Tips for Maintaining a Well-Stocked Pantry

The autumn season always brings out the 'inner squirrel' in me! Time to clean out our pantries and use up or pass along to others anything getting close to its 'best by' date (or, if past that, compost or toss it out). Once clean and organized, I love restocking our pantries with the many foods we've harvested and preserved over the summer.

But even if you don't have a lot of food you've grown or preserved yourself, autumn is a great time to take refresh your pantry. Seasonally, it just 'feels right' and at least in the U.S. there are lots of holiday sales on food you can take advantage of.

Regardless of the season, whether you’re concerned about preparing for a natural disaster or economic hard times, or just tired of opening your cupboards and not having a variety of tasty, nutritious items to choose from, it’s always a good idea to get in the habit of stocking and maintaining one’s pantry. Here are some tips to help: Tips for Maintaining a Well-Stocked Pantry

How we grow...Veganic Community-based gardening

The Sharing Gardens is based on the concept of mutual generosity; building relationships through the sharing of time and resources. One of the ways we demonstrate this is through our process of building fertility in our soils.

Since 2020 we have grown all our food "veganically" and without the use of commercial fertilizers. This means we use no livestock manures (cow, chicken, sheep etc) and no animal by-products (blood or bone meal etc) or any products mined or shipped from distant lands (gypsum, bat guano etc.). Being vegetarian, and committed to deriving our food from local sources whenever possible, this way of growing food just makes sense to us!

Most of our garden's fertility comes from leaves...

Our system is simple: the majority of our soil's fertility comes from leaves and grass which we compost in large wooden bins or in the paths of our greenhouses. 

...and grass clippings.

The challenge is in gathering enough materials. Here's where the mutual generosity comes in! We provide a drop-off site for our neighbors and yard-maintenance companies to bring their leaves and grass. This means they don't have to pay to have these valuable materials hauled away in trash cans, or deposited at the closest municipal-scale composting site (25 miles away). We receive these materials in abundance and are able to extensively mulch and compost our garden beds, create our own potting mix and have enough compost to share with the volunteers in our gardens who have small gardens of their own.

Besides composting yard waste in large wooden bins, we spread it in layers in the paths of our greenhouses which turns to compost beneath our feet. Donn: spreading grass clippings in the SunShip greenhouse.

Compost is scooped up from the paths in the autumn, sifted and bagged for use throughout the coming season.

Craig, sifting compost.

When people drop off their yard waste in plastic lawn/leaf bags, we hang them to dry on clotheslines in our greenhouses. Once dry, we roll them into bunches of 5-6 bags, twist-tie them together and put them in a covered barrel at the drop-off site for our neighbors to take for free and use for future loads. This helps reduce our community's use of plastic.

Llyn, folding leaf bags for re-use.

We place a sandwich-board sign out on the street, inviting neighbors to bring us their  leaves and grass. Touching up the paint is a winter task...

Barrel on the left holds free bags that have been dried and rolled in bundles for people to re-use. We ask people to leave the bags untied and to turn them upside-down to prevent rain from getting in.

To read a detailed post about our veganic soil-making methods, CLICK HERE.

A small percentage of our soil  fertility also comes from coffee grounds collected from coffee shops by friends of the Gardens and wood ash (left), a by-product of how we heat our home. Here is a LINK explaining the benefits of these free resources.

We're so very grateful to all our neighbors who have participated in this program this year.

 

Crumb-Free, Whole-Grain Cornbread Recipe

Yummm!

Here is a recipe I developed over the years for a delicious, whole-grain corn-bread mix. I make it in bulk, pre-mixing all the dry ingredients so, if we want a loaf for breakfast or guests, or potlucks, it's a simple matter of adding the wet ingredients and popping it in the oven.

For best results, use all 'organic' ingredients. Most corn grown in the United States that is not-organic, is GM (genetically modified) and both corn and wheat, even if not GM is often grown with heavy pesticide use. "Organically grown" means: good for your health; good for the health of the planet!

We grow our own blue-corn for meal.

Corn Bread Mix (makes enough for about 13 loaves).

In a large bowl, measure and mix thoroughly:

3 cups All Purpose Flour
2.5 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
2 cups Corn Flour
3/4 cup Yellow Corn Meal
3/4 cup Blue Corn Meal

Mix all the flours and meals together thoroughly. I like to use my hands!

