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Old 26-09-2011, 10:52 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Michael Bell Michael Bell is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2007
Posts: 231
Default Looking for bigger seeds and flimsier cones to develop alder as a grain crop

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Emery Davis wrote:

On 09/26/2011 08:31 AM, Michael Bell wrote:
I have a project to develop alder (Alnus glutinosa) as a grain crop.


Just out of interest, what do you expect the yield per hectare to be in
alder seed? (Average UK wheat yields are around 8 tonnes/hectare).


I have no idea what yield to expect. I see lots of potential in the
plants I see. We get nothing at all from much of the uplands,
admittedly that is mostly because farm gate prices are too low for
marginal land. I am aiming to produce a crop which will do well on
marginal land. There is no way I can predict yeilds.

I'm sure you must have eaten the seed, what does it taste like? The
grains you name (wheat, rice, oats) all have a basically pleasant taste,
to my palate anyway.


I tried alder seeds ground with water with the seed-cases filtered
out. It tasted of nothing at all. In some ways a blank canvas offers
the most scope for cooking The yeast adds a lot of the taste to bread.

Michael Bell
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