WEEDS

Wheat is happy in places and absent in others. Patchy for sure, drowned out overall  by towering weeds and cover crop that has reseeded itself. The grain is growing, but needs longer still to ripen in the fields. Time that would only give weeds a chance to flower and proliferate their seeds. This project confirms the wisdom that farming is hard, and that converting pasture to grains without chemicals takes a long time of chipping away at the weed seed bank. I decided to kill the weeds and wheat here now, and hope for a chance at bread in the future.

The tractor sailed with me through the 5-6 foot stand - the massive temporary habitat we’d built reduced back to the ground in a couple of hours. Crimped grain and weeds appear like ocean waves flowing across the soil. A dozen field mice, a friendly snake, and precious frogs, scurry, slither, and hop scotch out of the way of the monstrous ship. Pressing the adolescent grain down was sad because we had higher hopes, but also very surreal and pretty. I reached out from the tractor to grab some choice heads - brilliant purple barley with golden awns, beefy wheat heads 7” in length - shoving them into my pocket.

The last patch reminded me of the “Last Sheaf” folkloric tales of the magical last stand of wheat where all of the creatures and grain spirits reside. This happened to be brilliantly full of wildflowers that Christine had thrown in the mix at planting. Purples, blues, pinks line the plant matter like a confetti cake, and tears cloud my vision as the last of a hopeful crop and extra special loaf of bread is pressed back into the earth.

SEEDS

To prepare for eating bread, we first till the earth. The grass grows strong, with weeds too, so in want of bread, we plant a cover crop, with many practical purposes. Six months later, when the soil isn’t so wet that the tractor will get stuck (because the tractor WILL get stuck), we mow the young cover crop and turn it with some kind of machinery, or a well-fed and complimented crew of friends with sharp hoes!

Now we’re really getting hungry for a taste of bread. With hands full of barley and wheat, we throw seeds through the air either with ease or great vigor - let your character decide what style of broadcast seeding fits you best. Cover the upturned earth evenly (about 25 seeds per square foot). Keep an eye out for birds perching on nearby telephone wires - turning the earth is enough to get them curious even without the grain bribe.

The seeds need to find a way beneath the surface, up to an inch or so deep. What worked well for us was this: a piece of fence weighed down with five pavers chained behind a small tractor. One last pass over the sewn ground and a prayer for rain later.

A piece of toast you want? We’ve only just sewn seed and it’s March 25th. Maybe we’ll have bread in 6 months friend.

WHY COVER CROP?

 Peas, vetch, rye…there are many types of cover crops, each with their own advantages. Cover cropping is a tool for organic farming. In our home garden, we’ve even started to build in cycles of rest with cover crops (namely buckwheat, triticale, and clover). While most crops we grow to eat, cover crops are often not consumed, their purpose being to both protect, and in many cases add to, the soil’s treasure trove of bioavailability. Leaving ground uncovered without anything growing is a no-no. Bare soil in our wet PNW will erode and leach nutrients. Covering the ground with mulch, or a planting helps lock in moisture while preventing erosion. 

For growing grains, cover cropping not only builds soil, but also breaks two main pressures that can prevent our crop’s success: grassy weeds and wire worms. 

Breaking up grass and other pernicious weeds is a process that takes time under cultivation. One of the greatest assets of a multi-generational farmer might be well-stewarded land with very low weed pressure. Sue Hunton of Camas Country Mill, once joked with me, “We grow wheat and weeds!” Eliminating those grassy weeds is crucial because wheat is planted densely in large stands, which means it can’t be weeded easily without damaging the plot. This is one of the reasons chemically-intensive agriculture and grains have flocked together. It makes sense: spray field, plant wheat and watch it outgrow the weeds. The problem is how much of that herbicide runs off into waterways, and what other sprays do to wildlife and pollinators, let alone if we should eat it at all.

In organic systems, cover crops outgrow the weeds. When we turn the cover crop back into the soil and plant grains, the grains have a better chance. It wouldn’t hurt to cover crop for longer than a single season, moving from say our winter mix into spring buckwheat, and then winter wheat in the fall. Since we already have spring wheat and barley seed, we’ll try our luck with a single season of cover crop, and plant in April. 

