A Year On The Field
Project Blog

Looking back at the last Flax Year - Experiences from the Lauresham Open-Air Laboratory (Germany)

The Open-Air Laboratory Lauresham is an archaeological open-air museum which, among other things, deals with the education and research...

Sowing rituals: with the support from above

The flax industry has a rich history and traditions that date back to ancient times. Part of these traditions are the historical sowing...

Continuing Traditions One Square Metre at a Time

For over two thousand years, Finns have been familiar with flax cultivation. Many traditions throughout the year were closely related to...

Wheat - a photo series of Colonial Williamsburg (USA)

Although wheat was not grown this year at Colonial Williamsburg, this series of captioned photos over the previous years can show you the...

Wheat processing at Carter Historic Farm (USA)

We are happy to share Corinne Gordons report on wheat processing at Carter Historic Farm as part of our last posting regarding our wheat...

A Year on the Field at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum

To highlight the crop of the year, the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum is growing three cultivars of red wheat in a planter as part of...

Looking back - a wheat cultivation cycle at Sterling College (Wendell Berry Farming Program, USA)

As our wheat crop ripens through to the flint stage, it is time to sharpen our sickles and prepare for the harvest. Most (nearly all) of...

Equipment in focus: the Bickford & Huffman Grain Drill (ca. 1890), The Henry Ford (USA)

As an official grower with the “A Year on the Field” project, staff at the Firestone Farm in Greenfield Village (The Henry Ford, Dearborn...

A weedy window on medieval wheat farming

Abstract We have exceedingly little historical evidence for crop husbandry practices in Anglo-Saxon and medieval England, prior to the...

Wheat sowing at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky (USA)

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, is a landmark destination that shares 3,000 acres (1214 hectares) of discovery...

Wheat breeding - a contested practice

Growing grain and breeding grain were for a long time inseparable activities. Until the end of the 19th century, grain producers were...

Seeds and Soil documentation

The first months of the project are now behind us and we have the opportunity to provide a short interim report. One focus of the project...

The diversity of common wheat within 19th century grain cultivation

The collection of the Lauresham Open-Air laboratory includes a "Handbuch des Getreideanbaus" published by Friedrich Körnicke and Hugo...

A 1940 wheat seed box

A Year On The Field is not just about the big picture, but also about little anecdotes and wheat-stories. We were particularly pleased...

A Year on the field in Irish and Welsh medieval testimony

Part 1: Seed, Sowing and a Dash of Soil, in a Food Systems Context Abstract Medieval testimony can show us agricultural cycles for grains...