more than you ever wanted to know about wheat

i never really knew what i was getting into when i agreed to help my family with the wheat harvest this summer. it all began with me walking with my father through the fields in the evening helping him irrigate by way of releasing water through an intricate system of channels and dams. not realizing the amount of wheat and the process it takes from start to finish i unknowingly signed my sentence. beginning in early june i started to see the preparations being made for the upcoming onslaught, but thought "oh boy ive never done this before." first it begins with the preparation of the grinding yards. a flatish patch of hard packed dirt with a vertical pole in the middle which is used to tether a team of mules/donkeys/dogs/children whatever is available. this area must be swept/repacked/smoothed before the years' harvest arrives.











meanwhile the wheat in the field has turned yellow. now its time for BIG FUN!! threshing may sound like some new fangled skateboarding move to you youngsters but it aint. its waking up at 5 and cutting acres of wheat by hand all day, uphill in the snow. wow i sound like a geezer huh. anyway it really is a good time, you spend all day in the fields with the family, taking tea breaks in the shade, eating lunch in the fields with neighboring families, and all the while listening to the work songs and banshee cries of the women working around you, its fantastic!!! i really feel like i live in another century, its wild.








next its piled and loaded onto mules or donkeys and carried to the grinding yards



once its piled in the yard you can barely see the tops of the posts (4' high) the teams are brought in to run over the full grains which cuts and grinds the straw from the grain. very effective



last but not least is the separating of the chaffe from the grain. with only the use of homemade wooden pitchforks we gently tossed hundreds of pounds of straw and seed in the air and let the wind carry the chaffe into pile which is used for animal feed and the grain is ground into flour for the ever present staple: bread. this harvest God willing will last us the whole year and maybe a little to sell.