Amaranthus hybridus (65 days to flower, 125 days to seed) Open-pollinated. Is it a green vegetable? An ornamental? A gluten-free grain? Why, yes! No wonder Amaranth was sacred in pre-Columbian Mexico.
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Hordeum vulgare Open-pollinated. An historic 6-rowed barley selected by Luther Burbank from California hulless barley. In his final seed catalog he called it “one of [his] greatest grain creations.”
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Avena nuda (100 days) Open-pollinated. Grain that’s easier to thresh than most other oats, though it still has a small hull that must be removed. A good variety to re-introduce growing grain on home ground.
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Oryza sativa (115 days from transplant) Open-pollinated. Upland short-grain hardy Russian variety adapted to dry-land production. Can withstand a light frost. May be direct seeded in warmer regions.
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Oryza sativa (115 days) Open-pollinated. Upland variety from Japan. This great-tasting short-grained brown rice is much easier to hull and process with human-powered equipment than other varieties. Does not require flooding.
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Oryza sativa (120 days) Open-pollinated. Short grain light brown rice, can work in Zone 5b in paddies from direct sowing but does best from transplants.
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Oryza sativa (120 days) Open-pollinated. Lowland variety from northern Japan. Pearly white short-grain sweet-sticky rice is great for mochi and fries well.
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Sorghum bicolor (100 days) Open-pollinated. A white-seeded 4' grain sorghum, can be popped, but it is more commonly ground into a mild-flavored flour, cooked as a grain, or sometimes nixtamalized like corn and made into tortillas.
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Amaranthus tricolor (120 days) Open-pollinated. Very red Jamaican traditional green for Callaloo stew. Beautiful tricolor blaze makes it ornamental as well.
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Lupinus mutabilis (130 days, longer to seed) Open-pollinated. “Lost” crop of the Incas. Wild-looking 3' lupine native to the high Andes. Attractive, many-colored flowers. Protein-rich seeds.
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Triticum aestivum Open-pollinated. Extremely cold hardy hard red wheat good for small spaces and well adapted to New England. Flour has great flavor and texture, and sturdy plants make great straw.
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Grains
Our grains selections are rare heirloom varieties especially chosen for small-scale production. Revived interest in food security and sovereignty inspires us to seek edible and heirloom grains. In the early 1800s Maine was the breadbasket of the U.S. Wheat and rice do not demand huge space and can be threshed with a little ingenuity. With good fertility, proper spacing and reasonable diligence, it is quite possible to harvest 10 lb of heirloom wheat from 100 plants in a 10x10' plot. A 100' row of rice can yield 6–10 lb.
Larger-scale growers and farmers, those seeking larger quantities of more mainstream varieties, or those looking for cover crops should check out the Organic Growers Supply list of Farm Seed.
Most of of our grains are also decorative in both form and color, making great accents to bouquets and wreaths. For more ornamental grains, see amaranths, ornamental millets and sorghum & broom corn.
