The Results of My Great Wheat Growing Experiment

Reader Contribution by Cam Mather
Published on August 23, 2010

By Cam Mather

We focus a big part of our diet on wheat-related products, like breads and pastas. In fact I could be a bread-a-tarian. I love bread. Thank goodness that whole “low carb diet” fad blew over when the originator died of a heart attack, because I watched it unfold while stuffing myself with veggies, bread at every meal, pasta, cookies, crackers, and every carb I could get my hands on and I haven’t gained a pound in 10 years.

So this year I decided to take it to the next level, and put my money where my carb-devouring mouth was and grow my own wheat. How hard could it be? In “The All You Can Eat Gardening Handbook” I suggest that one of the neat things about vegetable gardening is that every year you can try something new. A few years ago we tried growing peanuts, last year we grew sweet potatoes and this year it was time to try some wheat. I had grown oats before and they were easy.

I grew winter wheat, and so I broadcast-seeded by hand last fall. I spread the seeds over an area of about 25 ft. x 35 ft. or about 900 square feet. In the photo the light green area behind where Michelle is cutting garlic scapes is the wheat patch. I garden organically so by the spring there were weeds in it. I tried to eradicate them by leaning in where I could or treading carefully, but eventually I ended up with a fairly high number of weeds.

Just after I finished harvesting all of my garlic, around the third week of July, I started harvesting the wheat. At first I attempted to cut it with a hand sickle which I must not have sharpened properly because it did not cut well. I don’t have a scythe because of my “don’t spend any money, work with what you have” mantra, and so the best tool I had was a good set of garden clippers. They worked well as long as I cut on my knees which was okay since I have my fabulous new gardening pants with the knee pads built in.

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