In a smaller bowl, measure and mix thoroughly:

2.5 cups Brown Sugar
3/4 cup Coconut Flour
1/2 cup Baking Powder
2.5 teaspoons Salt
1.5 cups Ground-Seed Mix (1/3 cup Poppy seeds, 1/3 cup Chia seeds, 2/3 cups (and a bit) of Flax seeds - See note below.)

Mix  the two bowls of dry ingredients together. Take extra-care to be very thorough in this mixing process, otherwise you may have some loaves that don't have enough baking powder to rise well, or a loaf might be too salty (or not salty enough). Store in an airtight container, in a cool place out of direct sunlight. Corn products are especially susceptible to rancidity.

Recipe uses a 7.5" x 4" mini-bread pan

Recipe for Individual Loaves: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil 7.5 " x 4" mini-bread pan (see picture).

• Measure wet ingredients, whip briskly - thoroughly mixing. For best results, bring wet ingredients to room temperature.
• Add dried fruit/nuts, or savory ingredients (see notes below). Mix well.
• Add bread-mix. Gently fold together so all flours are moistened. Don't over-mix because the baking powder works by creating air-bubbles. Mixing too briskly causes them all to pop, making a flat loaf.
• Let batter stand in bread-pan for five minutes before putting into pre-heated oven so baking powder can begin to rise.
• Bake for 30-35 min. (till top is brown and toothpick inserted comes out dry).

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1/3 cup not-milk (soy, almond, oat milk...)
1 tablespoon light oil - we use sunflower or safflower as they don't have strong flavors

Fruits/Nuts etc.
1/4 - 1/2 cup - This recipe is nice because it can be made sweet or savory depending on what meal it's accompanying. Be creative! (See variation-notes below).

Dry mix:
1 cup

Notes-Mix:

Blue Corn Meal: Blue corn meal is higher in protein than yellow corn meal (by as much as 30%). We like to grow and grind our own - LINK.
Coconut Flour: We recently discovered coconut flour and love using it for many purposes: we sprinkle about a tablespoon on our bowls of hot cereal, we use it in pie crusts and sometimes use it to thicken smoothies. Important: if you experiment with substituting it for regular flours, it is highly fibrous so use it in place of an other whole grain at a rate of 3/4:1 (if receipe calls for 1 cup WW flour, use 3/4 cup coconut flour instead).
Baking Powder: Baking powder, especially if exposed to air and moisture will lose its potency over time. So, don't buy more than you can use in 6-9 months and store it in an air-tight container.
Ground seeds: Using a 2-cup measuring cup, fill to 2/3 cup with chia and poppy and then top it off with flax-seeds up to 1.5 cups. Grind the mixture of seeds using an electric coffee-grinder that is dedicated to non-coffee grinding-- or cleaned very well.

Variations-Notes: 

Here are some of our favorite sweet combos:

• Banana/dried date-pieces/walnuts 
• Dried apricot pieces/date pieces/dried lemon peel (soak well in wet ingredients for 30 min.)
• Raisins/sunflower seeds, 

OR savory options:

• chopped red-peppers/green onions/small cubes of cheese. 

Pancakes - thin the batter with a splash of soy-milk, milk or water. Great with homemade apple butter, yogurt and honey or your own favorite topping!

Thin the batter for pancakes and add your favorite toppings.

The Sharing Gardens is a registered non-profit and tax-exempt organization. We exist entirely through donations. If you have found benefit from our project or our site, please consider making a small donation through PayPal. (Click button below.)

Making Pumpkin Pie from Scratch - Recipe

Sugar-pie pumpkins; a variety bred for sweet, smooth flesh.

(This is re-posted from October 2020) Making pumpkin pie from scratch is truly a labor of love! How much easier it is just to open a can of puree. In the spirit of the slow food movement, we start making our pies back in April when we first plant the seeds! The small vines are transplanted into mounds of compost we've made ourselves, mulched, watered and weeded through the summer and harvested by the hundreds of pounds after they get their first kiss of frost.

This year, because of the tremendously hot and dry summer, almost all our winter-squash (the types we use to make pie-filling) finished ripening well before the first frost so we harvested them anyway. They're not as sweet as when they've been frosted but every bit as nutritious.

Provence, Buttercups and Sweetmeats.

