Backdoor Guests

"Backdoor guests are best."

I've seen the country-style wooden plaques in gift shops that say that. However, I grew up in a rural Kansas farm home. My mom wanted guests to come to the front door. And I'd have to say I agree with her.

At the front door, guests aren't forced to weave their way through the cheat-filled socks and dusty shoes we've shed at the backdoor. They don't see the recycling bins filled with empty cans or the pile of newspapers. They aren't walking past the broom and dustpan that are stashed beside the extra freezer.

If they come to the front door, they can be welcomed into the living room, where there's at least a better chance that things will be picked up and in some semblance of order.

We've had a couple of backdoor guests the past few weeks. As I wrote earlier, Randy and I both tried knocking down a barn swallow nest from our small back porch. 

 

May 2017 - You can see some of the nest-building materials on the bird's beak!

In the end, I guess the birds were more persistent than we were. (Next year, I will definitely try some of the suggestions offered by my Facebook friends, like hanging plastic bags to discourage a new bird suburb development, a move that Shirley called "redneck but effective.")

The pair of barn swallows tolerated us, and we tolerated them. They were often sitting on their nest, but they'd fly away as we approached. As they got used to us, though, they were less likely to hurriedly leave their eggs behind. They usually did swoop quickly out of the way when the back door opened.

The robin's nest - May 8, 2017

The swallow's nest was built so close to the porch ceiling that we couldn't see into the nest, unlike the robin's nest that was constructed on our 4-wheeler racks earlier this spring and which I moved for plenty of "photo ops."

 

Construction of the mud-based nest didn't allow for moving the nest, so we watched and waited. Randy was tall enough he could stick his hand into the nest, and he knew there were eggs there. Then last week, we had a population boom in the neighborhood. 

If we're honest, we've kind of enjoyed our backdoor guests. Well ... except for the bird poo on the steps. Yes, next year, we'll try to do a better job of discouraging the building of a new "house" in the neighborhood. And these guests won't be welcome at the front door either. They give a whole new meaning to the phrase "noisy neighbors."

We thought there were three babies. On Saturday, I discovered there were four, but this was the best I could do with a photo.

By the Numbers: Wheat Harvest 2017

Wheat Harvest 2017 is now in the rearview mirror.

Photo taken June 22, 2017

We finished up the afternoon of June 28 after starting on June 12. This year's start to harvest was pretty consistent with the past eight years. (I have good records since 2010 because I've been blogging that long). Our start dates are:

2010:  June 18
2011:  June 10
2012:  May 26 (an anomaly and the earliest harvest, by far, we've ever had)
2013:  June 21
2014:  June 17
2015:  June 20
2016:  June 15
2017:  June 12

It took us 2 weeks and 3 days to bring in the 1,341.7 acres planted to wheat. Some years, we have a custom cutter harvest a portion of our wheat acres. However, we bought a new-to-us combine at a farm auction in the spring of 2016, and we're still paying off the loan for that. Plus, the wheat prices don't leave a lot of margin for profits. So we decided to cut it all ourselves.

Photo taken June 22, 2017

Our overall average was 50.84 bushels per acre. We had a low average of 30 and a high of 80 bushels per acre. After a dry winter and early spring, Randy was thrilled with the totals. Some late spring rains came at just the right time for the filling of the wheat heads, and we are thankful! 

Wheat Harvest 2017 actually started with Wheat Harvest 2016. (Notice how I capitalize Wheat Harvest. It's a "Big Deal" to our farm. By far, wheat is our biggest crop.)

Photo from June 16, 2016, blog post

Each year, we plant some certified seed, which we use for seed wheat for the following year. Randy binned KanMark (a K-State release) and WB 4458 (a WestBred variety) to plant for seed wheat for our 2017 crop. During the 2016 harvest, we binned the seed wheat in on-farm storage.

Then, last July, we took the wheat to be cleaned to Miller Seed Farms. (See blog post: A Kernel of the Process: Cleaning Seed Wheat.)

 

In late September and early October 2016, we began planting wheat for our 2017 crop. 

Planting into the sunset, October 2016

See blog post What Goes Around Comes Around Again: Wheat Planting,"  

21 - 17 - 0.  I refreshed my memory on the Farm Wife Secret Code as I hauled fertilizer tanks from the Zenith branch of the Kanza Co-op to the field and back again.

  

By mid-October 2016, the wheat was emerging and was off to a good start. See blog post: And So It Begins Again.

 

In February 2017, the Kanza Co-op applied nitrogen fertilizer and Finesse herbicide.

 

In early April, we were thankful for Sunshine and Muddy Tennis Shoes - some rain after a very dry winter.

By April 21, we were Heading Toward Harvest. The wheat was heading, and according to an old wives' tale, we were 6 weeks away from harvest. It turned out to be about right.

 

By early June, we were at that "awkward stage" - the wheat ... not the "model."

This year's overall average of 50.84 bushels per acre made it our second best crop ever. Our 2013 crop averaged 52 bushels per acre and proved the theory that wheat has nine lives.

Yield averages in the past few years have been:

2010: 37.2 bu/acre
2011: 36.7 bu/acre
2012: 45.5 bu/acre
2013: 52 bu/acre
2014: 24.5 bu/acre
2015: 50 bu/acre
2016: 48.5 bu/acre
2017: 50.84 bu/acre

And that, as they say in show business, is a wrap.

