Harvesting and processing a small Wheat plot by hand

I see what it is like to harvest and process spring wheat the old way, by using sickle and flail and winnowing by hand. It is just a small plot but the process is the same. I make a flail just for the job!

[@bleeblin5252]

It takes roughly 1/3 of an acre to produce enough wheat for a small family. Not hard to do by hand at all, you will get better with time. There are grain separators that you can make very easily that separate the berries with a fairly high efficiency and all you have to do is drop it into a hopper and keep the machine fed until it’s all done. You can honestly make one with cardboard and computer fans for free if you have them laying around. It can process all the wheat for your entire family for a year in an hour. Get a large tarp, fold your wheat into it, beat it thoroughly (probably will take an hour) just like you did. Remove the stems and larger stuff, then dump the rest into your simple homemade chaff separator. The harvest takes the longest, but it’s honestly not that bad to just go out into the field with a satchel and scissors and just keep emptying the satchel into a wagon or gator until the field is empty. If all you bring back are wheat heads, the process of getting the berries out goes a lot faster. Set aside your seed stock, the rest is yours. It’s roughly a 70x70 wheat field for one persons average annual wheat supply. 140x140 for a family of 4. This should also leave you seeds for the next year

[@vocationcreations3149]

Thank you for this comment! You know, I have asked many people how much land to grow enough wheat and no one could ever give me a reasonable answer, so this is great. I agree, there are easier ways to do what I did, but I wanted the by-hand experience. Thank you for taking the time to send out this thorough reply and instructional, if I do it again I will make the chaff separator for sure. I have to admit that I still have berries in my fridge from that harvest. I did not attempt to build a mill and I had a lot of trouble getting it fine enough to use with blender and mortar and pestle. It ended up being something that I added to processed flour to make it more interesting, but I never managed to get it fine enough to make bread from my own flour alone.

[@bleeblin5252]

@@vocationcreations3149 if you end up buying a flour mill, they are fairly reasonable. Typically I would recommend grinding your berries on a medium setting, sifting the bran out, then grind again on fine. There are some mills made for this, they have a automatic sifter on top of the mill for you to pour your medium grind into. It will sift out most of the bran and send the rest back into the mill. If you use a bender or whatever, just sift the flour after and you will have some very nutritious flour that is perfect for making breads. You can also just eat the bran with raisins and milk for the healthiest Raisin Bran you have ever eaten.

[@vocationcreations3149]

@@bleeblin5252 thanks for the tips, maybe I will plant a plot again this year. I am still under 3' of snow at the moment...!

[@bleeblin5252]

@@vocationcreations3149 that’s crazy. Sorry to hear you still have so much snow. Thanks for the kind responses. If you do plant more wheat, give us a video. Take care

[@nokwandahmkhize6539]

Landed on this, and finally understand sooo many biblical statements! Thank youuuuuuuu!!!

[@taracannonllc]

Thank you for this! The visual was EVERYTHING!

[@robinmuirhead2617]

Fascinating, today in the UK I saw a huge combine and truck harvesting the mechanised way. I bet most people have no idea how to harvest wheat ! With this food crisis this could become a useful skill.

[@terrim.602]

I bet they do know how. Farmers know the history of wheat production and could educate all of us on how to produce a substantial harvest and how to dehull the wheat berries. Don't mock a farmer. They know how things worked in the past to the present.

[@bobbun9630]

So how did your wheat turn out this year? I planted last October and harvested a few weeks ago. I planted about two pounds of seed on 577 square feet and harvested a bit less than 55 pounds of wheat (roughly 69 bu/ac yield--not bad for a home garden, from what I can tell). Just a few thoughts... a) If you get a solid stand, wheat does a wonderful job of suppressing weeds. b) That flail really looks like a terrible way to thresh. I mostly did mine just by crushing the heads by hand, and rubbing them over a piece of hardware cloth. One of the better methods I have seen involves putting the wheat in a container and breaking it up with a string trimmer. c) Winnowing is definitely easier if you catch the grain in a larger container so you don't need to be so careful with dropping it! Fifty-five pounds of wheat, by the way, is about 80,000 calories. Roughly six weeks of food for one person. I'm sure you grew yours mostly for the novelty, but I do hope to get good value from mine. It will go nicely blended with the corn I'm growing to make corn bread to go with the dried beans I'm also growing!

