04 August 20XX +1
My Dear Lucilius:
I had an epiphany yesterday. I do not often have them (contrary to my own sense of importance) so when they take root and actually pan out it is something to be noted.
Even though I have been specifically told not to worry about it, I continue to ponder about the wheat North of us. Even with everyone we met taking some, there would still be plenty to be had for the industrious. But there are a great many logistics involved.
Who, you may ask, do I have to present these logistics to? A great question with a fairly fluid answer.
If one is looking for “government” in this part of the world, there is not one. The local towns of the Garnet Valley seem to be managing themselves, with occasional multi-town events. But that is organized beyond my line of sight – which is fine by me (and even more fine by Pompeia Paulina, as it turns out); the last thing in the world either of us want or need is another set of endless discussions that lead nowhere. I have had too much of those in past careers.
I have indicated before that Young Xerxes seems much more plugged into that side of things. I have no idea quite how or how much; any questions on those sorts of things seem to mysteriously shift into other lines of discussion. It is likely more than I think and certainly more than he lets on. He was,if you recall, the one that enabled my meeting with was apparently passes for leaders at the beginning of this.
So I have been confronting myself with two problems: the first is how to know when the wheat might be ready in sufficient time to allow for a group to get there in time to harvest it, the second how to communicate and arrange all of that. This has been the thought in my brain as I have wandered throughout my day, even casually bouncing suggestions off my wife – which as long as they do not seem to involved travel, seems to be a safe topic.
It came to me in the garden today: why not use my own grain as a guide?
I have grown small patches of wheat, rye, and barley for years now. I seldom get more than enough for flour for some loaves of bread and retaining enough for next year, but it remains an activity that I enjoy immensely: there is something about watching the stalks and grain ripple in the wind that fills my soul.
We are not that far South – perhaps 20 miles as the crow flies, and only one significant hill range between us and the fields. We might be a touch off, but not much: why not gauge readiness off of what I can see with my own eyes?
Yes, I know, there are a couple of caveats. One, of course, is that we have people we are in communication with and could tell us – but that might mean we are too late to really organize. The other is my wheat might not be precisely the same variety (honestly, it probably is not).
But comparatively speaking, those seem like minor challenges compared to a potential realistic solution. I reckon that if the planning starts now – tomorrow – a team could be made ready to depart. I should easily have the sense of a week before the event begins to happen – which could be confirmed by our friends to the North.
I ran all of this by Young Xerxes. He seems all in, and will be off to discuss the idea with whomever he talks to about such things. Who knows - perhaps other people that raise wheat are beyond my grasp here locally could give a better predicting tool than this.
Pompeia Paulina, when presented with this, gave me the look that I have come to associate with “This had better not involved another trip”. I shall endeavor to keep as low a profile as I can on this – while working intently on it.
Given where we are, it is likely a month or a little more for all of this to happen. If only the weather will hold, Lucilius. If only the weather will hold.
Your Obedient Servant, Seneca
By coincidence, the large wheat field to the north of our farm was being harvested yesterday afternoon.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, my father combined a small patch of wheat that was much greener than the rest of the field. Knowing it would spoil if put in the bin, we swept out the shop building concrete floor and dumped the load on it and spread it around. My brother and I were tasked with going out there a handful of times a day to stir the grains so they they could receive air and dry down a bit. I don't recollect how long it took but eventually the grain was dried enough for storage and it was scooped up and put in the grain bin with the rest of the wheat.
Interesting Ed. I had not known that as a method one could use. It makes sense, if one has the ability and the room. I will look up a bit more about it.
DeleteA very good point ED made.
Delete"Modern" wheat farmers use Roundup or such to shock the almost mature wheat to dry evenly for a fast machine harvest.
In Bible times you harvested here and there as the Wheat ripened and even so gleaning the leftovers was mentioned in the book of Ruth and Leviticus “’When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God.’”
That wheat has at least three benefits to Seneca's community.
Food, seed for their own wheat fields and expanded knowledge base from those AG students-teachers. A lot of old country-old school knowledge there.
Michael, at best they are going to be able to get a part of it - as you indicate, it will all not come ripe at the same time. And depending on who gets there when, some of the most ready may already be gone.
DeleteI suspect they will banking heavily on the experience of Epicurus and Themista.
If you were harvesting by hand, I'd think you would cut the wheat, tie it into bundles and stack it in a shock to dry until you could start threshing it. To keep it from shattering, it would need to be cut before it was dry enough to thresh and store (if that makes sense).
ReplyDeleteWhen binders started being used, the wheat would be bundled, then thrown onto a following wagon which would take it to the thresher. The thresher would give you both the grain and a mountain of straw that you either baled or let the cows eat over the winter.
Rich, that is how I understand it works by hand as well (at least in theory - I only had small garden plot). In my case I usually waited a long time for grain to dry so I could manage just thresh it.
DeleteThere is a careful balance to all of this we have lost so much of in the modern West.
Seneca will have to watch those epiphanies now that he is half of a team, gallivantin' off is not so quick an option these days....... :)
ReplyDeleteSeneca is finding that his days being his own are at an end.
DeleteIn all seriousness, I imagine there is a fine line between staying in to take care of things versus the risk (and reward) of going out. We take that for granted in an age where everything is easily accessible and safe.
I kept wondering about that wheat! Glad to hear it's back on. I'm harvesting my own wheat now. There's a fine line between being too green to loosen easily from the wheat heads, and shattering so that the grains are all lost to the ground. More challenging because it doesn't all ripen at the same time. And then Seneca and his crew have the added challenge of distance.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, I tried growing grain several years in New Home. I was never quite as successful as I would have liked because I had issues the early Summer rains that would make some of the grain unharvestable. Barley and rye were most successful, wheat the least.
DeleteThe distance of transporting it is another challenge, as well as time: do you transport on the stalk which means you leave more quickly but take more weight, or spend the extra time for an initial threshing and try to increase the amount of grain taken.