Post by esoteric_agriculture on Feb 4, 2017 13:01:21 GMT -5
I've been growing Sorghum since about 2009? I started with " Dale" seeds from Bountiful Gardens, and added " Texicoa " from Sandhill Preservation in 2015. This is a superb grain for the backyard grain grower or small homesteader. Almost never blows over, drought and heat, even prolonged wet don't seem to bother it. I culture it exactly as per maize, but generally don't thin as aggressively. When birds start to eat the grain heads, I cut them off, tie into bundles, and hang upside down in my barn to dry thoroughly away from birds. When I'm ready to thresh them, I beat the bundles around inside a steel drum. The seeds fall off very readily this way, and the seeds are easily winnowed. One of the simplest and fastest seed crops for me to thresh and winnow.
Usage- The Dale I've only ever made into beer, or fed the seeds to poultry, but we do like to chew on the super sweet sugary stalks. After I cut the grain heads off, I gradually cut down the stalks a wheelbarrow at a time prior to frost and feed to our pigs, which relish them. The Texicoa I've cooked whole as a rice substitute, and also made into fried rice( Sorghum). I have ground the Texicoa into flour and made pancakes, which ended up very similar in most respects to buckwheat pancakes. The whole grains take at least an hour to cook, and more water than rice, maybe twice as much water. Grinding is simple and straightforward, two passes through a Corona mill yields fine enough flour for our pancake needs.
Oh, and they pop! Both varieties for us pop reasonably well into miniature popcorn that in terms of taste, smell, texture, is identical to real popcorn.
I did find one cross last year between Texicoa and Dale, as in, the cross happened in 2015, and wasn't obvious until the seed head formed in 2016. Very excited to plant the cross this year and observe the results. Seed head was intermediate between the two parents.
Usage- The Dale I've only ever made into beer, or fed the seeds to poultry, but we do like to chew on the super sweet sugary stalks. After I cut the grain heads off, I gradually cut down the stalks a wheelbarrow at a time prior to frost and feed to our pigs, which relish them. The Texicoa I've cooked whole as a rice substitute, and also made into fried rice( Sorghum). I have ground the Texicoa into flour and made pancakes, which ended up very similar in most respects to buckwheat pancakes. The whole grains take at least an hour to cook, and more water than rice, maybe twice as much water. Grinding is simple and straightforward, two passes through a Corona mill yields fine enough flour for our pancake needs.
Oh, and they pop! Both varieties for us pop reasonably well into miniature popcorn that in terms of taste, smell, texture, is identical to real popcorn.
I did find one cross last year between Texicoa and Dale, as in, the cross happened in 2015, and wasn't obvious until the seed head formed in 2016. Very excited to plant the cross this year and observe the results. Seed head was intermediate between the two parents.