How to Hand-Harvest and Hand-Process Winter Wheat
My June experiment has been learning how to hand-harvest and hand-process winter wheat on our property.
Our neighbor has been growing corn on our property for the last few years. During the winter, he puts down winter wheat as a land management technique. Then, in the spring before the heads fully form, he sprays the wheat to kill it. Then he plants corn in its place.
This year, we’ve decided to take back the use of our property and asked our neighbor not to spray our property with any herbicides. He left the wheat standing and didn’t plant any corn on the areas we reclaimed.
I decided it would be fun to figure out how to harvest some of the wheat. Without a combine, I had to do it by hand. I cut about two 30 gallon garbage bags full using loppers. This took about an hour. My dad went behind me and picked up what I didn’t get. Obviously, this didn’t begin to touch the massive amount of wheat that is still standing in our field.
After gathering those two bags, I went about the process of separating the wheat from the chaff. The biggest lesson I learned is that if the wheat isn’t completely dry, the process will take much longer than if the wheat is completely dry.
This video is a synopsis of the best method I have found so far for hand-processing winter wheat.
Note: The photo at the top is wheat I harvested and processed in a couple clay pots I made in my last 6-week pottery class.
