12 avril 2021 lundi
67 degrees F , partly cloudy
10-20 mph, NW wind
Spring has arrived at Fort de Chartres and in the Illinois Country. Just as in French Colonial times, the agricultural fields in the American Bottom are tilled and seeded and the new growing season is underway. Wheat is one of the important crops that has been grown throughout the centuries in these rich fields in the Bottom, the land being continually renewed by the flooding waters of the great Mississippi River.
In 2018, Fort de Chartres Heritage Garden Project and Les Amis du Fort de Chartres have worked together to showcase a heritage spring breadwheat Triticum aestivum (var. Rouge de Bordeaux) representing the type of wheat that might have been grown as this region’s important ancestorial crop. With support of the Village of Prairie du Rocher, a small wheat plot was planted on village land through our Heritage Garden Project. Unfortunately, the very wet conditions and flooding of the surrounding area in recent years has not made for a successful effort thus far. In an effort to improve the plot’s drainage, Les Amis du Fort de Chartres purchased lumber in 2020 to build a raised bed to place in that village plot so that even if the surrounding ground was saturated, the soil could drain and allow the wheat to thrive. Thank you to Nick Kuntz for preparing the lumber for the plot and Jason Duensing for helping Nick prepare the bed sides and finish constructing the bed on the plot site in Prairie du Rocher. Once the bed was in place, the Village placed soil in the bed, then the soil was amended and raked in preparation for planting, with the assistance of Sabre, our garden project volunteer. I was able to sow the wheat seed shortly thereafter and now we just wait and see if our efforts are rewarded. All of the projects related to our French Colonial garden journey are always an adventure and fingers-crossed that this new adventure will be successful. If you are driving by, please don’t hesitate to park on the gravel road near the project’s sign, take a short walk to our red raised bed and check out our wheat as it grows! To revisit the original wheat project post for more of this project’s story, visit here this jardin’s previous post, Blé from mai 2018
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