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.
Very nice article.
ReplyDeleteGood information about process.