Harvesting Wheat by Hand -- Foodmageddon, Ep. 20

In this episode, we harvest wheat, from scything and binding in the field, to threshing, grinding, and baking.

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[marjorythrash]

In the mid 1960s, my great uncle (who fought in WW1, which gives you an idea of his age) planted and harvested buckwheat in central Mississippi. He kept back seed every year (I don't think he had access to seeds otherwise) for the 3 or 4 acres. Like another poster, he would only cut off the tops of the plants, then used a mule-drawn hay cutter to reduce the stems. Then, he would burn off the field, leave it over the winter, and replant. He told me his father also planted wheat and rye, besides the corn. His father would have been an adult in the Civil War.

[jamesrodriquez]

Hmmmm. I've watched quite a few videos on threshing and winnowing wheat, and I have come to the conclusion that a lot depends on how much you put into the front end of the work. I've seen folks harvest the way you did, with a scythe. But I have also seen people take the time to cut just the heads and maybe 4-6 inches of stalk when harvesting. Yes, it took longer to harvest, but they saved time when it came to threshing and winnowing. It's sorta like the old saying--there's more than one way to skin a cat. I have an idea for modifying a wood chipper to use it as a thresher by replacing the steel blade with a piece of wood, but I haven't worked out any of the details yet. It would be nice if I could figure out how to use it to thresh and winnow the wheat at the same time. At any rate, I enjoyed watching your video. I've learned from growing some of my own food that it's a never ending learning process, and I cannot wait to try my hand at growing wheat!

[peterellis]

Your exploration of methods for threshing and winnowing was fascinating and invaluable. The flail threshing machine and winnowing tower were particularly noteworthy - but then you made the tower superfluous! Ingenious. Thank you for sharing.

[Geoshandle]

Thank you for taking the time to learn the lessons so not everybody has to learn them the hard way.

[alfloro]

Nice, well done!
My blood pressure skyrocketed at 20:15.

[mikhalych]

Im growing Einkorn wheat currently for the first time. Im learning as I go and youre giving me lots of good ideas. Thanks.

[tinatillman]

Awesome video, I planted organic hard red winter wheat last fall and am harvesting it by hand. I've been searching for an "easier way" to harvest it than what I've been doing!

[christophermetz]

Wow! Super cool. Looks like the simpler you get with the process the better. Awesome video and info!

[debbiecurtis]

You are a great video maker and very sensible about explaining what you're doing. I love your shop, too! You've answered a lot of questions I've had about how much wheat it takes to make a bushel, etc. I'm looking forward to more, especially what variety you're planting, or which of several you are trying. Hard red, soft white, etc. Like with apple varieties, many have been lost that were specific to an area. Here in central NY state, there were varieties that did well in our climate, for instance. Probably someone at Cornell has a stash somewhere, LOL!

[davidpatriot]

youre a good dude making good comment brother glad I found this channel just now

[uscorg]

Couple points to help that you may have figured out by now. Nice longer smooth cuts following through farther will help. You need your cradle to be taller over the blades to keep it from flipping over itself and keep it all laying same direction.

[skdjirrrdjdm]

Really fascinating video I'm just now learning about wheat. So much respect for the pre-industrial people who had to grow and process the old fashioned way.

[vobden]

Thanks man, watching this video just helped me so much. Earned a subscriber here

[nootjeuh]

thank you for the nice video
wishing you and your family all the best
love from belgium

[thomasjohnpaine]

Great video brother. Clever devices. I like how you show us the evolution of your technique. Keep up the good work!

[jaridkeen]

I dont have a grass lawn. my entire frontyard and backyard is a garden. It could be cool to see people growing wheat in there front yard instead of grass.

[Golden_SnowFlake]

Great video, very neat to see how difficult it can be!

[maureencrawford]

Very nicely done video. I came upon your video after reading “Farmer Boy” which is book 2 in the “Little House on the Prairie” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I couldn’t understand the printed description of threshing so I searched for some video to clarify. You are a pioneer for sure. You have a new subscriber, and I feel like I’m turning more Amish by the minute. I look forward to learning more!

[asparks]

I was very impressed with your explanation and modeling how to do this. Thank you so much.

[Gaspa]

@11:50 when you say "straw is when it doesn't have seeds in it, hay is when it does". That's simply not true. I've never seen someone call wheat "hay" since it's mostly plain grass or alfalfa, because it's grown solely for the purpose of feeding cattle (and wheat is not). Whereas straw is (usually) just the "waste" of producing wheat, which usually doesn't have seeds in it, but it may very well have. So it can be straw and still have seeds in it.