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Early uses
Early uses of sorghum include its preparation with native yeast to produce a kind of bread or flat cake. The tiny grains (probably 500,000 to 1 million per kg) could also be eaten as a porridge. Both of these would be familiar to people conversant with early wheat, barley or the Ethiopian grain Teff (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter - an endemic Ethiopian grass crop). Sorghum grains were probably also turned into 'small beer' using souring, or lactic acid fermentation, resulting in a fermented gruel rather than a beer as we know it. This fermentation technique involves using germinating grains and the resulting brew is very nutritious.
The use of sorghum stalks as forage for animals and as fuel for cooking fires is not documented, but these are both important uses of sorghum today in all regions where it is cultivated (except the USA).
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