I had never eaten sorghum before we planted it for our year of living exclusively off of the land.  But what a great discovery!  We intend to grow and process sorghum grain every year now.

Plant sorghum seed in the spring after the threat of frost has passed.  Like all crops, sorghum does best with minimal competition from weeds.  This year, we tilled a new patch of ground just for the sorghum, but it managed to out-grow the weeds.  Grain sorghum doesn't grow as tall as corn, but it is a tall plant.  We made furrows, or raised rows to plant in, but this isn't necessary.  And sorghum is a drought-hardy plant, which is a boon if more years are as hot as dry as this past summer (2022)!

Planting is simple - check out our pictorial tutorial on growing sorghum grain below:

We hand-broadcast our seed rather than using a seed drill, push seeder or a hand held seed spreader.   We thinned half the rows afterwards with a hoe but found no difference in yield.  We purchased organic seed from Welter Seed, but honestly were not impressed with the performance of this variety.

The sorghum field a few weeks later - in May.

Processing Sorghum Grain - how we remove the seed from the seed heads

As you can see in the video, to process sorghum we just roll the seed heads (once dried on the plant) over 1/4" screen mesh into a collecting vessel.  Don't be overly thorough - the cling-ons are the seeds that don't winnow well and hold the chaff.

Watch a short clip to see how to winnow with the wind.  This is the last step in processing sorghum grain.

There is a small learning curve to winnowing.  You want to pour the grain to the side of the bucket that the chaff is blowing away, so that less of the chaff falls into the bucket.  Play with how high you hold the pouring bucket above the collecting bucket.  The more wind, the lower you can be.  Be careful of strong gusts of wind, which can take some of the seed along with the chaff.  And that last bit of seed needs the most caution - somehow it doesn't follow the same trajectory as all the seed that preceded it.  If you're just starting out, you might consider winnowing over a sheet in case you need to pick up any spills.

If you don't have wind, a fan works great.  The "wind" speed is constant, which makes winnowing easier in that less seed will accidentally get winnowed away with the chaff.

Winnow back and forth several times until all the chaff is removed.  If some chaff still clings to the seed heads, pour seed into a pillowcase (preferably one without a bottom seam that could break loose with abuse) and rub it and beat on it with a stick to loosen the chaff further.

Before winnowing /\

And after \/ - see the difference in color

Discover recipes for using sorghum here