What are they gathering? It looks too tall and not quite right to be corn. I want to guess sorghum, but I've never seen it very tall (not ready to harvest yet), so I don't know what it looks like then, either!
Miram, good guess! You're absolutely right: it is sorghum. I didn't know what it was either, until my dad told me. :)
It's been very interesting to watch them harvest it. With their corn, they just whip around the field on a couple of tractors, cutting and blowing the corn into wagons. It takes a little while to cover the whole field, but not that long.
With this sorghum, on the other hand, the process of harvesting took MUCH longer. They did use some kind of tractor-drawn harvester to bundle and cut the shocks(?) of sorghum, but a person had to be there to grab the bundle out of the machine, cut the tops off the sorghum (with a machete-type thing), then toss the bundles on the ground. After the bundles had laid out on the ground for a while (a few days? a week?), they came out with these wagons and, by hand, gathered the bundles to load onto the wagons. It wasn't a quick process.
Fortunately, being Old Orders, they had lots and lots of help with various neighbors and family members, being involved. I was surprised to see that the women and girls were barefoot! I know their women and girls often go barefoot, but I would think that walking through a hard, dry field with stalks sticking up would be especially hard on bare feet.
When we holidayed in your wonderful country 3 years ago, we spent a few days in Lancaster, PA. It was September, so we were able to see a great deal of work being done on the Amish farms around that area. So much of it looked like our own island here a generation or so ago Wonderful sights :)
I had seen that field of sorghum near your house before. So, are they going to use it to make sorghum molasses, or just what? I doubt they would harvest it this way just to feed it to cows. I've never seen it harvested like this before. I think we grew sorghum at home at times, but I think we just chopped it with the chopper and fed it as silage.
Sally, I don't know for sure, but I think it's a pretty good guess to say they'll use it for molasses. One of the Old Order families has a press(?) that is used to make the molasses, and I know at least several families have experimented with growing sorghum for that purpose.
What are they gathering? It looks too tall and not quite right to be corn. I want to guess sorghum, but I've never seen it very tall (not ready to harvest yet), so I don't know what it looks like then, either!
ReplyDeleteMiram, good guess! You're absolutely right: it is sorghum. I didn't know what it was either, until my dad told me. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's been very interesting to watch them harvest it. With their corn, they just whip around the field on a couple of tractors, cutting and blowing the corn into wagons. It takes a little while to cover the whole field, but not that long.
With this sorghum, on the other hand, the process of harvesting took MUCH longer. They did use some kind of tractor-drawn harvester to bundle and cut the shocks(?) of sorghum, but a person had to be there to grab the bundle out of the machine, cut the tops off the sorghum (with a machete-type thing), then toss the bundles on the ground. After the bundles had laid out on the ground for a while (a few days? a week?), they came out with these wagons and, by hand, gathered the bundles to load onto the wagons. It wasn't a quick process.
Fortunately, being Old Orders, they had lots and lots of help with various neighbors and family members, being involved. I was surprised to see that the women and girls were barefoot! I know their women and girls often go barefoot, but I would think that walking through a hard, dry field with stalks sticking up would be especially hard on bare feet.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun to watch them. ;-)
JDaniel would love to watch them work. What a beautiful day to sit and learn.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures! That looks like some seriously hard work they were doing!
ReplyDeleteWhen we holidayed in your wonderful country 3 years ago, we spent a few days in Lancaster, PA. It was September, so we were able to see a great deal of work being done on the Amish farms around that area. So much of it looked like our own island here a generation or so ago
ReplyDeleteWonderful sights :)
I had seen that field of sorghum near your house before. So, are they going to use it to make sorghum molasses, or just what? I doubt they would harvest it this way just to feed it to cows. I've never seen it harvested like this before. I think we grew sorghum at home at times, but I think we just chopped it with the chopper and fed it as silage.
ReplyDeleteSally, I don't know for sure, but I think it's a pretty good guess to say they'll use it for molasses. One of the Old Order families has a press(?) that is used to make the molasses, and I know at least several families have experimented with growing sorghum for that purpose.
ReplyDelete