On 09/26/2011 11:52 PM, Michael Bell wrote:
In message
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.


Were I you, I'd try to guess at an upper limit to yields. If you weigh
the seed from 1 cone, you can estimate the rest:

weight * cones/tree * trees/area.

The second 2 are educated guesses but it would allow you to predict
upside potential.

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.


I would also have a nutritional analysis performed, personally.

In any case good luck with your continuing project.

-E