Midsummer Rye (Secale cereale )
Svedjeråg
Some ears can become up to 15 cm long.
Swidden rye. This rye variety used to be grown in swiddens, i.e. slash-and-burn agriculture where you cut down the forest and burn it, and then sow in the ashes. Slash-and-burn agriculture came to Sweden with Finnish immigrants in the 16th and 17th centuries, and they brought this rye variety. It was nearly lost, but Per Martin Tvengsberg found some grains in an old drying shed and could propagate it.
Swidden rye has small grains. The plants grow very tall (up to 2 meters) and the straw is therefore well suited for thatched roofs or for straw handicraft.
Swidden rye can be grown in different ways:
1. Midsummer rye. Sown around Midsummer, grazed or cut in the autumn, and then harvested the next summer.
2. Sown in the autumn just like ordinary winter rye.
3. Lazy man's rye. Sown in spring together with barley (2 parts barley to 1 part rye). At the end of the summer the barley is harvested and the rye is grazed or cut, and then harvested the next summer.
Since Swidden rye produces very many tillers (side shoots) when sown early, it can be sown sparsely and still give a good harvest. In the old days, if people had few seeds, it could be sown with as little as 10-20 grains per square meter, but then you probably had to weed it by hand.
The grains are small
Plants 36 days from sowing (autum sowing)
Lazy man's rye emerging. Barley plants green, rye plants brownish.