When you're planning your garden for next season, consider sketching out enough space for plenty of winter-squash. Winter squash are the varieties that have a harder skin and store well for enjoyment all through the winter.  "Pumpkins" are just a variety of the larger category of "squash". Pumpkin pie filling can be made from sugar-pie pumpkins, or any kind of sweet, golden-meat type of squash. Delicata, Buttercup and Sweetmeat are all good varieties. If you don't have room in your garden next year, look for these varieties at your local market. Sometimes we combine two types of squash/pumpkin to make one batch of filling. Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are not good to use as they are not bred for sweetness and the meat can be quite stringy. Our current favorite is the Provence pumpkin, an heirloom variety that has the sweetest meat we’ve found. It tends to grow quite large so it provides filling for many pies but, because they tend to be so big, they're not often grown commercially (most people can't use that much squash before it goes bad) so, if you want a Provence, you'll probably have to grow your own.

We make many batches of filling at once and freeze them. If you’re going to mess up the kitchen, you might as well make it worth it! Be sure you have plenty of all the ingredients you’ll need on hand. Or, you can also bake the squash and freeze it in 2-cup batches plain, using it much like you'd use a can of store-bought puree.

To bake the squash: 

The Provence is one of our favorites for pie.

Preheat oven to 400

Wash pumpkin/squash and dry skin.   
Cut it open: Use a stout, sharp knife on a table or counter low enough that you can use the weight of your upper body to quarter the squash.  Doing it on the floor might even be easiest. 

Use a strong metal spoon to scrape out seeds and loose pulp/strings. You can put the seeds and pulp outside to feed birds and squirrels or separate the seeds, oil, salt and bake them. You probably won't want to save the seeds for planting, unless you're certain that they haven't "crossed" with other varieties. 

Cut into smaller pieces: Though it can be quite a challenge to cut these large, winter squash into smaller pieces for baking, you’ll be rewarded with a much shorter cooking time.

Orange, sweet flesh, yum!!

Place squash with skin facing down in a baking pan that has sides that are at least a two-inches deep. Many squash give off quite a lot of juice and can make a mess in your oven if the juice spills over the side of the pan. A roasting pan is ideal.

Bake squash/pumpkin for one hour, or until a fork pokes easily, deep into the flesh.

Once done, allow to cool. If you’ve chosen one of the juicier squashes, you’ll have best results by putting the pieces in a large colander over a bowl to drain any excess juice. The juice makes a delicious soup stock. I used to peel off the skins but found that they can be food-processed and taste just fine.

If you baked more squash than you’re prepared to deal with, you can freeze it and thaw to make filling at a later time. Freeze in 2-cup batches.

Sydney w/ a Provence

Yummy Natural Pumpkin Pie Filling 

YIELD: Filling for one, 9” pie.

Preheat oven to 365

In a food processor (a blender will not work), combine:

2 eggs (sorry, we haven't perfected a vegan version yet...)

2 cups squash/pumpkin

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 TBSP powdered milk (or soy protein powder*)

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

½ tsp salt

½ cup soy milk, cow’s milk, almond or coconut milk

Begin with eggs, alone. Mix thoroughly.

Add squash. Puree till smooth. Check to be sure there are no pumpkin lumps.
Add milk and all dry ingredients making an effort to distribute spices evenly. Mix in well.

* (not soy-flour).

Pour into your favorite pie shell and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour at 375 or until the pie is golden-brown, the middle is reasonably firm (it will get firmer as it cools) and before the crust gets too brown. Cool on wire rack before eating. Cover and chill to store.

To freeze filling for later:

Combine everything except the eggs. Make one batch at a time. Each batch is a little less than a quart so you can put it in your favorite freezer-containers. We use qt-size plastic zip-lock bags. Label them with blue, painter’s masking tape (it won’t come off in the freezer and you can peel it off after you empty the bag, wash the bag and re-use it.) I always write a reminder on the label to add two eggs. Lay the bags flat and you can easily stack many of them in your freezer.

When you want to make a pie, thaw the filling, add the eggs and use a blender, a mixer or food processor to mix it all well. By mixing in the eggs right before baking, you’ll have a fluffier, more pudding-like pie. Bake as above.

If you run out of any ingredients, before you've used up your squash, just freeze bags of the plain squash puree' and add the other ingredients right before baking. Freeze in 2-cup batches so you can thaw them, one pie at a time.

James and Jaye holding Buttercups; a drier, sweet, golden squash.

Flaky Rolled Pie Crust – YIELD: Two 9” pies without top shells

1 ¼  cups unbleached pastry flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup coconut flour

1 tsp. salt

2/3 cup sunflower oil (chilled is best)

1/3 cup ice water

Mix the flours and salt. Pour the oil and water into a cup but don’t stir. Mix with the flour. Press into a ball. Cut into halves. Place between two sheets of 12-inch waxed paper. Dampen a tabletop to prevent slipping. Roll out until the circle of dough reaches the edge of the paper. Peel off top paper and place the crust face down in a pie tin. Peel off the other paper and fit dough into tin. Freeze extra pie crust, in a pie-tin, in a plastic bag for later use.

