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Most of us grow flowers, fruits and/or vegetables, but how many of us grow grains in our gardens?
Not I, and not anyone I know personally. But after connecting with Brie Arthur, author of the new book âGardening With Grains,â I realized thatâs a shame.
Brie is a horticulturist who lives in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, with her husband, David, and three cats, Sophia, Ava Grace and Reginald.Â
There, she tends beautiful foodscaped gardens and grows grains. She turned both of those passions into successful books to inspire the rest of us: ââFoodscape Revolutionâ and âGardening With Grains.â
I connected with Brie last week, and she shared some insights about growing grains -- and generously offered to share a copy of âGardening With Grainsâ as a giveaway for the winner of our Garden Poetry Contest (the winner will announced in the coming weeks â itâs taking awhile to go through all of the submissions)!
JESSICA: Hi, Brie! Thanks for joining us at The Weekly Dirt. Please tell us a bit about your gardening background.
BRIE: Iâve been gardening since childhood, but professionally, for 23 years! I studied Landscape Design Horticulture at Purdue University. After graduating, I moved to North Carolina and have been working in the green industry ever since.Â
JESSICA: What inspired you to write a book about gardening with grains, which arenât typically found in the average backyard garden?
BRIE: Curiosity about essential food sources that arenât represented in traditional home vegetable gardens. I was at a âlocalâ restaurant, but none of the essential ingredients, like the rice, the flour for bread, etc., were local, and it really made me start thinking more critically about grains and how they could be incorporated and enjoyed by home gardeners like me. Â
JESSICA: What are some key benefits of incorporating grains into home gardeningâwhy do you think folks should consider planting themâ?Â
BRIE: Grains are beautiful, first and foremost. Cool-season grains like barley, oats, rye and wheat remain green through the winter, and their blooms are intriguing. I like growing them in clumps, just like traditional ornamental grass, so they look very intentional.Â
JESSICA: What are some beginner-friendly grains that newbies can start with?Â
BRIE: Rice! Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but growing rice is super easy through the summer everywhere in North America. Simply fill a pot with no drainage holes with compost (ideally 5â10-gallon size) and scatter rice seed on top (ready-to-grow from a seed supplier). With your hands, mix the seed into the top 1 inch of compost and place the container in full sun.Â
Water gently, and the seed should germinate in 5-10 days.Â
As the plants get larger, the pot can be fully saturated, essentially creating a paddy. By the end of summer, the rice will bolt, bloom, and set seed, which can be harvested to eat, used as a dried element in decorations, or refrigerated to grow the following season! Most people have eaten rice at least once in their lives, but very few have ever grown it.Â
JESSICA: Which are your favorite homegrown grains, and why?Â
BRIE: Wheat is my favorite homegrown grain because it is beautiful and easy to harvest for culinary use. That was the first grain I cultivated, and the initial harvest yielded 20 pounds of ground flour grown in my front yard!Â
When we served those meals, we made bread and tortillas and shared the story with friends and family. That experience allowed me to dream about the opportunities that could happen in the sprawling suburbs, where essential crops could be cultivated in creative ways to support local bakeries or breweries! The possibilities are endless for real, local food to be grown in a meaningful way to support your community.Â
JESSICA: Does gardening with grains contribute to sustainability and biodiversity at all?
BRIE: Absolutely, grains contribute to sustainability. Beyond the edible component they offer, grain plants have deep root systems that essentially act as natural tillers and draw nutrients back up to the surface. Their soil-improvement qualities are one of the main reasons I continue to grow them in my garden year-round.Â
JESSICA: Can you offer any tips for successful grain gardening, particularly for those of us growing them for the first time?
BRIE: Look for your sunniest areas because all grains prefer more sun than shade. Also, sow the seeds directly instead of starting them and transplanting. Grains that are planted directly in place will develop a better root system.Â
JESSICA: Do you want to address any misconceptions about growing grains at home?Â
BRIE: You donât need a tractor to grow your own grains! Of course, mechanization is critical for commercial production, but for home gardeners, the experience of hand harvesting, threshing, and winnowing is what makes it special. No, you arenât likely to grow enough to never grocery shop again, but after growing grains, your appreciation for what farmers provide grows exponentially!Â
JESSICA: Will you share a recipe for homegrown grains?Â
WHEAT TORTILLAS
Adapted from The Café Sucré Marine
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 2 minutes
Serves: 12
If you are going to go through the effort of growing, harvesting, threshing, and grinding your wheat, you might as well make something delicious from it. Quesadillas may be my favorite thing to eat of all time, especially when the tortillas are made from scratch and served warm. Making your own tortillas is not terribly difficult or time-consuming, and they are easily frozen for future use. And for the over-achievers, itâs a fun way to impress guests with a zero-kilometer dinner party using your own flour!
