The Agricultural Origins of Writing and Arithmetic
Anyone who has compared kernels of wheat with barley or oats knows that the latter are tightly wrapped in a thin and indigestible “husk” layer that is generally removed before processing into flour, Wheaties, Cheerios, or most anything else. The world’s first farmers came to prefer “free-threshing” stands of grain that better enabled separation of […]
And While the Men were Away Hunting….
Years ago when I joined many of my farm-kid peers in long, hot days driving wheat truck in the harvest field, I was introduced to the historical fiction of authors like James Michener and Taylor Caldwell. Reading Michener’s The Source was not only highly informative and entertaining, I found it also made the time pass […]
Ancient Crops and Harvests
Soon after World War II the tale circulated among American soldiers returning from action in North Africa that grain found deep inside in the Egyptian Pyramids was found to be vital. Some kernels were planted and the variety known commercially in some places as Kamut was born. This had all the makings of a great […]
Defining Harvest, Explaining Print-Making
<h2>The meaning behind the words</h2> Although the words “reap,” “thresh,” and “harvest” are often used synonymously today, important distinctions define their use in period literature and among many farmers today. To reap is to cut grain either manually by sickle or scythe, or with a mechanical cutting bar, while threshing, or thrashing, refers to the […]