Llyn, with Sugar-pie pumpkins.

The Sharing Gardens is a non-profit and tax-exempt organization. We exist entirely through donations. If you have found benefit from our project or our site, please consider making a donation through PayPal. (Click button below.)

'Nooks and Crannies' hot breakfast cereal RECIPE

We get feedback sometimes that our posts are too garden-specific and, for people who aren't gardeners they wonder what they can do to live a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle. Well, here's a recipe for the hot cereal mix that we eat almost every morning.

We named the cereal mix 'Nooks and Crannies' because it seems to meet so many of our nutritional needs. After a bowl of it we feel incredibly sated and it gives us slow-burning fuel that lasts the morning. Our philosophy is to try and get as many nutrients (and as few toxins!) from the food we eat so we lean towards whole foods with the least amount of processing. We mainly buy organically grown foods and everything we grow is, of course, also organic. We also try to eat a variety of foods so that the micro-nutrients that are low in one food might be filled in by eating something else. (LINK: Why We Grow and Eat "Organic" Food )

This post contains the recipe for making 'Nooks and Crannies' cereal including a list of ingredients (all 31 of them!) followed by instructions for making your own pre-ground seed/nut mix. Enjoy!

Kassaby sorghum - sweet and nutty in flavor. (LINK: Grow your own Sorghum for grain and flour )

Honestly, the recipe for making the cereal itself isn't much different from what most people make and eat; grains and dried fruit.  What really sets Nooks and Crannies apart are all the toppings we add after the cereal is cooked.  Here are some ideas to make your experience truly deluxe! 

One of the unusual ingredients we add to our cereal is dried Lion's Mane mushroom. LINK: Health Benefits of Lion's Mane)

Nooks and Crannies special toppings: These are all added after cooking (to preserve their maximal nutritional value).   

pre-ground seed and nut mix - our current mix contains nine ingredients - all organically grown seeds and nuts. We pre-grind and pre-mix it so, at the time of making the cereal, we just put a TBSP on each serving of cereal (to make your own, see below).
dried and powdered turmeric - scant 1/8 tsp. - this is purported to provide anti-inflammatory relief (and a host of other benefits). We bought a big bag of it when we found it on sale but then found that its flavor got in the way of us using it regularly. By adding just this tiny amount to our cereal, it doesn't affect the flavor and we figure that having a tiny bit each day is better than none at all.
dried and powdered lion's mane mushrooms - scant 1/8 tsp. - though not as strong flavored as the turmeric and touted as having equally impressive health benefits (particularly for the neurological system) we just weren't eating it! So, now we get a little bit almost daily with our cereal.
dried coconut flour - 1 TBSP per serving - adds sweetness and protein
maple syrup - for many people, the dried fruit will make your cereal plenty sweet but we still like to add maple syrup after cooking
soy milk and/or nut milk - we've gone through phases of making our own but can't seem to use it fast enough to balance out the hassle of prep-time. It's frustrating when it spoils before we use it up and we have to throw some of it away. So for now, we settle for commercial soy and nut milks.

Making the cereal: As I mentioned above, the base for Nooks and Crannies is grains and dried/frozen fruit. (left: Llyn with home-grown blue corn)

I make the cereal in two steps: The first step is to cook the grains and dried fruits together. After they're done, I add a bunch more toppings (above).

As a rule of thumb, you'll want about 2 -parts water to 1-part dry ingredients. I start out with a 2:1 ratio but usually end up adding more water while the cereal simmers. I always start with, and add heated water so as not to retard the cooking process. 

The key to swift morning prep-time is to have some of the ingredients pre-ground and pre-mixed  - the grain mix and the seed/nut mix (see below). This makes the daily prep much faster as we just need a scoop or spoonful of each.

We have all the ingredients stored close together in jars with lids so I can just open each one and add a handful to the pot. The frozen fruits are also kept in jars; I just find it easier to open and close a jar than to mess with freezer bags (that zip closed) or twist-ties (which aren't air-tight).

So I go down the line of jars and add everything to the pot. The only thing I actually use a measuring cup for is the grain-mix (corn and sorghum). Everything else I just scoop out little (or big!) handfuls with my hands. You'll find what works best for you.

