the crimson clover cover crop was in its glory:
It not only looked gorgeous but is so beneficial for the soil, since it is a great nitrogen fixative. A cover crop like clover also helps to prevent erosion and nutrient runoff.