[@vocationcreations3149]

I agree, it was a tough way to do it, but I wanted the full pioneer experience. There are many other better ways, as you certainly see on KZbin. I am in Canada, in zone 4, so we don't harvest anything until August. This year I planted a ton of pumpkins and gourds in that patch. You are right again, it was more for the experience and to gain the knowledge of "how to" in case I ever really need it! I still have some of the berries from last year since processing them into useable flour is also difficult without a proper mill. Your venture sounds like a real plot and a good stockpile for the winter. Congratulations! You will be a threshing for a while, easy way or hard way regardless! Anyone who is willing to put that kind of work in to their food deserves to eat well!

[@vocationcreations3149]

I see you planted fall wheat.. I have spring wheat... So would harvest in fall of course. Read too quickly...

[@bobbun9630]

@@vocationcreations3149 Thanks for the response! I did plant in the fall, mostly because I see that as a more efficient use of the space available. I'm just barely in zone seven (Arkansas Ozarks), so after harvesting the wheat, there's still plenty of time to put a crop of beans in that same plot before (possibly) planting wheat again in the fall. I replanted it with a mix of kidney beans and grain sorghum the day after I harvested the wheat. I finished threshing--it took about three weeks of 2-3 hours a day. The grain is in two five gallon buckets in the freezer. it doesn't need freezing, of course, but I wanted to make sure that any insect eggs are killed. I'll remove it from the freezer when I need the space. My mill is a fairly inexpensive hand cranked one. If I grow grain regularly, I'll likely upgrade to a more expensive electric one. It's quite an arm workout grinding enough grain for bread (or brownies!) by hand. As it is, I'll have to break up corn in a blender or coffee grinder before I can mill it, because the mill only handles small grains.

[@vocationcreations3149]

Zone 7... I am a tree guy and very jealous of your zone 7! Up here the best we can do is apples, plums and pears.. I wish I could have a season as long as yours! Hats off to you for making such good use of your sun! It is nice to know that there are still other people out there who value an honest hard day's work and the rewards that it can bring!

[@WilliamJones-sf5pt]

I only desire to grow seeds for the growing of wheat grass from sprouts. A bushel would be sufficient to grow prophylactic amounts of wheat grass with sufficient amounts left over to grow another crop.

[@yourstruly7895]

Biblical meanings are so awesome. Thanks for sharing

[@rickershomesteadahobbyfarm3291]

That was a neat experiment. I’d probably get a cement mixing tray and dump the bowl into that so you are less likely to loose the seeds. But now I want to try doing this. I remember when I lived in TN I used to see wheat growing wild. I wish it grew wild in SC.

[@vocationcreations3149]

Thank you, yes, there were many ways this could have been easier but I am a glutton for punishment..! I like your channel, I will be looking through your videos when I can! And I am jealous of your farm and your hardiness zone... I am up in Canada and in Zone 4, so not much of a growing season. I always wanted a farm, but we ended up on an acre and a half. It is enough for me to have chickens and some gardens, but no other livestock. I feel your idea of the forest garden. I am a tree guy and if I had the hardiness zone for it, all of my plantings would bear edible fruit.. I have always read permaculture books and tried to apply what I could to our situation. It takes planning, patience and a ton of work, but the feeling of accomplishment when reaping the rewards can not be replicated.

[@rickershomesteadahobbyfarm3291]

@@vocationcreations3149 yeah I’m in zone 8 and I can grow a lot. I don’t get alot of chill hours though. I’ve recently started looking for stuff that grows naturally in my area. Native fruits, nuts, berries and vegetables. A buddy of mine just gave me a bunch of wild persimmons and I harvested the seeds out of them. I have a little more than 8 acres. Most of it is timber. But I got it pretty cheap back in 2014 and moved onto it about 2 and a half years ago. I want to buy more land but money is tight right now. We moved from our 1 acre homestead and basically started from scratch.

[@vocationcreations3149]

@@rickershomesteadahobbyfarm3291 Oh, the trees I would grow in Zone 8! And all the other things of course. It sounds great, good luck to you. I hope your forest grows into what you wish for it.

[@be.ndover]

that buff wheel is still good just flip it around so it spins the cut closed like a flap disc

[@vocationcreations3149]

You know, I never though to do that... Thanks for the idea! It is still on the grinder, just abandoned... A rookie mistake to catch the thing in the first place. I kind of deserve it for turning my piece the wrong way...

[@k.quilter2735]

Inspiring video. Thank you

[@kevinkohls979]

You might consider moving the on/off switch on your bench grinder; reaching over a power tool as you did at 0:44 is generally asking for accidents.