Wire worms (or click beatles) are nasty pests that can decimate an entire planting of wheat or corn. They live in the soil beneath cereal grasses, and become a real issue in places where wheat is grown over and over, or on land that’s been grassy sod for several years. Conventional grain farmers would choose pesticides as a means of control prior to planting. For us, these worms are a real concern since we’re coming from grassy pasture that’s been dormant for 5 years. Ultimately, long rotations of cover crop between wheat crops is one of the best organic strategies against the pest. This sounds great for us, but doesn’t seem like a serious option for the large ag producers that grow wheat after wheat after wheat for generations. They choose the insecticide, which is only partly effective, and take a decrease in yield. When you’re paying rent on all of the land, it becomes a moral and financial decision to not grow something profitable for a season or two in favor of restoration. There are other considerations too that make it impossible to generalize or idealize one method for success!

It’s been about 2 weeks since I seeded our cover crop mix. Zena and I checked in on the fields, which are all shooting up green sprouts. There are some tufts of grass here and there, but overall the things we want to be succeeding are growing! There isn’t much action to track at this time as the short, cold days really keep growth in check. Fingers crossed for a healthy stand in early spring that we can work into the ground with a bokashi tea from Cuauhtemoc, an indigenous soil fertility expert from the island. Our sweet partner/landlady is getting settled on the new property and hosting the first farm dinner event this week with our friend Risa, a local chef devoted to sultry seasonal eating. 

Small sprouts of cover crop across the 4.5 acre farm feel like soft starts and new beginnings. It’s refreshing to be in such a beautiful place, dreaming of what our efforts might teach us tomorrow. 

Wapato Wheat

I’ve gone down the rabbit hole, or maybe mole hole is more fitting here in Portland. My friend Christine, a photographer who farms flowers on Wapato (Sauvie) Island, reached out a few months back and asked if I wanted to grow wheat. She recently moved to a larger plot of land, and was looking for ways to help with the rent while building some intentional community. Her vision is grand and spirit generous. I said YES! 

Of course this is where I’m at - I’ve been diving deep as a baker and investigating everything from milling to grain growing, visiting farmers and asking all the questions. I learned just how chemically intensive and extractive wheat growing tends to be, and how it’s done at gargantuan scale with an intimidating amount of infrastructure and heavy equipment.  For the past few years I’ve planted grain in our home garden with the intention of observing it’s lifecycle. I wanted to understand when wheat gets planted (winter or spring), how it matures, and even process it by hand with simple tools the way peasants have for most of time.  

Now I’m gardening on a larger scale: 1/2 acre (about half of a football field)! The land has been fallow (out of use) for about 5 years. It was in intensive peony production previously, so a long rest is helpful start. I quickly learned, however, that going from fallow pasture into grain growing is problematic. The main issues are grassy weeds and a pest called wireworms that love cereals. I was initially thinking of planting in rows and weeding manually (long walks through the wheat each week didn’t sound so bad). I’ve since opted to broadcast the grain, which simply means dispersing it by hand while walking up and down the lightly broken soil.  This is the plan, but not before a season of cover crop to help suppress some weeds. The cover crop, in my case a mix of clover, vetch, rye, oats, and triticale, should speedily blanket the field, outcompeting weeds for sunlight. It goes in the ground right now in fall, grows a bit before the cold halts most growth, and continues on in early spring until we till it back into the soil slowly with the tiniest tractor. This added organic matter benefits the soil, which will feed our wheat and barley planting. Clover and vetch are legumes -  just what’s needed to prime our cereals! The grains (oats, rye, and triticale) are fast growing, winter hardy plants that will add biomass. 

Step one was to mow and till the field to break up the grass and weeds as much as possible. I grew up playing hockey and always dreamed of one day driving a zamboni (every rink rat’s dream?). Operating a tractor has to be at least as fun, with much better views. 10/10 love this Kubota tractor!!!

Step two is planting the cover crop! Couldn’t be happier to get this in the ground, and not a moment too soon. I used a manual crank Earthway broadcast seeder. It has a bag that feeds seed onto a moving plate, which launches the seed 10 feet in all directions while the operator walks a steady line and turns the crank. After getting the seeds onto the soil, you have to rake it in. Rather than invite all my friends to rake for hours, I chained a spare length of metal fence to the back of the tractor and weighed it down with some pavers that were lying around. One pass over the ground covered it just so, now ready and waiting for the rain to continue…remember this is all to grow grain, which won’t get seeded until spring. And not before tilling in this cover crop, adding some manure (from happy cows on the island) and a biochar compost tea (from Cuauhtemoc, an indigenous permaculture expert on the island), and allowing even more time. I am investing my energy into the soil in hopes of attracting earthworms, storing moisture for the seasons ahead, and fueling a nutritive food crop that I might one day mill into flour, ferment into bread, and share with folks in my small community. 

Thanks for reading!