I remember Mom sprouting alfalfa.
In a nifty little wooden frame with a
mesh/nylon botton and a tea-towel
draped over the top.
YUM!!!
I LOVE alfalfa sprouts!
I have sprouted them many times since,
(I prefer a blend of alfalfa/radish)
in everything from a mason jar covered with panty hose
to a plastic "wanna be" of Mom's frame.
I would kill for Mom's frame.
However.
This week we are experimenting with something new.
Not for us.
(although I might sneak a taste...)
We are sprouting barley!
For the chickens.
And possibly the rabbits.
(and maybe the farmer's wife...)
My fabulous neighbor took an 8 hour drive
(round trip) to north of the Ocala area
to the (and I quote) middle of the middle of nowhere.
She was up there anyway.
Her amazing 2013 World Reining Champion horse
is living in the Ocala area at a fancy barn
with a fancy trainer.
She drives up several days each week
so they can train together.
Getting ready for this year's campaign.
(GO MARI!)
*Mari is the horse...
(GO NEIGHBOR!!!)
So anyhow.
She drove another hour+
and eventually found this little farm.
These folks run a co-op.
She picked up 1000 pounds of chicken feed.
500 for us and 500 for her.
It's amazing feed out of Ohio.
DNA TESTED non-GMO.
And just a hair over 1/2 the price we've
been paying at our local feed store
for stuff that has an "organic" label
on it, but with the new USDA regulations,
that could mean anything!
So anyhow.
She also bought a 50# bag of barley seeds.
We have been researching foddering for awhile.
But she's a go-getter.
Since they had the seeds (I've looked everywhere
locally and nobody carries it!)
She bought a bag.
And then she bought a bunch of buckets.
And then she gave it all to me.
LOL
She's a go-getter.
But I'm an experimenter.
That was Monday morning-ish.
So while Kyle et al were out riding in the woods,
Rod and I (ok, Rod) built a fodder "system".
It's really fancy.
Yup.
In a nifty little wooden frame with a
mesh/nylon botton and a tea-towel
draped over the top.
YUM!!!
I LOVE alfalfa sprouts!
I have sprouted them many times since,
(I prefer a blend of alfalfa/radish)
in everything from a mason jar covered with panty hose
to a plastic "wanna be" of Mom's frame.
I would kill for Mom's frame.
However.
This week we are experimenting with something new.
Not for us.
(although I might sneak a taste...)
We are sprouting barley!
For the chickens.
And possibly the rabbits.
(and maybe the farmer's wife...)
My fabulous neighbor took an 8 hour drive
(round trip) to north of the Ocala area
to the (and I quote) middle of the middle of nowhere.
She was up there anyway.
Her amazing 2013 World Reining Champion horse
is living in the Ocala area at a fancy barn
with a fancy trainer.
She drives up several days each week
so they can train together.
Getting ready for this year's campaign.
(GO MARI!)
*Mari is the horse...
(GO NEIGHBOR!!!)
So anyhow.
She drove another hour+
and eventually found this little farm.
These folks run a co-op.
She picked up 1000 pounds of chicken feed.
500 for us and 500 for her.
It's amazing feed out of Ohio.
DNA TESTED non-GMO.
And just a hair over 1/2 the price we've
been paying at our local feed store
for stuff that has an "organic" label
on it, but with the new USDA regulations,
that could mean anything!
So anyhow.
She also bought a 50# bag of barley seeds.
We have been researching foddering for awhile.
But she's a go-getter.
Since they had the seeds (I've looked everywhere
locally and nobody carries it!)
She bought a bag.
And then she bought a bunch of buckets.
And then she gave it all to me.
LOL
She's a go-getter.
But I'm an experimenter.
That was Monday morning-ish.
So while Kyle et al were out riding in the woods,
Rod and I (ok, Rod) built a fodder "system".
It's really fancy.
 |
| Rod's fancy fodder system |
5 buckets.
(with 1/8 inch holes drilled in the bottoms)
Some cinder blocks.
A wood frame and chicken wire "lid"
to keep them safe from chickens and horses.
We needed to do some re-arranging in the barn
to accomodate this new system.
But all the materials (except the latch/hinges)
were stuff we already had laying around.
(Well, and the buckets, see above...)
The system is blindingly simple.
Every evening you put some barley seeds in a bucket.
Add some water.
Go away.
Every morning you dump those seeds and their water
into one of the buckets with holes and let it drain.
Go away.
Then it gets nifty.
Starting on day TWO, (and from then on)
now that you have more than one bucket with seeds in it,
every morning and every evening, you stack them.
Oldest on the bottom, newest on top.
Then you just dump a bucket of water into the top
bucket and it drains all the way through,
watering all of them in one shot!
Set them back on their cinder blocks and go away.
By the end of day 5, the ones in the first bucket
are ready to feed out and be replaced
by some new seeds that soaked the previous night.
It literally takes less than 5 minutes.
But here's the neat part.
50 pounds of seed grows to equal 200 pounds of feed.
With 18% protein!
Which means that's 200 pounds of expensive feed
we don't have to buy!
50 pounds of seed is $17.
200 pounds of DNA tested, non-GMO feed is $75.
(plus $40 for our share of the fuel to run get it)
Can you say SAVINGS?!?
We soaked our first seeds Monday evening.
This morning (Thursday) they have tails!
(They had some yesterday, but without my glasses,
I had to take Kyle's word for it...
This morning I could see them for myself...)
We now have THREE buckets in various stages
of sprouting.
I'm so excited!
We should be ready to feed some to the critters
by this weekend.
I'll be giving half to the neighbor.
And then we'll set up her own system.
(Her son does all the actual "labor" except when
Kyle is doing it... and he (the son, not Kyle) was
in the Bahamas resting up last week.)
I'm sure he's thrilled with this new development.
If you were interested
(and are actually still reading this novel)
here's a website with all the skinny.
Frozie - I'll bet Sam could do this!
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