I foolishly said on a previous post that threshing the grain wasn't the issue - Well it turns out I was wrong there as well.
My hulless oats have been causing me trouble as well.
In fairness I think I'm trying to deal with the difficult grains that are left as I thought I had pretty much lost the lot due to birds attacking it while it was still standing, but the grains haven't come out easily even in this (don't get me started again about my emmer wheat).
Hitting it with sticks, although fun, did nothing much.
When I upped it and made a semi lethal thresher for my drill things improved slightly.
Then I ran it through a sieve to get rid of the big bits.
And then tried winnowing it with a big fan - this proved to be too strong and I was getting grain blown about.
So I went back to my seed cleaner and run it through a couple of times - I really need to make a better hopper for this!
In all I spent an hour and got this whole jam jar full of hulless oats!
What a lot of work for not huge amounts of gain! So I need to think of a machine that can dehull grain and thresh and winnow it! Not too much to ask for is it?
Certainly makes me think when I eat my porridge in the morning!
I think I would rather buy them whole from a mill and grind them into flour with an electric flour mill!
ReplyDeleteYes - that would certainly be an easier way but I'm wondering if I can one day grow my chickens and produce some grains for us from our smallholding here. Weird hobby I know!
DeleteBut if this experiment is anything to go by I doubt I can! lol!
DeleteI put this on your other post, I have been thinking about this Kev. In my head it is a machine centred on an old bike, some sort of drum. Something like a washing machine drum, some how fix in dowels in the holes. Kind of like a chicken plucking machine. In my mind it need a collection at the bottom.not astro turf but something spiney. something like stickle bricks but a mat. maybe an orthopedic mat with spikes
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've been thinking something similar - one I did see was the one I'll link below- I think it looks fairly simple to make and could be rill or bike powered. I have made a threshing board where I tread on the grains, this worked well for the hulless ones but the emmer it still wouldn't touch other than seperate it up. That coupled with a hulling machine would be ideal.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kXLkqczBXg&t=3s
oh just had another thought. what about something like an old butter churn... you know the ones that are wooden and are a half barrel on its side. like the one in the good life tV programme where they are making goat butter... I wish my gran was here. she would tells us what to do.
DeleteIt's a problem I'm quite enjoying thinking about. I've got a year to come up with some ideas though so not too bad!
Deleteits certainly getting my brain working and it isnt even my problem! ha ha
DeleteDid you try putting the oats into a drum or container to use with your 'electric flail?' I have seen that work. Even a 5-gallon bucket will work. It simulates my string shredder I've been mentioning. Never give up!
ReplyDeleteI used a bucket and my drill with cable ties on. Worked but would get caught up fairly easily! I'm enjoying the problem to solve, hopefully I'll start to make something and next year should have a slightly bigger patch to harvest and process.
Delete