Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield by weight of cereal crops such as barley , oats , rice , rye and wheat . It has a number of different uses, including fuel , livestock bedding and fodder , thatching and basket making .
30-805: Corn dollies or corn mothers are a form of straw work made as part of harvest customs of Europe before mechanisation. Scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries theorized that before Christianisation , in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the corn (in American English , "corn" would be "grain") lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless. James Frazer devotes chapters in The Golden Bough to "Corn-Mother and Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe" (chs. 45–48) and adduces European folkloric examples collected in great abundance by
60-546: A biofuel substitute to coal. Straw, processed first as briquettes , has been fed into a biogas plant in Aarhus University , Denmark, in a test to see if higher gas yields could be attained. The use of straw in large-scale biomass power plants is becoming mainstream in the EU, with several facilities already online. The straw is either used directly in the form of bales, or densified into pellets which allows for
90-563: A plait of three straws and tied into a loose knot to represent a heart. It is reputed to have been made by a young man with straws picked up after the harvest and given to his loved one. If she was wearing it next to her heart when he saw her again then he would know that his love was reciprocated. Three straws can be plaited using the hair plait or a cat's foot plait. Favours can be made with two, three, four or more straws. Other examples include: These are representations of animals or humanoid beings made from an entire sheaf. They are known by
120-421: A straw bale , which is a bale , or bundle, of straw tightly bound with twine, wire, or string. Straw bales may be square, rectangular, star shaped or round, and can be very large, depending on the type of baler used. Current and historic uses of straw include: Straw may be fed as part of the roughage component of the diet to cattle or horses that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement. It has
150-610: A commercial composting environment. Straw can be pulped to make paper . Rope made from straw was used by thatchers, in the packaging industry and even in iron foundries. Saekki is a traditional Korean rope made of woven straw. The Chinese wore cailu or caixie , shoes and sandals made of straw, well into modernity. Koreans wear jipsin , sandals made of straw. Several types of traditional Japanese shoes, such as waraji and zōri , are made of straw. In some parts of Germany like Black Forest and Hunsrück people wear straw shoes at home or at carnival. Heavy-gauge straw rope
180-414: A hard winter as well as to use them as a trap for parasite insects. (see Komomaki ) It is also used in ponds to reduce algae by changing the nutrient ratios in the water. The soil under strawberries is covered with straw to protect the ripe berries from dirt, and straw is also used to cover the plants during winter to prevent the cold from killing them. Straw also makes an excellent mulch . Straw
210-540: A low digestible energy and nutrient content (as opposed to hay , which is much more nutritious). The heat generated when microorganisms in a herbivore's gut digest straw can be useful in maintaining body temperature in cold climates. Due to the risk of impaction and its poor nutrient profile, it should always be restricted to part of the diet. It may be fed as it is, or chopped into short lengths, known as chaff . Bee skeps and linen baskets are made from coiled and bound together continuous lengths of straw. The technique
240-655: A perfect soil substitute. There are several styles of straw hats that are made of woven straw. Many thousands of women and children in England (primarily in the Luton district of Bedfordshire), and large numbers in the United States (mostly Massachusetts ), were employed in plaiting straw for making hats. By the late 19th century, vast quantities of plaits were being imported to England from Canton in China, and in
270-406: A post-and-beam construction, to build straw bale houses . When bales are used to build or insulate buildings, the straw bales are commonly finished with earthen plaster . The plastered walls provide some thermal mass , compressive and ductile structural strength, and acceptable fire resistance as well as thermal resistance (insulation), somewhat in excess of North American building code . Straw
300-642: A variety of names, depending on location and also the time of harvesting: Here the straw is not plaited, but tied with yarn, wool, raffia or similar. This type of straw work is particularly popular in Scandinavia and German -speaking countries. Examples of these are the Oro (Swedish Straw Crown); the Tomte or Nisse; and smaller versions of the Yule Goat . Straw Straw is usually gathered and stored in
330-444: Is an abundant agricultural waste product, and requires little energy to bale and transport for construction. For these reasons, straw bale construction is gaining popularity as part of passive solar and other renewable energy projects. Wheat straw can be used as a fibrous filler combined with polymers to produce composite lumber . Enviroboard can be made from straw. Strawblocks are strawbales that have been recompressed to
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#1732790783580360-501: Is being investigated as a source of fine chemicals including alkaloids , flavonoids , lignins , phenols , and steroids . In many parts of the world, straw is used to bind clay and concrete . A mixture of clay and straw, known as cob , can be used as a building material. There are many recipes for making cob. When baled , straw has moderate insulation characteristics (about R-1.5/inch according to Oak Ridge National Lab and Forest Product Lab testing). It can be used, alone or in
390-437: Is coiled and sewn tightly together to make archery targets. This is no longer done entirely by hand, but is partially mechanised. Sometimes a paper or plastic target is set up in front of straw bales, which serve to support the target and provide a safe backdrop. Thatching uses straw, reed or similar materials to make a waterproof, lightweight roof with good insulation properties. Straw for this purpose (often wheat straw)
420-514: Is doubtless a rain-charm. In the district of Bruck in Styria the last sheaf, called the Corn-mother, is made up into the shape of a woman by the oldest married woman in the village, of an age from 50 to 55 years. The finest ears are plucked out of it and made into a wreath , which, twined with flowers, is carried on her head by the prettiest girl of the village to the farmer or squire , while
