Belle Valley Ancient Grains

06/21/2026

With respect to the prior post, we are very thankful that everything went really well. We covered the last of the hay in light rain Saturday afternoon. Today the prickly pear are blooming nicely in light rain. Rain showers are forecast on and off for the next week - great timing for the spring wheat - Khorasan, Glenn, Rouge d Bordeaux, Einkorn.

06/18/2026

Nice crop of "False London Rocket" in the next hay field. Also known as field mustard, it's suggested to use the leaves as a wasabi substitute in salads. Hmmm... That field was Einkorn that got hailed out last June but the volunteer Einkorn had the last word - coming back as volunteer wheat this year. Finally, every haying episode needs a weather challenge. This one is to make 500 small bales and 150 large and get them stacked and tarped in the next 60 hours before it rains. Small square baling and hauling them off to the shed should take six hours. The bale wagon can pick up 160 in 20 minutes and deposit the stack in the shed in another 30 minutes. Customers will pick up about 100 from the field. Big square baling, stacking, tarping, and loading some on customers trailers should take 12 hours. Grandson baseball game, equipment issues, irrigation of wheat fields, a get together Saturday and sleep will take up the rest. The balers are greased, loaded with twine, functioned in testing and appear to be ready to go. Last night I was out of town at a funeral and Linda called at 10:30 pm saying there was someone at the hay shed turning on lights and opening the big doors. It was Chad the mechanic - arriving to fix a steering leak on the 966. He finished a major overhaul of the disc mower (hay cutter) last week. Just remembered - have to bleed the brakes on the bale wagon as they leak down over winter. Eleven tons loaded - needs brakes. None of this equipment has been used since last year. That adds to the drama. Hope it all works - the rain will be nice.

06/15/2026

Nice time of year.

06/15/2026

A nice time of year.

06/12/2026

Here's this week's meal idea: Spinach Artichoke Pizza. Start with a Detroit-style Pizza crust from DeYoung's Dry Goods. Make a cheesy sauce with a roux using your favorite whole-wheat flour, butter, cream, and parmesan cheese. Top with mozzarella, spinach, crushed pita chips of your favorite flavor (I like the fennel flavored for this recipe), and feta. Cook for 10 minutes at 450º F or until cheese starts to brown. Get your ingredients at this Saturday, 8-1!

06/10/2026

05/30/2026

Winter wheat, in the first picture - planted last September - is way ahead of the spring wheat in the other three pictures. It is already "heading out" and about to the flowering stage but the spring wheat is 3-4 weeks from that. The volunteer alfalfa is as tall or taller than the spring wheat. The spring wheat had a tough start with the dry weather plus my old grain drill does not get even depth of planting. Usually it does okay with spring rains but not this year. In this case I should have rented a no-till drill to get even seed depth at 2 to 3 inches. The Clark's Cream also has some volunteer alfalfa but the wheat has outpaced the alfalfa since it began growth in March from an established root system. In general, winter wheat has higher yield but lower protein than spring wheat. We shall see. Hoping the line of thunderstorms this afternoon brings rain and no hail.

05/25/2026

Daughter Emmy on Instagram, sent me pics of this sandwich loaf - turned out really great! It is tricky to make a really nice loaf like this with 100% actual whole wheat flour (in this case 40% White Sonora, 60% Glenn) - not supplemented with vital wheat gluten or bread flour from the store. This is especially true using heirloom wheat that has weak gluten. She had similar success using 100% Glenn flour on sourdough - although Glenn is a modern wheat with stronger gluten. She remarked that it is very soft like store bread. That is also tricky as 100% whole wheat flour can result in bread that is crumbly at times. The exact recipe she used is from a King Arthur cookbook but this online one is basically the same. She did not add the orange juice as there is no need to temper the great flavor of organic heirloom wheat flour.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/100-whole-wheat-sandwich-bread-recipe?_gl=1*1na76zu*_gcl_au*MTc3NjY1MzE4My4xNzc5NzE2MTQ1*_ga*MTAzOTEzNzI3MS4xNzc5NzE2MTQ2*_ga_1ZJWCQGS21*czE3Nzk3MTYxNDYkbzEkZzEkdDE3Nzk3MTYxNzMkajMzJGwwJGgw

05/23/2026

Severe drought from here south to Texas also Montana and Wyoming and the west, and the southeastern US. We're very blessed to have irrigation water from the 115 year old Belle Fourche Irrigation project. The water allocation this year is 18 inches which is enough to cover all the acreage with 18 inches of water. In a moderate to wet year that is adequate, but not in a dry year. Dad talked about a dry year in the early 60s when the allocation was 4 inches. He slept in the pickup to wait for the water to get to the end of the corn rows, then quickly switched it to the next rows so none was wasted. We flood irrigate which just means pouring water on one side of the field and letting it follow the gradual slope to the other side. It's inefficient but does saturate the soil profile so that irrigation is not needed for a month in the case of hay, corn, or beans. For wheat the one irrigation may carry it through until the end of June, at which point it has headed out and is essentially done. Center pivot irrigation is more efficient but has to be run over the field several times in a month. We don’t have center pivots because we don't want to borrow the money, however this year they would really help. We also have a permit to pump from the Belle Fourche River and have had the pump running since May 10th and it will likely run most of the summer. We're also on the list to buy more water if it's available and the water board may allocate more however that may not happen since the reservoir is down a lot and it isn't even June yet. We were fortunate to get an inch of rain and that will get the spring wheat (Einkorn, Glenn, Rouge d Bordeaux, Khorasan) going. In the video, the cement ditch irrigates the hay on the right and the winter wheat (Clark’s Cream) on the left. It is maxed out on capacity with reservoir "ditch water" plus pump water. The plan is to irrigate the spring wheat in early June and try to get all the hay ground irrigated to replenish the subsoil moisture. Then at least the wheat will be done and it will just be a matter of trying to cover the hay ground twice more.