As many of you have read, we had an accidental wheat crop. I put down EZ Straw as the mulch in the orchard beds last Fall. We've used it a few years in a row in the garden, never had a problem. This year though, for whatever reason, it sprouted.
With the wet late Winter and Spring, I never had a chance to clear out the beds until this past weekend (see Monday's post). I pulled it up and surprisingly, it came out easily, pulling up with shallow roots and staying in clumps.
I pulled them up at the beds and then trimmed off the stalks from he root balls but for a few bunches, I took them to the porch, put them in chair next to me and started trimming. It was a nice project to do while sitting in the rocking chair with a glass of tea. I cut them off at the base and then stripped off all the leaves...
...and then laid them in a pile next to me. I ended up with several hundred(!) of these.
Some are still a bit green but the rest are dried and brown. I spread them all out on the floor of the barn so they can continue drying. We've read that some will dry green if they are cut green.
After all are nicely dried, I'll spend some time sorting them by color and size, getting rid of broken ones, etc. After that, not sure what we will do with them, but it will certainly be a conversation starter in the future when people come over...that time we grew wheat by accident, ha.
Something like this would be nice. I definitely think we have enough, ha!
Anyone have any dried wheat use suggestions?
Awesome! What pretty Fall arrangements they will make just by adding a few faux items or put in tall vase, wine bottles, etc. or leave as is.
ReplyDeleteMakes for pretty Fall arrangements; faux pumpkins with artificial Fall leaves and a small bundle of wheat in the center. Use in Fall arrangement with pinecones adding in some pheasant feathers or other long feathers or can even add some faux cattails,form a small bundle of wheat and tie a pretty Fall ribbon around and set in center of a table or on end table or anywhere to had texture and beauty, but some in small galvanized bucket and set around on your end tables, coffee table or where ever
Preserving dry wheat; https://faeriesandfauna.com/how-to-preserve-fresh-wheat-stalks-for-fall-decor/
thanks for the link. Yep, I was thinking of all sorts of Fall projects for sure.
DeleteNice to have accidentally grown some fall decor!
ReplyDeleteWould that make me the "Accidental Decorator"? Ha!
DeleteYou had a great harvest! I like the mixed colors of greens and browns. That will make your arrangements even more interesting.
ReplyDeleteHere are some ideas I found:
Make a loose wreath and tie with burlap mixed with fall motif ribbon.
Bundles of wheat tied with raffia or burlap ribbon; tuck in some fall flowers or sunflowers or fall berries.
Wheat stalks in Mason jars with lavender stalks.
A wheat wreath on a table with a bowl of fall fruits in the middle.
OOH some great ideas! I LOVE the idea of mason jars and lavender. Thanks!
DeleteHey 2nd man, how many loaves of bread can you make from this harvest? :-)
ReplyDeleteHey don't think it didn't cross our minds, ha! Not sure how that would even happen though. Of course if the worse happened In the world maybe I need to know how TO do that, ha.
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