A Beginner Tries Growing Millets from Scratch: The Time Has Come to Eat Foxtail Millet (A Personal Experience)

I am Kireimichi, a reckless person who,
despite being a complete beginner at farming,
suddenly tried my hand at growing millets, which are for advanced growers.

Although I managed to grow foxtail millet,
I anticipated defeat in the threshing process.

For an amateur to do it by hand,
threshing and milling millets
was a significantly high hurdle.

To provide some context for those who can't visualize it,
when rice is harvested,
it's covered in a hard brown husk, right?

You need to perform this same process for millets as well.

Only then does it finally become edible.

After all, millet is a "grain" just like rice.

And as for the "foxtail millet" I grew this time,
it has the characteristic of having very small grains.

You "cannot use" a rice milling machine like you would for rice.
(A tragedy I discovered only after planting it.)

In other words, I couldn't rely on machines and had to do it "entirely by hand."

Of course, if I had had a machine for milling grains
like millet farmers do,
it should have been a bit easier.

But

there is no way my house would have such a thing.

I don't even have something like this.

From the Edo period, or even much, much earlier,
without using any mechanical devices at all,

take on the challenge entirely by hand!

I had gotten myself caught up in such an intense current.
I've really done it now.

Now, how will I overcome this crisis?

Millet cultivation has been extremely difficult so far,
but last time,
I had to give up halfway due to the sheer volume of work.

Here is the previous article↓

Today is the sequel.

Did I finally manage to eat the foxtail millet or not?

See for yourself with your own eyes.

Recapping the story so far

That is where this challenge began.

And so, I ended up growing foxtail millet.

Everything went smoothly until the growing stage.
I also worked hard on the threshing with the help of my family.

And then, I was defeated by the first round of hulling.

I tried using a blender since I didn't have a mixer, but
the wall of the millet was high.

“Could it be that this will never end?”

Dark clouds hung over our home.

But I had even roped in my grandpa and grandma
to get this far.

I can't just give up now.

And so, the second day of hulling arrived.

Last time, I was doing the hulling little by little
with a blender, but
it was far too inefficient.

“Maybe I can use that?”

I thought, and took out amortar.

When I put it in here and started grinding it,
oh my, it was like magic.

You can start to see the yellow faces, can't you?

This looks like something I can eat.

That said, it takes time to grind it little by little with a mortar and pestle.
It takes a while.

To keep doing this istoo mentally exhausting.

Isn't there any other good way...?

Enter the new weapon.

Grandma's roughly 30-year-old blender
makes its long-awaited appearance.

This treasure of Grandma's,
which had been sleeping in the storage room because she thought about throwing it away,
has finally emerged.

Do you think this will work?

Now, here is a quiz.

Q: What happened to Grandma's prized blender after this?

So, which one is it?

...

Have you thought about it?

Here we go.

The answer is...

4. It worked without any problems
!

(There was no point in making it a quiz! Lol)

So, this prized little blender
performed better than I expected.

How to perform the grain polishing process

Since it was written like that,
we were initially hesitant with our mixing.

However,
"Grinding with a mortar and pestle removes the brown skin"
we learned this fact.

That means...

Rather than never being able to eat it,
even if some of the grains get shaved off or the amount decreases,
polishing the grain is the priority.

We reached this conclusion.

And when we ran it in the mixer thoroughly for several dozen seconds,
yellow foxtail millet kept appearing and appearing.

And then,
we winnowed it with the basket...

This will work!

That's right,
the reality of finally being able to eat the foxtail millet came into view.

Shine!

It was the moment the light of hope shone down upon us.

God did not abandon me...

And,
thanks to the 'thorough mixer strategy',
the long grain polishing work finally ended!

Yay!

Our first foxtail millet harvest festival

It has been a journey of ups and downs to get here.

Having overcome many difficulties,
now, we
will eat the foxtail millet.

Making "millet manju" with the foxtail millet we grew ourselves.
That was my dream.

And the moment that dream finally comes true is...

...

...

I failed~ lol

Look at this.

I definitely messed up how to cook the millet,
and when I tried to force it into a wrapper, this happened.

It turned into a gooey dough,
and rather than wrapping it, it was more like I just poured millet sludge over it.

It wasn't a manju anymore, was it?

Plus, it was so soft
that you couldn't eat it without a spoon.

Even here,
I really messed up~ (Kireido-san, you do this a lot, don't you?)

But, but,
the taste was actually really delicious.

I'm not lying. Really.

I'm sure it's even more so
because of all the hard work that went into it.

Foxtail millet is chewy and has a nice texture, and it's just so delicious💖

It was the moment all my hard work blew away.

A deeply moving autumn of 2022.

Well then... *ahem*

That is all.

From now on, in our home,
we plan to hold a millet festival for a while.

I am enjoying millet again this morning.

Summary: How long did it take for a beginner to grow and eat millet?

Starting from planting seeds in May,
I tasted my first millet in October.

The long five-month journey
is finally coming to an end here.

The most grueling part was the process starting from threshing.

Since I was working by trial and error while worrying,
it took extra time.

If you gather a few people, it can be done in a day.

If I had used the mixer skillfully from the start,
it should have been faster.

That said...

whether I will do this again... mumble mumble.

Look forward to seeing if I grow millet again next year!

Today's millet challenge series was
A beginner tries growing millet from scratch
.

Your likes and follows are my motivation!

Updating on Tuesdays and Fridays,
this was Ayako Furukawa, also known as Kireido.

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