Market Farming

[Chrys Ostrander <chrys AT thefutureisorganic.net>]

Folks,

I've been following with interest the discussions about growing grain. I have done a little bit on a very small scale in years past and will start up again this season. So, in my seemingly endless search for seed this winter, I stumbled across a small seed producer in Oregon, Lonesome Whistle Farm. I glanced at their photo gallery and was floored when I saw a peddle-powered grain thresher, so I emailed them about it and this is what they wrote back:

The peddle thresher is our friends Sarah and Andrew from Adaptive Seeds.  They got it from a guy in Tennessee who imported about 10 of them from China.  We met the guy at the Small Farmer's Auction in Madras two years ago.  His name is Lowell Morgan (Amish guy).  He is now manufacturing them with stronger parts through the Back to the Land Store in Tennessee.

So I looked it up. You can see the thresher HERE on the Back to the Land Store website.

It seems like there would still need to be some winnowing. Where I used to live there was an Asian-made, hand-powered rice winnower that I did some wheat and rye through with very good success. In fact, with its adjustable baffles and a little finesse on the hand-driven blower, I was even able to do a nice job of cleaning lettuce seed with this tool. I just can't seem to find one for sale in the US. You can see a picture of the winnower HERE. This site says they'll take a minimum order for 10, but I never get a response when I contact them.

If you would like to see the winnower in action (or should I say, in stills) you can see my photo album of old pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/farmrchrys/GrainHarvestAtChrysalisFarm#

I would be very open to getting together with other folks to go in together and buy a set of these winnowers for resale in the US. The scale of these machines is such that they can do a couple of thousand pounds in a reasonable amount of time, better by far then the video with the plastic bucket and electric drill that was linked to earlier (although that's cool too).

Chrys

--
Chrys Ostrander, Director of Farming Programs
People for Environmental Action and Community Health
"Local Food for All"

Manager,
p.e.a.c.h. Community Farm at Pine Meadow
10425 S. Andrus Rd.
Cheney, Wa 99004
509-448-3066
farms AT peachlocal.com
www.peachlocal.com