Farming in the shade

Today I am composing my 1,000th blog post. My posting stream over the years has ebbed and flowed. Sometimes it has nearly dried up. Many things have changed in the eight years, four months and twenty-two days I've been blogging. When I started, our kids were all teens or pre-teens. Now they are all adults. All of them are gainfully employed, own small businesses, and/or are working on a degree. There are still some piles of dirty laundry, smudges on the refrigerator, and a few pair of shoes to trip over--but these are fewer than they were eight years ago. Instead of being a stay at home mom who homeschools her kids, I am now employed part-time as our township clerk and work on the farm in my free time. I just finished parting with the last of the expendable homeschool materials, though I have kept many of our favorite books for future little people who may come to visit. Over time we have transitioned to organic farming. We added beef cattle and dry beans to th...

At some point in the harvesting process we need to determine the moisture content of the beans. If they are too "wet" (high in moisture), they will spoil in storage. We often test as we are harvesting, in an effort to determine if we should continue harvesting, or wait for another day.  This blog post shows a post-harvest test. We already ran these Hidatsa Red beans over the fanning mill to remove most of the non-bean debris.  This is a tool that tests the moisture of common grains. There is a setting for corn, wheat, soybeans and more. But there is no setting for Hidatsa Red beans. Since they are close in size to soybeans, we use that setting. These beans test at 17.1% moisture. Slightly higher than we'd like, but beans that are slightly high in moisture will finish drying out in the storage bin in a matter of a few days. For beans that are not similar in size and shape to soybeans, we test the moisture level in the oven. We also doublecheck our fanc...

We use an antique fanning mill or seed cleaner to take out most of the non-bean stuff that is harvested along with the beans: stems, bits of bean pods, stones, split beans, and weed seeds. We remove the beans from the combine in buckets and then pour them one by one into the fanning mill hopper.  The beans move along two screens with different sized holes. These screens shake back and forth to both move the beans along and allow some of the debris to fall through the holes. Different beans require screens with different sized holes. The junk comes out the side of the fanning mill. And the beans come up a small conveyor and into a large wooden box. While there is still some cleaning to do, this process takes out much of the unwanted stuff. These Hidatsa Red Beans are now ready for the next step.

Here we are at the final step of harvesting the beans. We've pulled them, shaken the dirt off and put them in nice long windrows, and left them to dry for several days. Now it's time to actually harvest them. The special edible bean head that attaches to the combine lifts the beans up and pulls them into the machine, where the plants and the beans are separated. Everything except the bean is ejected out of the back of the combine.  It's such an important job that close supervision is needed from our sheepdog, Brinkley. She's watching for any wildlife that may be flushed out of the field during harvest. Here's a short video showing the actual harvesting process.  More on the cleaning process soon.

While we are very excited about the great bean harvest we are enjoying this fall, we are also very excited about our lamb crop. Most of our male lambs are raised for meat, and we sell directly to our customers. Our lamb is not available at markets or in stores. This year our lambs were born in the barn and fed exclusively by their mothers. When the pastures were ready in the spring, we let the sheep outside and they’ve been outside all summer eating exclusively high quality grasses and a mineral supplement carefully matched to their nutritional needs. These lambs have received no medicines, no grains, and no added hormones. Grass-fed lamb is not only very nutritious, it’s also delicious. Our past customers tell us how much they love our lamb.  Buying directly from us (and other small farmers) allows you to know how your food was raised. It helps sustain the farm, ensuring a good local food supply in the future. And it keeps dollars in our community, which makes for...

After the beans are pulled (mechanically!), we hook up to the windrower/shaker and drive over the field one more time. This has to be done with heavy dew, or the dry pods shatter and the beans fall out. Early morning is best for this part, as with the pulling.  The windrower picks up each individual row (which is actually two rows piled together) and shakes them a bit. This dislodges some of the dirt attached to the roots of the bean plant. The bean plants are carried up and over the top of the windrower. The same thing is happening on the other side, so we are actually shaking and windrowing two combined rows at the same time. Once the beans travel up and over the top, they are carried to one side by a conveyor belt and deposited in a single row in on the right side, behind the windrower/shaker. Here they are left to dry for a few days, until they are ready to combine. Again, so much easier than pulling by hand and carrying them to a haywagon.

These first few pictures were taken the very first time we used our new bean puller. If it doesn't look brand spanking new, just keep in mind that when I use the term "new" it mostly means "new-to-us". The bean puller pulls four rows at a time, laying the two center rows together into one, and laying the outside two rows further outward. When you make another pass going the other direction, those two outside rows merge with other outside rows. So each time you make a pass, you're pulling four rows and ending up with two windrows. Here's a closeup of the equipment. Yes, there are some weeds. I don't know how that happens. Here are two rows laying together after being pulled. And this is another field on another day. The green is mostly weeds, but you can see the dry bean pods laying neatly with the weeds in rows. The bean pulling must be done early in the morning, while there is still heavy dew. Otherwise the dry bean pods shat...

The past few years we've pulled the heirloom dry beans by hand. Last year, when the harvest was thin but the work was still just as hard, we agreed that there had to be a better way. So all year we've been watching for specialized edible bean harvesting equipment. Earlier this year we found an edible bean head that fits on our existing combine.  The other bits of needed equipment seemed more difficult to find. We'd find a bean puller, but it was designed to mount to a John Deere tractor, and not a Massey Ferguson or Kubota. Or we'd find one that was ridiculously overpriced or completely falling apart.  Finally, just as we feared we'd be hand-pulling again, we found a puller on the other side of the state. Our friend (and soil consultant) Joe went to look at it and purchase it for us. He then delivered it to us, along with his own bean shaker/windrower, which he is loaning to us. So grateful for his help and experience and generosity. This is eq...