Happy New Year! By this time next year I should be singing Auld Lang Syne while brandishing a bottle (or half a dozen) of my first home brewed beer, made with my own malted barley and my own homegrown hops.In September I dug up my front lawn and resowed it with barley. At the time I really wanted to sow oats but I was told that they're hard to grow well in Auckland's humidity without spraying for mildew; so barley it was. I figure that even if my attempts to malt it are a dismal failure, I'll have kilograms of pearl barley for winter soups and stews. And failing that too, I'll have bales of fantastic golden barley straw to dig back into the soil or use as an organic mulch instead of buying pea straw.
Growing your own mulch sounds quite sensible, but to be honest, barley's worth growing for its aesthetic appeal. I am totally addicted to looking at it, especially when there's a slight breeze blowing and it shivers in swathes. It's fantastic. Over the past fortnight, it has completely changed colour, from lush green to haystack yellow. The two pictures above were taken two weeks apart, the first in mid December and the second today. The seed heads are all gloriously golden and plump.
Now, it's time I hit google to find out when and how to harvest the stuff!