450-412: Is grown specially and harvested using a reaper-binder . Dried straw presents a fire hazard that can ignite easily if exposed to sparks or an open flame. It can also trigger allergic rhinitis in people who are hypersensitive to airborne allergens such as straw dust. [REDACTED] Media related to Straw at Wikimedia Commons Combine harvester Too Many Requests If you report this error to
480-505: Is known as lip work. Straw is commonly used as bedding for ruminants and horses. It may be used as bedding and food for small animals, but this often leads to injuries to mouth, nose and eyes as straw is quite sharp. The straw-filled mattress, also known as a palliasse , is still used by people in many parts of the world. Rice straw, an agricultural waste which is not usually recovered, can be turned into bioplastic with mechanical properties akin to polystyrene in its dry state. Straw
510-473: Is resistant to being crushed and therefore makes a good packing material . A company in France makes a straw mat sealed in thin plastic sheets. Straw envelopes for wine bottles have become rarer, but are still to be found at some wine merchants. Wheat straw is also used in compostable food packaging such as compostable plates. Packaging made from wheat straw can be certified compostable and will biodegrade in
540-442: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and various state agencies recommend use of alternative sediment control practices where possible, such as silt fences , fiber rolls and geotextiles . They can also be used as burned area emergency response , as ground cover or as in-stream check dams. The use of straw as a carbon-neutral energy source is increasing rapidly, especially for biobutanol . Straw or hay briquettes are
570-601: The folklorist Wilhelm Mannhardt . Among the customs attached to the last sheaf of the harvest were hollow shapes fashioned from the last sheaf of wheat or other cereal crops . The corn spirit would then spend the winter in this home until the "corn dolly" was ploughed into the first furrow of the new season. James George Frazer discusses the Corn-mother and the Corn-maiden in Northern Europe , and
600-404: The Corn-mother is laid down in the barn to keep off the mice. In other villages of the same district the Corn-mother, at the close of harvest, is carried by two lads at the top of a pole. They march behind the girl who wears the wreath to the squire's house, and while he receives the wreath and hangs it up in the hall, the Corn-mother is placed on the top of a pile of wood, where she is the centre of
630-409: The United States most of the straw plait was imported. A fiber analogous to straw is obtained from the plant Carludovica palmata , and is used to make Panama hats . Traditional Japanese rain protection consisted of a straw hat and a mino cape . Straw is used in cucumber houses and for mushroom growing. In Japan , certain trees are wrapped with straw to protect them from the effects of
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#1732790783580660-508: The beginning of the 20th century. In the UK corn dolly making was revived in the 1950s and 1960s. Farm workers created new creations including replicas of farm implements and models such as windmills and large figures. New shapes and designs with different techniques were being created. In the 1960/70s several books were published on the subject. (see Lettice Sandford ) The simple origins of the craft had been lost and new folk lore stories were added to
690-417: The density of woodblocks, for compact cargo container shipment, or for straw-bale construction of load-bearing walls that support roof-loads, such as a "living" or green roofs . Craft usages of straw include: Straw bales are sometimes used for sediment control at construction sites. However, bales are often ineffective in protecting water quality and are maintenance-intensive. For these reasons
720-461: The feedstock to be transported over longer distances. Finally, torrefaction of straw with pelletisation is gaining attention, because it increases the energy density of the resource, making it possible to transport it still further. This processing step also makes storage much easier, because torrefied straw pellets are hydrophobic. Torrefied straw in the form of pellets can be directly co-fired with coal or natural gas at very high rates and make use of
750-536: The harvest rituals that were being practised at the beginning of the 20th century: In the neighbourhood of Danzig the person who cuts the last ears of corn makes them into a doll, which is called the Corn-mother or the Old Woman and is brought home on the last waggon. In some parts of Holstein the last sheaf is dressed in women's clothes and called the Corn-mother. It is carried home on the last waggon, and then thoroughly drenched with water. The drenching with water
780-656: The harvest supper and dance. Many more customs are instanced by Frazer. For example, the term "Old Woman" ( Latin vetula ) was in use for such "corn dolls" among the Germanic pagans of Flanders in the 7th century, where Saint Eligius discouraged them from their old practices: "[Do not] make vetulas, (little figures of the Old Woman), little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf, compare Puck ] at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks [a Yule custom]." Frazer writes: "In East Prussia, at
810-559: The original ideas. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading both have collections of corn dollies from around the world. With the advent of the combine harvester , the old-fashioned, long-stemmed and hollow-stemmed wheat varieties were replaced with knee-high, pithy varieties. However, a number of English and Scottish farmers are still growing
840-513: The processing infrastructures at existing coal and gas plants. Because the torrefied straw pellets have superior structural, chemical and combustion properties to coal, they can replace all coal and turn a coal plant into an entirely biomass-fed power station. First generation pellets are limited to a co-firing rate of 15% in modern IGCC plants. Straw bale gardening is also popular among gardeners who do not have enough space for soil gardening . When properly conditioned, straw bales can be used as
870-524: The rye or wheat harvest, the reapers call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You are getting the Old Grandmother....In Scotland, when the last corn was cut after Hallowmas , the female figure made out of it was sometimes called the Carlin or Carline , that is, the Old Woman." The mechanisation of harvesting cereal crops probably brought an end to traditional straw dolly and figure making at
900-402: The traditional varieties of wheat, such as Maris Wigeon , Squarehead Master, Elite Le Peuple. mainly because they are in great demand in thatching , a craft which is enjoying a renaissance, with customers facing long waiting lists for having their roofs thatched or repaired. Corn dollies and other similar harvest straw work can be divided into these groups: A countryman's favour was usually
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