tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3600145549610289448.post1177489088148343327..comments2023-09-25T02:25:07.360-07:00Comments on Los Angeles Bread Bakers: When To HarvestMr. Homegrownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11903804104014983893noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3600145549610289448.post-38394667996248530262013-01-28T15:08:52.279-08:002013-01-28T15:08:52.279-08:00Being from KS and a poet and all that. I wrote a ...Being from KS and a poet and all that. I wrote a poem many years ago using wheat fields as a metaphor and a farmer shared a lovely little bit of data with me: when the wheat is ready, the seed heads 'relax' on the stem. The unripe wheat kernels are up, almost parallel, on the stem. When they are ripe and ready for harvest, they 'relax' and are almost perpendicular to the stem - known as 'heading out.' <br /><br />As a boy, we would start school in August and when the harvest was ready to be brought in, we would be on vacation for two weeks to help with the harvest - everyone was expected to show up in the fields because when it was ripe, it had to be brought in before any rain which might ruin it. We would start in one family's fields because they almost always ripened first (microclimate) and moved as a body from field to field harvesting the grain from everyone's fields all working together to get everything in before any rain. It was THE paramount event in my young life. <br /><br />Thank you Paul for documenting this process! I'm eager for the end of this great experiment when we can sit down and eat something! <br /><br />davidDavid Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01532504319077300026noreply@blogger.com