Maslins

[Seeds]

Lisa Wiggins
2022-11-11T08:00:00Z

Came across this article in Mother Jones that reports on the reintroduction of Maslins, an ancient grain that is broadcast planted with other grains for increased yields and biodiversity:

This nearly lost ancient grain tradition could be the future of farming

[Seeds]

Justin .
I did notice:
“Ethiopia is one of the few places in the world where farmers still grow maslins, the general term for different varieties and species of grain that are sown in the same field, or intercropped. Maslins sustained humans for millennia, possibly predating the rise of agriculture more than 10,000 years ago.”

Now is ‘maslin’ means sowing different grains in he same field, it is impossible to predate agriculture, since that is definitively agriculture. Another issue would be that if oats have hulls, one would have to do the work of removing that unless one wanted to eat the hulls, and having oats diluted with wheat would make that process considerably slower I would expect. And I wonder also about ripening time, might be a challenge to get everything to be ready for harvest at the same time? And I also wonder if that might be more of an issue in cooler climates where it takes longer for crops to ripen, thus perhaps exaggerating differences in growing length as compared to Africa?

But I love the idea of multi-species planting. I guess it’s much easier for vegetables than for grains. Perhaps another alternative would be to plant alternating rows of grains? I guess it would still require a manual harvest, so might not be commercially viable, but for those with time on their hands, this might at least be more efficient than random planting, for anyone wanting to keep the harvests separate, and if growing period differences were an issue?

Lowell M
@Justin . You bring up a good point about hulls and different ripening times. I think varieties of barley, wheat and rye could be sown together and not have hull issues. I am not very familiar with the hulls on oats since they never grow well enough to seed where I live.
As far as ripening times, I think you could get a grex of similar ripening times if the plants had undergone many years of crossing and selection. Thus the greener and unripe berries might not be viable and would self-select. The ripe and dry berries can also hang for some time on the plant considering there is no issue of molds, and no little animal predation. In Utah I remember seeing the wild rye heads still standing erect and with perfect seeds considering they had dried down for at least two months already. So potentially you could have plants that were fully dry weeks before other varieties in the mix begin to ripen.
I like this intermixing idea and will try to incorporate it with some of my grains this fall.

Ryder T
Very interesting article! We know about polyculture farming of course and tried three sisters for the first time this year, but had never heard of maslins.

Joseph Lofthouse
I am going to start growing my grains this way. The days to maturity are similar enough that harvest would be straight forward. I grow hulless varieties of wheat, rye, oats, and barley. I believe that growing them together would reduce bird predation.

[DebbieA]

Are maslins traditionally used to make flour for bread? Or are they mostly cooked as a porridge or maybe a flat bread? Just wondering if a certain proportion of wheat to the other grains is planted to ensure sufficient gluten if the goal is a leavened loaf.

I planted purple dolma barley and a black hulless barley this year. I was happily surprised by how easily the grains separated from the rest of the plant. Is the hulless wheat easy to clean?

[Justin]

I don’t know if this counts as a maslin but this lovely pea was grown in Sweden with oats, it seems. Sounds like a great idea - is that common elsewhere?

Original Swedish:

Comment: Donor remark: Gråärter har odlats sedan urminnes tideri Dalarna. ’Rättviksärt’ är en klassisklantsort, omnämnd i lantbrukslitteraturensedan Linnés tid. Det finnsflera typer av rättviksärtor hos NordGen som samlats in vid olika tillfällen.Just den här sorten har gått i arv i Bengt och Brita Eskils släkt iflera generationer. När andra slutat och gått över till moderna sorter harfamiljen i Backa i Rättvik hållit fast vid den gamla foderärten som gavstill korna som tackade med en mjölk med hög fetthalt.Enligt gammal tradition ”skall Rättviksärten sås med Rättvikspälsenpå då den aldrig är rädd om fötterna men om huvudet”. Den odladestillsammans med havre som gav stöd åt den vekare ärtstjälken. Av ärtenmaldes också mjöl, gröten som Bengts mor kokade smakade inget vidaremen tunnbrödet bakat på ärtmjöl det var gott, tyckte Bengt som liten.Rättviksärten växer sig medelhög med buskiga plantor som har smalastjälkar och små blad. Plantorna blommar medeltidigt och har enutdragen blomning. Seglet är ljust lila eller rosa och kölen rosarödspräcklig.Baljorna mognar tidigt, är korta och smala och innehåller upptill åtta små ärtor. Ärtorna är vanligen svartblåprickiga på grågrön botten,men enstaka ärtor är helt mörkblå.

