Well, here we are November 6 and three days into snow! Temps have been low and frigid. I picked maybe the last Spinach on Thursday afternoon before the snow came in that evening. There are still beets hanging on and tomorrow I will go check on them underneath their double layer of
Agribon.
Today I am so happy to announce that I have finished two out of the three steps towards finishing the production of my
Quinoa. After feeling very tired, burned out, and extremely frustrated, I finally contacted a friend of a friend's in Colorado at the
White Mountain Farm. They were so helpful! Why can it be so hard to ask for help? Earl, the gentlemen that I spoke with extensively, laughed as he told me his insights as to more efficient steps to take in order to finish sooner than later. It was so relieving and re-inspiring to chat with someone who knew my frustration and could relate with what I was telling him.
If you decide to grow Quinoa, too, here are some helpful hints for what comes
after the harvest:
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| Poly Feed Bags work great for "de-stemming" plants |
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| Trimming | |
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| Moved the operation in the garage due to snow |
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| Refining the chaf, seed, and stem pile |
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| "Refined" Pile ready for sifting |
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| Turn fan on low, pick from refined pile, and drop into colander~current blows chaff away |
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| Sift through seeds many times in front of fan~here I am putting seeds into Mason Jars until Phase III: Rinse |
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| 12 Lbs and Approx 20 hrs later: Quinoa! |
Before I started trimming, I let my plants dry out completely. There was no moisture left in the stalk at all. I tried "
threshing" but to my dismay, it wasn't working out as easily as I had thought it would. The seeds were sticking in the outer covering of the plant and were also flying all over the place! I was only really getting a very little bit of seed. Once I used the bags, my time was significantly decreased for this process. The Poly bags worked well for stepping, rubbing, mushing the trimmed plants! (Thanks Earl!) I made some refining decisions, sifting multiple~multiple times into the colander. Notice all the chaff at the top of Picture #3.
So here I am at the end of Phase 2. I am delighted, but am reminded of all that I have learned during Phase II of Processing~patience, a sense of humor, sheer exhaustion and frustration, perseverance, and remembering it IS indeed, ALL ABOUT THE JOURNEY!
