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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A Golden Journey


We've been done with wheat harvest for about a month. We're usually done by the end of June, or at least by the Fourth, but this year's weather extended things a bit. Maybe these photos will give you some idea of part of what's involved before you eat that piece of toast for breakfast!

No harvest or planting time would be complete without some repairs to the machinery.
The combine is ready to roll!
A few heads of wheat
can be threshed by hand to get the wheat berries, which make a chewy and tasty (in my opinion) snack.
The reel guides the wheat into the combine
where the straw is separated out, with just the grain ending up in the bin, or hopper, on top of the combine.Then it goes from the combine hopper, through the auger, onto a waiting truck
that hauls it to be stored in bins on the farm
or, it might head down the road to the local grain elevator.
There it is weighed,
sampled,
unloaded either by dumping out the back
or through a door in the bottom of a truck bed,
and then makes its way up to the top of a l-o-n-g leg
where it drops down into a huge storage bin until it is sold and trucked away to be made ready for the grocery stores as pasta, bread, cereal,..... .
This is my favorite photo of the crop.
Kansas wheat--nothing like it!

13 comments:

  1. What a great educational story for my city boys (and their city mom)! I just had Logan read it to me - I only had to help him out with the names of the machinery.

    Although I love the picture of the beautiful golden wheat, I was expecting to see the journey end with a picture of a fresh loaf of bread. Guess it's up to me to finish that part of the story, eh?

    Liam and I are planning to make some banana bread in a few minutes...maybe whole wheat bread next time! (Mmmm...warm with butter and honey...I can almost taste it!)

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  2. I have "hayfever" Ah-choo! sorry I just couldn't resist that. I love wheat grains raw also and the last picture is my favorite.

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  3. What a cool post. I love the golden color of the wheat. It's beautiful.

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  4. Where was the Little Red Hen in all of this? I can just hear her now, "Who will help me eat the bread?" Great photos and great story along with them. We drove through Kansas back in early January of 2003 so I have a good picture of those incredible storage bins and elevators.

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  5. Great post Jo! Brings back a lot of memories. I saw this recipe today online, you might be interested in trying it.

    http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/salad/wheatwaldorf.html

    Now if I could only come up with some wheat berries!

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  6. Martha-I used to live in Hutchinson, where the world's longest elevator was built in 1961. It's half a mile long! Go to http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/277647/11915/Grain-elevators-Hutchinson-Kansas to see part of it.

    Janet-Want me to save some for you for when you cycle on out for a visit?! I'll try to remember to let you know if I try the recipe.

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  7. Jill - You'll have to get Logan down this way sometime during harvest for a first-hand experience.

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  8. 7 comments already (post up less than 24 hours) and I can only get Janet and two people I don't know to comment on 16 posts of our San Diego vacation! If any of you feel guilty (or even if not), please visit http://www.grampphil.blogspot.com and COMMENT!

    Now that's off my chest :-)

    Great story and pix. The last one would make a wonderful puzzle!

    Not your Grampa Phil, but you know who I am.

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  9. Oops, that's grampaphil.blogspot.com, not grampphil.blogspot.com

    :-(

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  10. Oh, the guilt! Must comment. (done)

    I do use the photo for my desktop right now. Also, I've just added a puzzle maker to my sidebar. I'll use this photo on it for awhile. Not quite the same as hundreds of pieces spread out on the dining room table, but it'll have to do for now!

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  11. Good post, Mom!

    I might have to "steal" that last picture...:-) ...and/or maybe the first.

    Love ya!
    ~~K

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  12. Great photos! And very interesting post! Loved it.

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