> A good number of years ago I got some soybeans from the
> health food store and figured they were not GMO. I grew the yellow and
> black
> varieties. Turns out they grew well here and I've saved seeds from them
> ever
> since.
Interesting information. I may get mechanical, but not that much that
the size would be an issue. I may get some seed from Seed Savers and
go from there. One thing that I did find in my researching since I
first posted is that soybeans are hard to hybridize since they are
self pollinating. I didn't know that and thought that in addition to
gene splicing, they here mostly hybrids. That's good, I just need to
stay away from the GMO stuff.
> I would also put the bug in your ear that fodder beans need not be
> soybeans.
> The small seeded fava beans (tick beans) and even cranberry beans make good
> feed supplements as well.
Bug's in my ear. I am plowing up 1 1/2 - 2 acres that will make a nice
field. It's been goat pasture (read, brambles and weeds) for a while
so the plan is to green manure it this season. I can get 3 or 4 crops
in. I'm thinking about soybeans and/or cowpeas. Cowpeas do real well
here and the chickens do well on them.
I guess a drawback of soy is that it needs to be cooked before eaten,
I don't think that is an issue with peas/beans, so I might be better
to grow the peas and use that for chicken feed.
>
> The seed source for Bloody Butcher corn was ridiculously expensive so some
> several years ago when I found three ears of it for sale at the produce
> stand
> for fifty cents (left over as Thanksgiving decoration), I planted those
> and have
> had a big crop of it ever since.
Good find. I was looking at soybean seed last night at Seedsavers and
it was same riduculous. Soybean seed at a seed house goes for $25 for
50#. Same with BB. I know the overhead of the seed saver orgs is high,
but they need to get prices to reality levels.
> It is an outstanding variety of OP corn
> second on this homestead only to Hickory King, It not only yields
> enough to
> be a feasible feed corn, it also makes good cornbread and decent masa as
> well.
>
That's real good news. I grew Hickory King one year and it is
outstanding. Poor ground and it produced well. The kernals were really
big and that is the reason to try BB.