Google’s translation:

Comment: Donor remark: Peas have been grown since time immemorial in Dalarna. ‘Rättviksärt’ is a classic country variety, mentioned in agricultural literature since the time of Linnaeus. There are several types of field peas at NordGen that have been collected on different occasions. This particular variety has been passed down in Bengt and Brita Eskil’s family for several generations. When others stopped and switched to modern varieties, the family in Backa in Rättvik stuck to the old fodder pea that fed the cows that thanked them with milk with a high fat content. the head”. It was grown together with oats which provided support for the weaker pea stalk. Peas were also ground into flour, the porridge that Bengt’s mother cooked tasted nothing but the flatbread baked on pea flour was good, Bengt thought as a child. The Rättvik pea grows medium tall with bushy plants that have narrow stems and small leaves. The plants bloom early and have a prolonged bloom. The sail is light purple or pink and the keel speckled with rose-red. The pods ripen early, are short and narrow and contain up to eight small peas. The peas are usually black-blue dotted on a grey-green background, but occasional peas are completely dark blue.

@Lowell_McCampbell it was you who inspired me to learn more about peas! Here’s a link to that one, an old Swedish landrace:
https://www.nordic-baltic-genebanks.org/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?id=5262

They have many landraces in that genebank! They also have many beautiful wild Pisum sativum varieties - here are some photos of a few of those in case you’re interested, could probably help to make a wonderful pea landrace!:

Then they also have many landraces - this one not sure where from:

An Afghani landrace:

Bhutan:

Germany:

India:

Iran:

They have many more! I have selected some of the pretty ones I’m so surprised how many amazingly beautiful peas there are and yet I have never noticed them for sale, even in India and Nepal! I wonder if breeding for productivity somehow bred the beauty out of them!?

[Lowell_McCampbell (Lowell)]

I love peas so much. These are so beautiful <3.
I think it is a great idea to plant peas with other plants that can be harvested at the same time and easily winnowed or sifted apart. I could probably do wheat with the roveja peas if they’re planted sparsely. If they’re planted too thickly the roveja plants get huge and would overtake the wheat. Or maybe interplant with mustard or daikon. Lots of possibilities.

[MashaZ (Masha Zager)]

Peas and oats are a common combination for cover crops, but I’ve never heard of them being grown together as a cash crop.

[WilliamGrowsTomatoes (William Clark Schlegel)]

This makes sense to me. I got purple wheat from Eli Rugosa (She doesn’t seem to sell it right now) Heritage Wheat and it had some purple barley mixed in. I wrote her about it and she said that was how she got it.

Some landrace wheat fields also had / have multiple species of wheat and wheat wild relatives all growing together. It makes sense to have a mix of wheat, rye, barley, oats, wild oats, wheat wild relatives, spelt, emmer, durum, bread wheat, jointed goat grass. peas. Your annual grassland is more biodiverse and self-sustaining. Sourdough bread would probably taste pretty good from the mix. I know when I want to make my homemade pizza dough adding in a little rye flour and a little cornmeal just adds so much. Barley malt can really help a bread dough too. Probably makes for a nice bowl of mush too. Probably takes some generations of adaptation both culinary and genetic for it to work well.

Also seems to be true to what I’ve heard of the annual grasslands that inspired small grains farming and the annual grasslands I have seed in the wild here in the US. I’ve seen jointed goatgrass, wild oats, and rye in the wild. Possibly also some feral? triticale.