For the Record
Flax in North Dakota- photo by Ann Hoffert
It is spring and a girl's mind turns to... crops. The land we live and farm on has, in recent memory, grown the following crops:
Corn
Soybeans
Wheat
Millet
Flax
Oats
Barley
Canola
Alfalfa
Sorghum
Milo (grain sorghum)
Mustard (on purpose - to sell)
In the 15 years that I've known this land (lived here for two growing seasons) it has only known corn and soybean. But a girl's got a right to dream...
Comments
first we have to change this stupid farm program. I'm trying to get to the front of the line to see who this pied piper is that we're all following !!
(es)
Posted by: Anonymous | March 26, 2010 10:51 PM
first we have to change this stupid farm program. I'm trying to get to the front of the line to see who this pied piper is that we're all following !!
(es)
Posted by: Anonymous | March 26, 2010 10:57 PM
So with you about the farm program. Are you getting to the front of the line by planting more corn and soybeans?? Corn on corn on corn?
I went to our local, indpendent farm coop today. This place is really cool. They handled 1.8 million bu of grain a year. It is an extremely efficient and elegant system to more corn and soybeans.
The infrastructure of this systems goes right into the hearts of little towns all over. At least out here in the west... So I'm trying to think how we can piggy back on what we already got to start cracking this corn/soy nut from the ground up. So to speak.
Onward! When you get to the front of the line- please pull back the curtain!
Posted by: Kathy | March 27, 2010 6:44 AM
Kathryn, I just wanted to tell you that it's botanically possible and has been done. Fifty years ago I grew up a couple of miles east of you (where the Hancock-Clinton turns east for the rest of its run) and we grew everything on your list (with the exception of sorghum, which our next door neighbor did grow), except for mustard to sell! We also grew rye, which I don't remember seeing on your list, and later on we grew sunflowers for oil.
Posted by: Doug Meyer | June 12, 2010 11:24 PM
Doug,
Thank you for the recollection of the crop you grew. Yes- it may be agronomically possible- but do we still have the seed, the knowledge and the equipment to grow those crops today.
Here's hoping and thanks for sharing your memories of what the land grew here.
Posted by: Kathy | June 14, 2010 9:43 PM