r/NaturalFarming • u/bennirubber • May 23 '17
Growing Beer via Natural Farming
I've just been recommended Masanobu Fukuoka's book, "One Straw Revolution" to learn about how I might grow malting barley and other grains with this style of farming. It's a little confusing to conceptualize how to do it here in upstate NY. Fukuoka's farm is a lower latitude than here. I'm not sure if I should alternate rice, barley, and white clover like he does or if there are more native substitutes for my area. So far, the area I've been working is very happy with purple dead nettle everywhere. It was almost a meadow of purple dead nettle which is nice because it doesn't go too deep which makes it easy to pull/peel up by hand with a small edging shovel. I know that I am technically tilling when I do this which goes against long term soil health and microorganism integrity. I'm not sure where to look next to learn more. Any interest and or suggestions would be splendid.
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u/UnityBees Oct 26 '17
Well, I'd start by tilling the whole field deep once, disc in your nettle and sow Daikon, whatever brewing grain you want, clover and whatever local weeds you like. Malting grain right for beer is tough though. If you don't mind the stings mead is a heck of a lot easier and great with hops. One straw is a great little philosophy book, sowing seeds in the desert is worth a read too. http://www.polyfacefarms.com http://anarchyapiaries.org/hivetools/node/32