If time is an issue in your morning routine, pre-soak the grains and fruit overnight and add some hot water in the morning and simmer till done.

Basic recipe: (serves two adults)

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup pre-mixed cornmeal/medium-ground sorghum (We grow, grind and pre-mix this combo. If you don't have access to a grain-grinder, just buy the grains ahead of time and pre-mix them in the following ratio: 1 part each: blue corn meal, yellow corn meal, sorghum meal)
3/4 cup dried/frozen fruits and other goodies (for ideas, see below)
2 cups hot water
Add a pinch of salt
Pour hot water on dry ingredients, stir, cover and place on very low heat, simmering for 10-20 minutes.
Add more hot water if it's getting too thick, stirring occasionally.
After 10-20 minutes of simmering, turn heat off and leave covered for another 10 min. It will continue to cook.
Add Nooks and Crannies special toppings (listed above) and serve.

 Ideas for dried fruits and other goodies: Just choose a combination that pleases you -about 3/4 cup total. Here's what we use:
    raisins - (pictured left: the year we made raisins out of our own grapes. Very time-consuming and not worth it. Now we buy them but we could make them if we had to...)
    dried pears
    dried figs
    dried date pieces coated in oat flour - (these are found in the bulk section)
    prunes - I read somewhere that a few of these a day is especially good for bone density...We all know the other health benefit their known for...regularity!
    dried bananas  - Sometimes bananas will be sold at a huge discount if they become too ripe so we dehydrate a bunch of them for later use.  

Other goodies: these I also add before cooking...
dried shredded coconut - just a small handful
cacao nibs -  they're a bit bitter but highly nutritious so I just put about 1 rounded teaspoon per double person serving.
frozen blueberries or strawberries - (left: strawberries from our garden, frozen on a tray. They are SO full of flavor!)

After 10-20 minutes of simmering, turn heat off and leave covered for another 10 min. It will continue to cook.
Add bonus toppings (listed above) and serve.

Sorghum drying. We grow our own, dry it and grind it for cereal and baking.

Pre-ground seed mix: (Added after the grains and fruits are cooked - 1 TBSP per serving) As mentioned above, we save on morning prep-time by having the following ingredients pre-ground and mixed. Seeds are incredibly nutrient-dense. They need to be as they hold everything the little plant needs to get started in life! Be sure and consume only organically grown seeds...Better for you; better for the Earth.

We pre-grind and pre-mix this combo in advance and freeze the surplus. Seeds (and nuts), once ground can lose a lot of their nutrients quickly if exposed to air or heat. 

We use an electric coffee-grinder to grind the seeds. We have one that is specifically dedicated to this so it doesn't pick up the taste of coffee. Of the following list, the only thing we grow ourselves are the two kinds of amaranth (Right: Llyn with Hopi Red Dye Amaranth). Everything else is store-bought. We buy them in bulk. As you'll see, almost half the mix is composed of flax seeds.

A tip for grinding: Measure out all the seeds and combine in a bowl or large measuring cup. Mix them well and scoop out the amount that fits in your grinder. Grind, and pour into another bowl. Scoop more/grind/pour etc. By mixing the flax seeds in with the other seeds the grinder won't get as bogged down with the seeds that are high in oils (especially sesame seeds). Store in airtight containers in your fridge or freezer.

Here's the combo of seeds we use:

4 parts flax seeds -  We love their flavor; they're great for digestion and give a sense of bulk/fluff to the cereal. I can't even remember all the reasons they're good for you (but there are a lot of them!) so that's why it forms the foundation of the seed mix.
2 parts pumpkin seeds - raw, unsalted
2 parts sunflower seeds - raw, unsalted
1 part sesame seeds - we use the brown ones as they've not had their hulls removed so they are more nutritious than the white ones
1 part hemp hearts - these are soft, inner parts of the hemp seeds after removing the outer shell/hull - highly nutritious. (Be sure to get the hulled seeds as those that still have their seed coating are a bit bitter. LINK)
1 part chia seeds
1/2 part poppy seeds
1/2 part Golden Amaranth - we grow this ourselves - sweet and nutty flavored
1/2 part Hopi Red Dye amaranth - this doesn't taste as sweet as the Golden amaranth but it volunteers all over our garden so we might as well harvest, dry it and eat it!

Grain mix: (cooked with rolled oats and dried fruit) (right: Daimant grain mill we use to grind our corn and sorghum).

