Wheat Harvest

     The wheat harvest is beginning in earnest. The combines are ending their long slumber and rumbling out into the fields.

     The name "combine" comes from the fact that these machines combine the processes of reaping, threshing, and winnowing into one great big vehicle.

     Reaping is the cutting and gathering of the plant. This job is handled by the header on the left side of the above picture. Threshing is when you beat the plant all to pieces so that winnowing, where the seeds are separated from the chaff, (everything else) can occur. The seeds go into a bin on top of the machine, while the chaff flies out the back.

     Once the bin is full, the seeds must be unloaded. This truck holds a couple thousand bushels and will haul the grain off to various locations. Eventually this wheat will go into many foods and products or be treated and returned to the soil to grow more wheat.
     Modern combines are the main reason that fewer and fewer farmers are able to feed more and more people. Where harvest used to take large amounts of people doing large amounts of work, one farmer with a combine can do the same job in a fraction of the time. This is not to say that it's now an easy job. Each morning the combine must be checked and maintained, and the hours can be very long.
    

     Harvest time is when the business of the farmer becomes most tangible. The farmers business is food.
Bread, pasta, and delicious, delicious desserts all contain wheat. Other crops go directly into other foods, or are the food themselves. I know I say this all the time, but I don't think it can be said too much: Just about everything you eat was grown by a farmer. When you're caught behind a tractor or combine in traffic, be patient. When you're driving home late, and see a farmer still hard at work, give a little wave. They deserve your respect.