[@kevinkohls979]

Thanks for the video.

[@vocationcreations3149]

Yes, thank you.. It is on the list of things to do...

[@itsasinine3337]

@@vocationcreations3149your bench grinder just seems to be completely backwards, the grind angle should be down.

[@jetbikes1]

Are you going to have Wheat growing up through your porch next year ?

[@vocationcreations3149]

I hope so.. It will be much closer to the garden hose than that plot was!

[@domepiece11]

Honestly, threshing the wheat by foot might have been less labor intensive than the flail.

[@4OaksFamilyHomestead]

New subscriber. Just venturing on our own wheat adventure this year for the first time.😂. We’ll be recording for our channel, too. Great job.

[@vocationcreations3149]

Thank you for your comments! I have a new job that is keeping me too busy to pay attention to youtube these days, so no new videos for a while now.. good luck with your wheat, it is a rewarding bit of hard work! Let me know if you need to borrow a flail! ;)

[@staceyrashkin2609]

I wouldn't bother turning that into flour. I would just cook them the way they are and make a wheatberry salad or wheat berry breakfast like oatmeal.

[@staceyrashkin2609]

@End Times Are upon us couldn't agree more. I just made this as a side salad rather than macaroni salad fur a family BBQ. Even the fussiest of eaters loved it

[@ChristopherPisz]

How many hours was that total labor and how many sqft of planting for what yield? if you had to feed yourself through the winter with wheat, do you think it could be done with one middle aged person? It looks like you might have resulted in a full day of labor for maybe two full days of bread in this video, but I could be wrong. I'm interested in this process for the survival aspects. So many people do the threshing with electricity, but I wonder how it goes without any. Also I hear a lot about "hull", after winnowing, is the part you grind for flour still encased in a hull? Do you have to remove it? Or do you grind the whole thing up into flour? Hard for me to tell without seeing the result up close.

[@RovingPunster]

Instead of the flail perhaps use a bedsheet to make a wheat stalk burritto, and run the car back n forth over it ?

[@vocationcreations3149]

Definitely could work! I wanted to try it the hard way, plus the flail looks cool on my wall now.

[@RovingPunster]

@@vocationcreations3149 I only planted a 2ft x 6ft patch, but I plan to try the burrito method once its ready for harvest. My first time with wheat. 😄

[@vocationcreations3149]

Good luck! It is a lot of work to end up with some flour, but a rewarding bit of labour!

[@RovingPunster]

@@vocationcreations3149 Yeah I already told my wife I expect maybe 1/3 loaf of bread outta it. lol. (flexes imaginary farming prowess, and immediately sprains something) 😖😋 Definitely not quitting my day job.

[@sunraylight8]

I saw from ukraine i kind of wheat that harvest not seed a kibd of chalk flour inherit beneath the grass its true or not?!

[@DaMartyr]

I've struggled with winnowing.

[@odo-jesusday1]

Wow.

[@browneyez_]

Nicee,

[@beigebiscuit8081]

I planted wheat grass seeds will they produce wheat berries? It's been 3 months they are almost 2 feet tall but no wheat head.

[@vocationcreations3149]

I think that wheat grass is different than actual wheat? Were the seeds like little hard berries? They should have heads if it is wheat.

[@texanlady4]

Putting the wheat in a large container and stomping on it is a lot easier.

[@vocationcreations3149]

Thank you for the tip! My intent was to try it the hard way...

[@domepiece11]

Threshing floors are pretty primitive.

[@joseamilcarsalgadolainez3586]

You 42 cromosomes in your wheat = gut . You need einkorn , emmer or Kamut. Thanks.

[@عبدالرحيممعروف-و7ت]

🔔👍🙏🇲🇦❤️

[@DerogatoryMess]

I had to stop the video to count how many fingers you had.

[@fredgarvin4482]

Nice radial arm saw. They dont make those any more really

[@vocationcreations3149]

Thanks! It makes me Alert every time I use it! Just a cross cut saw at this point, it is so old that I am afraid to loosen anything to change the cutting angles.

[@browneyez_]

I came here because of the parable off the weeds in the Bible hahah (Matthew 13:24-30)

[@loki1066]

Flail's not so good on a concrete floor.

[@farmerwayne1404]

I wonder how many mice are dining under the deck😳

[@ditirojimmysegang3009]

farmer thing🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@vocationcreations3149]

Yes! 2 whole loaves of bread worth!

[@morenorasiadani4640]

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