We grow, process and grind the blue corn, yellow corn and sorghum ourselves. We grind them courser than a flour...more like a "meal" (we like the texture and at this level of coarseness it doesn't take too long to cook).

We grind and mix up a few gallons of this grain mix at a time and store half of it in the fridge to maintain freshness. The other half, we keep outside the fridge for easy access when we're assembling the morning cereal.

2 parts ground blue corn - (higher in protein than yellow corn meal; turns your cereal a delightful purple!) (LINK: Grow Your Own 'Blue Corn' ) (left: Llyn with dried blue corn, before grinding)
2 parts ground yellow corn
1 part Kassaby sorghum - sweet, long-season sorghum
1 part BaYeKi sorghum - not as sweet; used primarily for baking (LINK: Grow your own Sorghum for grain and flour)

This post isn't meant to suggest a rigid rule for making 'Nooks and Crannies' but to inspire you in your own breakfast cereal creations. Enjoy!

Grow your own Sorghum for grain and flour

Small-Scale Grain Production and Processing

For the past few years, the Sharing Gardens have been growing sorghum, amaranth and corn to process and use in baking, and breakfast cereals. This post is specifically about growing, processing and storing sorghum on a small-scale. (Image left: Kassaby sorghum ripening.) To read about growing blue corn, and for other relevant LINKS, see below.

Rook and Chris harvesting Ba Ye Ki sorghum.

Sorghum is a highly nutritious grain. We live in USDA zone 8B, with relatively mild winters and a long enough growing season to ripen the types of sorghum listed below. We mainly use the grain, ground for hot breakfast cereal but sorghum, when ground finely, can be used in recipes for baked goods as well. It contains no gluten so it is appropriate for those on gluten-free diets. 7 Surprising Benefits of Sorghum, Are There Health Benefits to Eating Sorghum?.

Though sorghum has no gluten, when mixed with wheat flour, it still makes wonderful baked goods. Here it is with a Whole Grain No-knead Bread recipe we've made.

Growing conditions needed: Sorghum grows to various heights (up to 12 feet!). The plant, in early stages, looks very similar to corn. We have experimented with two varieties, Ba Ye Ki and Kassaby. (Ba Ye Qi Grain Sorghum, Ba Yi Qi Grain Sorghum (Milo) and Kassaby Sorghum - description). Ba Ye Ki is a very short-season grain so we're almost guaranteed a ripe harvest but it is also much less sweet than Kassaby - whose canes have been compared in flavor to sugar cane. Ba Ye Ki is shorter in height (6'-7') vs. Kassaby which can grow to 12'. Because of Kassaby's greater height and its higher sugar content, it also requires a longer growing season. Both can grow in moderately rich soil but do require regular, moderate irrigation to really thrive (though I'm sure that people who have experience at dry-land farming could achieve success with less, or no watering, we have not developed that capacity on our farm).

Ba Ye Ki sorghum: a shorter crop (5'-7') and shorter season grain. Not as sweet... (pic credit: https://annapolisseeds.com/products/ba-ye-qi-sorghum)

...as Kassaby sorghum: taller (9'-12'), longer season, sweeter. Stalks can be pressed for syrup (though we've never tried it). (Image credit: https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/kassaby-sorghum)

Trellising: We have grown both varieties with, and without trellising. Kassaby - the taller variety has a sturdier stalk and seems to do fine without trellising. Ba Ye Ki, which produces grain faster, puts less energy into stalk formation and, in our experience, is prone to lodging. This can be mitigated somewhat by growing it in multiple rows or blocks of grain, with approximately 6" between plants in all directions. The plants will tend to hold each other up. 

If you only have space for a single row, the type of trellising shown above will work. Strong cable/wire is stretched taught between 10' T-posts. In the picture, we've attached bamboo uprights for pole beans to climb on.Sorghum doesn't need the bamboo uprights, it just needs to be attached to the trellis once it reaches the height where it starts to "lodge" or fall over.

Another trellising idea is to plant your grains inside a wire cage (6" between each plant, in each direction). The cage will keep them from lodging. This works for fava beans too!

Sorghum is largely self-pollinated (each plant can pollinate itself) but plants can also cross-pollinate through wind or insects transferring pollen between plants. Growing multiple plants in rows or blocks will aid in cross-pollination. Also, when laying out your garden plan, keep in mind the height of the variety you are growing so they don't block smaller plants of sunlight and water as they grow in height. (Though you can use their height to your advantage if you want to grow a shade-loving crop like lettuce, on the north or east side, to protect it from the most intense afternoon sun.)

