Growing Rice in Tennessee?
This year our garden has been full of experiments: wheat, spelt, oats, luffa sponge gourds, flax, amaranth, rice. Rice? But doesn't that require a flooded plain? There are actually a few varieties of rice that do not require flooding! And since we're on a quest to find grains that are easy to grow in a backyard garden, we knew we had to try growing rice.
Rice that doesn't require flooding is called Upland rice. We planted the "Blue Bonnet" variety. (Baker Creek Seeds no longer carries this variety, but they do have another upland rice.)
We planted in May. The crop didn't have any pests, other than birds who stole the grains on the stalks until we covered the plants with netting.
This weekend we harvested the rice. From a 6 foot by 4 foot plot, we yielded 4 pounds of rice. It was easy to harvest and thresh (I CANNOT say the same for wheat, which was hell on earth to thresh and winnow).
We still have to hull the rice after it dries out for a few weeks. But we are happy with the results of our harvest and plan to grow rice again!
For more of our adventures, visit our Facebook page Raydiant Acres
So cool! Do you have to worry about mold or anything like that while it's drying out? How do you dry it? Is it just kept in a bucket or something in the sun?
Wheat sounds like entirely too much work. Actually, all of it does, but that's why I enjoy our local farmer's markets. Heheh. :)
Thanks! Nope, no mold. It's just spread out on a large pan inside. We stir it around each day to make sure all the grains get air exposure. We dry out our popcorn the same way. Can't wait to eat our popcorn -- it's our favorite crop!!
Oh no way! I didn't realize you guys were making your own popcorn too. That's fun. :)
doing your gardening is a special things and rice which is comonly grown in asia , i agree with you wheat is a lot of work , i tried once twas hard and then the bird invaded we had to set up scare crows all over
Those pesky birds!! Yes, gardening is special :)
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