Ingredients:Â
·3 cups flour
·1 teaspoon salt
·1 teaspoon baking powder
·â cup olive oil
·1 cup cold water
Directions:Â
Combine flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a stand mixer.Â
With the dough hook, mix dry ingredients.Â
Add oil and water with the mixer running at medium speed for 1 minute, scraping the sides of the bowl when necessary.Â
When the mixture comes together and begins to form a ball, decrease the mixing speed to low. Continue to mix for 1 minute or until the dough is smooth.Â
Transfer the dough from the mixing bowl to a well-floured work surface. Divide it in half, then in half again, until you have 16 equal portions.Â
Form each piece into a ball and flatten to Âœâ. If the dough is sticky, add more flour. Cover flattened balls of dough with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes.Â
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat *Do not add oil.Â
Roll each dough piece into a rough circle, about 6-7â in diameter, keeping your work surface and rolling pin lightly floured. Â *Do not stack uncooked tortillas on top of each other, or they will get soggy.Â
Place one dough circle into the pan and cook for 1 minute or until the bottom surface has a few brown spots. Flip to the other side and cook for about 30 seconds. The tortilla should be soft with a few small, pale golden-brown spots on the surface.Â
Remove from pan with tongs and stack in a covered container or zippered bag until all tortillas are cooked. This will keep them soft and pliable.Â
Wipe out the pan in between tortillas if flour starts to accumulate.Â
Serve warm or allow to cool for later use.Â
When ready to use, place a slightly damp paper towel in the bottom of a container (with a cover) that will hold the warm, stacked tortillas.Â
To store, keep in an airtight container or zippered bag at room temperature for 24 hours or freeze. To freeze, separate tortillas with parchment or wax paper and lay flat in a zippered bag.
đŹ Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: I like your practical no-nonsense advice. I also like coffee, but lately, I was advised to stop putting coffee grounds in my compost. Something about caffeine inhibiting growth? âBetsye from Illinois
DEAR BETSYE: Using coffee grounds has long been touted as a home remedy to lower the soil pH around acid-loving plants like rhododendrons and blueberries
But what youâve heard is correct: Caffeine can inhibit seed germination and slow the growth of some plants. However, itâs also true that used coffee grounds contain far less caffeine than unused grounds or straight brewed coffee.
The problem is itâs impossible to determine exactly how much pH-lowering acidity is in the specific batch of coffee grounds you incorporate into the soil.
If you want to lower your soilâs pH, itâs best to use elemental sulfur at the dosages recommended on the package label. And if you want to use coffee grounds in the garden, itâs best to compost them first.
Got a gardening question? Ask it here.
đ©đœâđŸ Gifts for Motherâs Day â or yourself!
If youâre shopping for a last-minute gift for your gardening Mom or just want to treat yourself to something new, Iâve got some tried-and-true suggestions, including an old but new-to-me tool that has become my #1 favorite.
Plus, save 20% off fresh flower delivery on orders placed by tomorrow, May 6, 2024.
đĄ If you do one thing this weekâŠ
Please mow your lawns. No Mow May isnât what itâs cracked up to be. Hereâs why.
đ Sunday shoutout
Reader Barbara Sonner writes, âThis is me in 1977, standing next to a fig tree that grew against the chimney on the south side of my house in North Merrick, New York.
Unfortunately, we sold the house, and the people who bought it got rid of the tree because it was growing into the driveway.
Out of a family of 7, only my daughter and I ate the figs. I was heartbroken about losing that delicious fruit.
In my opinion, the fig tree is the most generous and undemanding of fruit trees.Â
Send in your photo, and you could be featured next (bonus points if youâre in the picture!)
đ°This week in my Associated Press gardening column
I write a weekly gardening column for the AP, so you might have seen my byline in your local paper (or news website) â wherever in the world you happen to be. In case you miss it, Iâll post the most recent here every week.
THIS WEEK: Flowers arenât the only way to add color to the garden. Hereâs how to âpaintâ with foliage.
LAST WEEK: The problem with leaf blowers â and what to do instead.
BEFORE THAT: Foodscaping: If your vegetable garden is too small for all the plants you want to grow, why not slip them into the flower garden? This is worth considering even if youâre not short on space - itâs a unique and often beautiful way to dress up your beds and borders.
You can read all my AP gardening columns here. Â
đđșđ” Random things I enjoyed this week
đș I watched Kajillionaire, and it was fantastic â in a quirky, funny, sad, wacky, dysfunctional way. Evan Rachel Wood, Gina Rodriguez, Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins were perfection in this movie about a family of con artists who meet a stranger who changes their lives.
đș I also watched the second season of the horror anthology Them and thought it was even better than the first.
đ©âđł I took a scone-making class (fun!)
đ© And I got roasted by a website that called me a âwoke gardening nerd columnist ladyâ and said they were âreally not in the mood for Jessica's shitâ after reading my latest column about leaf blowers. All in a dayâs work, I suppose.
đ©đŒâđ€âđšđżMembership Drive
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đAll of these levels also come with my sincere gratitude:
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I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along â as well as any topics youâd like to see covered and questions youâd like answered in the Ask Jessica section.
Grandpaâs weeder is a great tool and alternative to spraying your dandelions with weed killerâŠ.bought one last year in lieu of using a weed killer (we have a dog) and although takes more time, does a great job of getting down to the root :)