Sorghum grows much like corn though it is "self-fertile" and relies less on wind than corn for full pollination. Kassaby sorghum is the tall, whiteish fronds to the left of Darlene while Golden Bantam corn is growing to her right.

Starting sorghum from seed: We have used two different methods for germinating sorghum seeds. The easiest method is to prepare the ground to be as weed-free as possible and scatter the seed lightly; gently covering the seed by raking or a very shallow tilling, so the seed is barely covered with soil. Later, once the sprouts have come up to 3" or 4", plants should be thinned to 6" apart. 

We've had good luck with direct-sowing our sorghum and shallowly tilling it under so it's just barely covered with soil. A good rule of thumb is to plant seeds twice the depth of the seed at its widest point.

The down-side to the scatter method is that some varieties need a long season to ripen (Kassaby variety needs 110 days, minimum) so, if you're having a cool, wet spring and can't direct sow till late in the spring, you may wish to germinate the seeds in small pots in a greenhouse or grow-tunnel and transplant them once the ground warms up/drys out. We use jumbo six-packs, or the shallow, plastic containers that our favorite tofu comes in (with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage). To germinate in pots: we fill the pots with soil, water them and then make a small indentation with our thumb so the seeds will settle in these depressions (six per tofu pack). We then place 2-3 seeds in each cell to maximize germination. Once the seedlings are about 3" high, we thin them to one per cell. 

If you try to grow them in a clusters of 2-3 plants, none of them will mature well as they compete for nutrients, water and sunlight. We have had success at teasing the individual sprouts apart at this stage and replanting them in their own cells. It just depends on if your supply of seed is limited so you need to make every seedling count and how much time you have to do this.

Sorghum plants started in 'jumbo six-packs'. We sow 2-3 seeds in each cell and then thin to a single stalk, otherwise the plants compete for nutrients and light when they're transplanted to the field. Singles are on the left; the plants on the right have yet to be thinned to one plant per cell.

Summer growth and maintenance: Irrigate the soil only as needed. Deeper, less frequent watering will encourage the roots to grow deep, pursuing the water-table and thus being more resilient to hot and dry periods and less likely to lodge (fall over) in the wind. Keep the bed as weed-free as possible till your plants are well-established. After that, they should be able to out-compete most weeds. 

When to harvest: It's important to let your sorghum ripen as much as possible before harvesting. The seeds will be sweeter, and easier to thresh (remove) from the plant, the riper they are. On the other hand, autumn rains, if they aren't followed by strong sunny periods can lead to mold forming in the seed-heads. We start checking our crops for ripeness in mid-September. The Ba Ye Ki will darken to a strong russet/red. The Kassaby will become notably whiter as it ripens.

We usually harvest the seed-heads over a span of several weeks. We use pruners to cut off ripe seed-heads with 8-10 inches of stalk still attached. This helps in the drying out process; the stalks draw moisture from the seed-heads as they dry. Having the long stalk also gives you something to hold onto for the threshing phase.

Kassaby, long-season sorghum (tall and sweet) while it's still ripening. Kernels become a pearly white when they are ripe.

Kassaby sorghum in baskets for drying (with one, red Ba Ye Qi seed-head on the right). We cut it with 8" - 10" stalks which helps it dry down (the stalk pulls out moisture from the kernels) and this gives us something to hold onto for combing the kernels off the stalk (see below).

 

Ba ye Ki sorghum, laid out in cardboard boxes in our greenhouse while days are still sunny, warm and humidity is low. These aren't as red as they should be for ideal ripeness. Our season was cut short that year by cold, heavy rains. The sorghum was still edible; just not as sweet and it was harder to thresh as well.

If we're having mostly sunny days with only moderate humidity, we lay the seed-heads on cardboard trays in our greenhouse to dry. If skies are overcast and the humidity is high, we put them in cardboard trays or baskets and bring them in the house. We heat our house with wood and have shelves all around the upper walls of our living room where our wood stove is, for the purpose of drying foods in the fall. Many fall mornings we'll start a small fire in the wood stove just to dry the air in our house and bring the temperature up slightly. Even if we have to open the windows later in the day (because outside temps have climbed) it's worth the few sticks of firewood to keep the drying process progressing.

As temperatures drop and humidity rises in the autumn, we bring our bean and grain crops inside and dry them in baskets and boxes on shelves above our wood stove. It's super important to make sure these crops are very dry. We've lost previous batches to mold that formed after we put the grains or beans into storage containers for the winter.

