The Rural Voice, 1993-04, Page 29Still, no one to Scheifele's knowledge
has undertaken large-scale fall and
winter seeding as yet. The
experiments at Ridgetown have only
been on small demonstration plots.
Evening primrose seed is very
difficult to harvest. The pods as they
dry out may shatter, scattering the
seed before it can be combined.
Nothing has been in done breeding
yet to solve this problem. Some
farmers have overcome the problem
by swathing the crop while it's still
on the green side and letting it dry in
the swath.
The seed is very tiny and light
weight. "Combining it is a
challenge," he says. "It can be done.
There are people who have worked
out the technology to make a
conventional combine do the job but
it takes some adjustments. Then
cleaning it is the next big challenge
— to get all the trash out and make it
that pure — because it just has no
density. There is a lot of loss. You
may end up getting 2000 pounds
yield in the field and end up losing
1000 pounds in the cleaning process,
ending up with 1000 pounds.
(Cleanings can be recleaned to
recover more seed but at greater cost
and labour). Still, at $1.00 to $2.50
per pound, the potential profit is still
high.
Many people who have grown
evening primrose in the past have
been hurt because of non-payment by
some of the buyers. They've gone
through the costly planting,
harvesting and cleaning processes
and delivered the seed to a foreign
buyer who says he's dissatisfied and
refuses to pay. Proper business
management must be used to set up
systems to protect both parties and
make sure the grower gets paid,
Scheifele says. He understands that a
system is now being set up with a
European buyer to protect the
farmers. "It's so unfortunate these
other things have happened because
they've really dampened the success
of the crop. We have a crop here that
can go places. " There is a market for
2000-3000 acres of evening primrose
in Ontario, he says. "It's a niche crop.
I can't possibly see a million acres. "
An even smaller "crop" as far as
the space it takes up is shiitake
mushrooms. Shiitake has a long
history in the Orient, sought after by
Royalty as a gourmet food, and a folk
medicine, highly praised as the elixir
of life. In Japan it grows on the shiia
tree, a tree similar to our oak.
"This area of southwestern Ontario
has been identified as an excellent
geographical area for cultivation of
shiitake on oak logs. Oak trees are a
common part of our hardwood
forests. The logging industry in the
past has just been leaving the tree
tops from oak trees to be cut up for
firewood. We're recycling those tree
limbs into something that will
produce a natural health food. The
shiitake is a very sought-after,
nutritious health food with good
market value."
Near Port Rowan, on Lake Erie, a
group of fanners has formed the Oak
Forest Mushroom Association and
has been working to develop the
market for shiitake. There are five or
six growers in Kent county, he
estimates, from as small as 300 to as
large as 5000 logs.
Oak logs, four to 10 inches in
diameter, four feet long are cut in the
fall, after the leaves have fallen and
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APRIL 1993 25