Thank you Washington Gardener for this fun review of Gardening with Grains
Read the full review here on Page 16
Excerpt from Gardening with Grains Chapter Two- What are Grains?
The truth is you do not need to know much to successfully grow grains- I certainly didn’t. Until I started researching for this book, I did not know the difference between a seed and a cereal grain, let alone how legumes fit in. So just what is a grain? It is a fair question to ask in this twenty-first century, anti-carbohydrate world. I would venture to say very people would correctly define a grain without first consulting google.
The difference between seeds and grains is rather complex. Technically a seed is “an embryonic plant covered in a seed coat”. Sometimes this seed is edible, other times it is not. Seeds are formed after fertilization of a plant has taken place and the ovule has ripened. In contrast, a grain is a fruit harvested from plants in the grass family, Poaceae.
There are two main types of grains: cereals, which is what I am focusing on in this book, and legumes such as soybeans. Generally, grains are characterized by their hard, dry “seed” which sometimes has an attached hull or fruit layer but doesn’t have to. If that description does not clarify it, I understand, as I remain confused on this terminology, but I promise it has no bearing on your ability to grow these wonderful plants!
