We finished threshing the wheat on Tuesday. It is amazing how small the actual pile of berries and chaff was, considering the size of the stack of wheat we started with.
Threshing the last of the straw with sticks, baby girls is very much a monkey-see-monkey-do kind of girl. A great long stick of molding in close proximity to her older siblings… What could possibly go wrong with that?
Then Evie discovered that dropping the 15Lb rubber coated kettlebell worked pretty well too, which I thought was clever.
After most of the big straw was removed we took the tarp outside and set up a box fan.
Ellie was fascinated by the winnowing process.
Meanwhile, Winnie had made a discovery.
The only green tomato the farm has produced so far this summer (from a volunteer plant in the duck yard).
And that is our wheat haul, preliminary winnowing. We will need to screen and winnow it some more to purify it to a level for human consumption.
What we have learned so far is that we will need far more square footage to produce enough wheat to feed the family for a full year; winter wheat is the way to go, as it gets a head start and is ready for harvest earlier; drying the wheat thoroughly is critical. We let it sit for a week, but I think it still could have stood being a little drier. Next year, letting it stand in stukes the traditional way might be something to try.
Most importantly, we need a more efficient way to process the wheat. We will look into designs for hand or bicycle powered threshing and winnowing machines.
Little Farm in the Big City 