Threshing the sorghum: We've tried several methods over the years to remove the grain from the stalks but this year Chris came up with our best method yet! He attached a metal pet-grooming-brush/comb to a 2' x 4' board (see pic). This is placed in a deep plastic tote to catch the seed as it falls. The seed-head is combed through the tines of the comb which causes the seeds to release and fall into the tote below.

This year, Chris built two new tools for processing the sorghum. Sifter, on the left, and a pet-comb attached to a 2'x4', for teasing the grain off of the stalk (right).

Close-up of the tool we use to thresh the grain from the stalk. It's a pet-comb we found at a 2nd-hand store, bolted to a 2'x4' board.

Close-up of pulling the grain-heads across the comb. This is why we always cut the grain-heads leaving several inches of stalk for use as a handle.

 

Sifting: The next stage is to sift the seeds through a wire mesh with 1/4" sized holes. (This wire mesh is called "hardware cloth" in the USA). Chris made a framework that's the same size as the tote we're sifting into and solidly attached the mesh to its bottom edge. The grain is poured into the top and rubbed vigorously through the screen. The seeds fall through and (most) of the longer stems and chaff remain on the top of the screen.

After the grain is teased from the stalk, it is vigorously rubbed through a screen with 1/4" holes. This breaks up the clumps of grains into individual pieces and removes much of the chaff which remains on the screen.

Winnowing: There will still be some fiber that makes it through the screen so, on a day with a mildly steady wind (or standing in front of a box-fan) pour the grain back and forth from one container to an other. You will have to experiment to find the right height from which to drop the grain and, if using a fan, how far from the front of the fan to pour the grain. It's helpful if your containers are lightweight (so it's easy to pour them when full of grain) and with a wide surface area so that, as the grain falls straight down, it's not bouncing off the rim of the receiving container. The grain will fall straight into the container below and the chaff will be blown away by the wind. 

 

Repeatedly pour the grain back and forth between your two pans until you've achieved results you're satisfied with. There's no need for you to winnow out all the chaff. Just do the best you can. Any un-removed chaff will float in the cooking water if you cook it whole and can be scooped or poured off before you cook it or, if you're grinding cereal or flour, will be ground along with the seed and just provide some extra fiber to your diet!

We winnow the grain, separating the remainder of the chaff (or at least most of it) by pouring it from one container to the other multiple times on a mildly windy day (or in front of a fan). The heavier grain drops into the container below while the chaff blows away.

Drying: As our sorghum seed progresses through these phases of threshing, sifting and winnowing, we put it back into a warm, dry place between each step to keep it from absorbing more moisture. At the end of all these steps we put it into cardboard flats, or shallow pans (to give the maximum surface area) and keep it on our drying shelves until we are absolutely certain it is completely dry. Grains that are stored moist, can end up molding in your pantry and be ruined.

Here's a top view of sorghum heads drying in a basket.

Grinding: Though we've seen recipes for cooking sorghum while still whole (How To Cook Wholegrain Sorghum) we've always used ours in a ground form: either coarsely ground for cereal, or finely ground for flour to use in baked goods. It adds a sweet, almost nutty taste to our hot cereal mix. We use a Diamant grain mill that Chris hooked up to an old motor with a clothes-dryer belt. This greatly speeds up the process of grinding - though if we ever lost electricity for an extended period, we can easily convert it back to being hand-ground.

Chris hooked up our Diamant grain mill to an electric motor so we're able to efficiently grind enough grain for our own use as well as to share with our volunteers.

Course ground sorghum for use in hot cereal.

We hope this tutorial has been helpful and inspires you to begin growing sorghum yourself. Please post your questions and comments below so we can all benefit from them.

 

Seed Saving: Save the ripest, driest grains/seeds for future plantings. One seed-head has enough seeds  for most small-scale grain growers, with enough to share with other growers in your area!

Here is the post we wrote about growing and processing your own blue corn  for drying and grinding. These methods also work for growing/processing Golden Bantam and other varieties of corn. Grow Your Own 'Blue Corn' 

And here's a recipe we've developed to make a Crumb-Free, Whole-Grain Cornbread  (just substitute sorghum flour in a 1:1 ratio with the corn flour in the recipe).

 

Here is an excellent video about making sorghum syrup from the canes: Making Sorghum Syrup! Best Crop For A Self Sufficient Homestead!

Growing grains as a community makes the task of processing it much less daunting. Here, Jessie and Llyn are husking the corn in preparation for shucking and further drying.