Nick's peas

We call these Nick's since the seed came to us from Eric's great-uncle Nick.  They are small but shell pretty easily.

Wheat harvest

We grow two varieties of wheat.  One is an heirloom soft wheat called Red May.  We use this softwheat for biscuits and pancakes.  We also grow a modern hard wheat called NuEast.  It was developed by NC State as a hard wheat adapted to the SE.  We use it for yeast breads.

We use an International 82 combine that we pull behind our tractor.

The combine cuts the wheat and threshes it.  The next step is to run it through our hand crank fanning mill to get the rest of the chaff out.  We then store it in sealing buckets that we've frozen.

 

Bee swarm in the water box

  When we went to turn the irrigation on earlier this week, we found a cluster of bees.  A swarm had taken up residence on the underside of the lid to our water box.

As can be seen they'd already built a bit of comb.  We put the lid of the water box on top of a hive with frames in it so the bees will move into the bee box.

Germ testing

 It's that time of year again - germ testing seed. 

Turmeric

 We grew such a big crop of turmeric this year that we didn't get it all dug before the coldest weather of winter.  We simply covered it with a layer of hay.  We're glad it came through winter fine, but it really is time to get it all dug.  After it is dug, it can be stored in the fridge sealed up for a time.  We've been storing what we harvested in the fall in moist sawdust in a cool outbuilding.  It can also be frozen.  And we've been dehydrating it lately by peeling and shredding then drying.  We use it in stir-fries and make a ginger/turmeric tea.  It is a pretty new crop to us, though, so we're still exploring how to enjoy it.

Yacons

whole yacons, dehydrated pieces and slices of fresh yacon

We mostly eat yacons fresh.  After curing indoors for a couple weeks, the skins get a bit wrinkly and they get sweeter.  Simply slice and eat or grate to use in a salad.  We also enjoy them dehyrdrated.

Radishes