Today I finally figured out how to process my hull-less oats so I could eat them. After planting, growing, harvesting, curing and threshing my oats I had run into a problem. The inner shell of the chaff was really strong and it was almost impossible to remove without being pried apart using my fingernails grain by grain. Have I completely lost you? (This will explain).
If you understand what I am talking about you are probably wondering why? Well about 3 summers ago I found a seed package that promised to help me create my own 100 mile diet (remember this food fad when people committed to eating only what had been grown within 100 miles of their own home?). Well I was surprised to find it comprised mostly of grains and beans. I had never really considered them something I could grow in a home garden – vegetables sure, some fruits yes, but even though where I live commercial farmers grow wheat and canola and soybeans I had never considered them an option. Well my eyes were opened and I started experimenting. The first year I grew flax, amarynth and kamut (a type of wheat). I harvested both flax and kamut but I didn’t realize that the work was just starting.
I’ve done a lot of travelling and I’ve watched women in the village I was living in sitting outside all day long with their big woven circular trays flipping the grains up and down to let the wind blow off the chaff. I’ve looked out the bus window and seen the shoulders of paved roads used as a drying area for grains. I have one vivid memory of one electric fan blowing away chaff from the grain a man was cleaning while around him sat a dozen women manually sifting. They all make it look easy: a reminder that what to me is anachronistic is to millions a regular way of life.
Anyway my eldest daughter really took to the whole idea so whenever we had a windy day we’d grab a plastic tablecloth and our dried grains and spend some time trying to separate those tiny grains from all the other crap. Let me tell you it is hard, its time consuming and you lose a lot of your grains because if the wind is strong enough to effectively blow away your chaff when you toss up your grain it is also strong enough to blow away some of your grains too. Proof of this was the wheat and flax that grew the next year in our lawn where we had been winnowing.
In the talk by Elizabeth Norton of the Medical Library she said that in the second part of the training they encourage librarians to do some hands-on work in the community. This makes a lot of sense: you learn the vocabulary, meet key players and gain experience in what may or may not be important.
Part of our individual responsibility is to be prepared to look after ourselves in an emergency. I admit that I don’t have a 72 hour pack of supplies ready to throw in the trunk if I have to evacuate. There is a lot to think about and do in regards to emergency preparedness.
The experience of processing the oats makes me very grateful that my family is not relying on me to feed them with my efforts. But it also instills in me the knowledge that if I had to I could. It all contributes to my training to be ready in case of emergency as an informational professional.
p.s. I have yet to read an apocalypse/zombie/distopia book which mentions a librarian; I shake my head at the authors’ lack of imagination. Sure its always good to have somebody who knows their way around a gun in your group, but for my money I’d pick a librarian to help me survive.
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