GROWING GRAINS By: John Vivian

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If the weather lets you keep shocked or standing small grain in the field till it is a uniform light tan, with no green stems even in the middle of the shock and stalks of standing corn sound hollow when you tap them, it will almost surely be storage dry at 10% to 15% moisture content. Flour corn kernels should be hard, with a characteristic dent in the middle of the upper surface. Small grain should be firm, but a little plump in the middle. Tooth test it: Grains should dent a little, but not much. If they squash and are easy to bite in half, they need more drying. Move shocks into the barn if you can; stack upright on the floor or hang them head sup from the overhead. Or thresh and lay small grain out in a thin layer on a tarp or on screen shelves someplace where the air moves freely. Pull corn ears, shuck (but leave husks attached in a rosette) and lay out or bag. The husks will aid in air circulation.

It is easiest to shell (remove kernels) from corn ears as grain is needed. If done all at once, you'll have bags of grain to store, and you'll find that a large pile of shelled cobs and husks is hard to dispose of before it gets rained on and begins to rot, unless you have a powerful shredder grinder and plenty of ornamentals in need of mulch, or a spreader to put them on the land. Shelled a few at a time as needed, dry cobs find their way into the wood stove as kindling.

Husking knives and hand-shellers used by the nonelectric Amish are always a possibility. Be sure to use gloves when removing sharp-edged dry husks. You can shell dry corn by rubbing two cobs together briskly; one will remove kernels from the other. Have plenty of hand lotion at the ready.

Commercial granaries use huge fans to move air over drying corn and small grains. If air in your drying shed is humid, or if you see mold growing, you may want to apply dry heat via an electric heater with a fan, a kerosene salamander or heat lamps.

During dry fall and winter weather, grain is best stored in a weather-proof, outside, slat-sided crib that keeps blowing rain out, but permits a constant floe of air (see page 60). Leave corn on the cob with husk pulled down, but attached for bulk storage. Cob corn or any loose grain can be kept in coarse-meshed sacks. Ideal are the 50-pound, woven poly-ribbon sacks that stock feed comes in. Or use poly-strip sandbags from an Army Navy surplus outlet or mail-order catalog. To minimize mold damage, fill bags halfway and lay out on shelves or a dry floor in single layers. Turn daily. Set up on end if moisture shows under any. Flip to rest on alternate ends daily. If any mold shows, lay out a large tarp and pour grain out in a single layer during dry, sunny weather. Remove and discard any kernels that are clumped with white mold roots or that show dark spores. Except for rye (which can be infected with toxic ergot), the remaining grain can be washed well and consumed, oven-dried or parched in hot oil and put into cold storage.

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