a tale of rye

planted in fall, its green and growing until the snow hits.


spring time, the rye is green and growing again.


all green


fully green, the grains havent formed yet


mostly still green, most of the heads are still vertical.


the stalks are still green, but the heads are growing bigger and starting to turn from green to yellow. only a few more weeks now that the heads are tipping over.


average size head of rye


sometimes the heads are littler


a pretty big head! the grains are still a little green.


some little critter was chewing the bottom of the rye stalks off so they'd fall over, and then eating the heads of rye.


these grains are still yellow, not ready to harvest yet


see the grains themselves have turned brown now, then they're ready to harvest and thresh.


time to harvest


golden goodness. i used a scissors to cut all the heads off. i have the time.


you can see all the bits and pieces of chaff and whatnot that collect while harvesting. these will have to be winnowed away later.


a bucket of grain


rather than actual threshing, i just pinch/squeeze the grains out by hand. like i said, i have the time.


winnowing i use a fan for instead of relying on wind. watch all the chaff being blown away from the heavier grains. sorry its sideways.


the final product, two jars of rye grain for my dad to make bread with.