Lentils

(Lens culinaris)
Lentils were domesticated in the Middle East thousands of years ago. They can be planted at the same time as peas and spring grains, but are much more drought-tolerant. In fact, they depend on dry weather as they near maturity, which makes them challenging to grow in Ontario. Because the plants are short, weak vines, the pods are near the ground, so if you get rain when they are drying down you will lose some of your crop to sprouting and shattering. This is why there is currently no commercial production of lentils here. I have very little experience with them, but I am beginning to think that with the right varieties and the right growing practices, they may be possible on a small scale – in years when the weather is favourable.
Recently I have begun learning about and experimenting with intercropping lentils with camelina or small grains (barley, oats, or wheat), a practice which has been done in Germany and Eastern Europe. There are several interesting academic papers about the topic available online. The theory is that the grain plants help to hold up the lentils, so that the pods are farther off the ground, and it seems to work. To intercrop them, one simply plants alternating rows of lentils and grain about 8”/20 cm apart at the same time. The challenge with this system is finding varieties which mature at the same time and sorting them after harvest. I am still working on finding good pairs, but in my first year of testing, Späth’s Alblinse I lentil worked well with Ethiopian barley and Hordeum Nigrinudum barley.