THE END ... until a new beginning for Wheat 2018.

Harvesting the Sky

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie –
True Poems flee –
~Emily Dickinson, c.1879

 

"A harvest sky yields bounty to the eyes and weary soul."

Kim Fritzemeier, Kansas farm wife

That wasn't on the Quote Garden list of "sky" quotes. Maybe Kim Fritzemeier, farm wife, could be added to the likes of Emily Dickson and Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

OK ... maybe not. But some days, the harvest sky has made the seemingly endless trips to and from the field and the emergency parts runs a little more palatable.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 
Good old Ralph probably didn't know much about wheat harvest, but as we do our part to bring that "daily bread" into reality, I thought his quote was appropos. Sunsets are much more interesting with clouds. There's a lesson there somewhere, I'm sure.

Last Friday, I'd made two trips to Hutchinson to pick up parts at Case. That brought my 24-hour total to three trips.

That evening, instead of riding with Randy in the combine as is my usual modus operandi, I opted to stay behind to take photos of the shifting skies as day turned into evening.

It was a glorious show.

And, unlike the parts runs, it was totally free of charge.

It was almost as if Randy were harvesting the sun itself as the sun dipped toward the horizon ...

... and he emptied the combine after yet another trip down the field.

Wheat dust always makes me a little itchy. But I'd have to say it was worth a little discomfort to witness a particularly beautiful sunset.

I've had a few other favorite sky shots from this harvest. One dramatic sky heralded the arrival of Jill and the girls on the evening of June 15.

They arrived about the same time as the storm did.

Dark clouds become heaven's flowers when kissed by light.

 ~Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

We got a rain shower during the night, but I hope it wasn't enough to prevent one more day of harvest. If we're able to cut, we should get done today. Here's hoping!

Connecting with Consumers: Carbetarians Unite!

Leaving the farm during wheat harvest isn't standard operating procedure. Well, unless it's a flying trip to the parts counter. (Is it a bad thing when they call you by name when you walk in the door of the Case dealership? Yes, yes, it is. But it happens when you visit the parts counter three times in 24 hours.)

Anyway, on June 17, I didn't make a parts run or a grocery store stop. I drove 2 3/4 hours (one way) to Manhattan for the National Festival of Breads.

I could say it was for these two cuties. But in reality, they live in Manhattan and were going with their mom and dad anyway.

 

Plus, they know a little bit about wheat after visiting Grandpa Randy's and Grandma Kim's farm during harvest and having specially-designed reading material about farm life from Grandma.

I try to do my part in connecting the farm with consumers through blogging, something I've done since beginning Kim's County Line in January 2010. But face-to-face interaction is better in the long run. So I spent some time on Saturday, June 17, in the children's activities area of the National Festival of Breads. (I actually worked with the two ladies below, and yes, I intentionally moved out of the photo when it was taken.)

Photos from Kansas Wheat

With all the gluten-free promotion and companies marketing "non-GMO" to consumers, it's important for those of us in production agriculture to tell our stories. Goodness knows, popular restaurants and so-called nutrition experts aren't shy about doing it.  (For the record, there is no GMO wheat commercially available at this time. And yes, those with celiac disease must avoid gluten. However, many of those who don't have celiac disease avoid gluten based on inaccurate information from non-medical professionals who make unsubstantiated claims.)

So I was glad to do my part to develop a new generation of "Carbetarians" at the National Festival of Breads by baking up silver-dollar-sized pancakes featuring three grains grown in Kansas - wheat, soy and corn.  The smell of freshly-baked pancakes had little consumers and their families lining up for a nibble.

The children also got to mix together the dry ingredients to take home to use to make their own pancakes.

Kinley and Brooke already help in the kitchen at home, but I hope it gave other children - and their families - a glimpse of using Kansas-produced commodities to make nutritious, cost-conscious meals at home.

Our daughter Jill also helped behind the scenes in the afternoon, setting up and cleaning up for the on-stage demonstrations.

She grew up on a farm and is a dietitian who went to school for five years to study nutrition and the role it plays in our lives. She promotes eating a balanced diet, all things in moderation, including carbohydrates and gluten.

Earlier in the week, Kinley and Brooke had experienced harvesting the wheat with Grandpa Randy.

The girls learned that Mommy had driven the truck during harvest during her high school years. But at the Festival of Breads, the girls - and other children - tried their hand at grinding wheat with a mortar and pestle. 

They tried a hand grinder ...

... and then an electric grinder, taking on milling in miniature and making whole wheat flour.

While our two granddaughters had just ridden a combine that week at our Central Kansas farm and have a tangential connection to Kansas agriculture, fewer and fewer consumers do these days. In 1870, 50 percent of the U.S. population was directly involved in agriculture. Today, farm families comprise less than 2 percent of the population.

So, in a nutshell, that's why I left the farm during the middle of wheat harvest. (I left the noon meal in the slow cooker and had the supper coolers packed and in the fridge, ready for the guys to grab at noon. Randy worked it out so they could be in the same general area and didn't need to move repeatedly during the day. And we all hoped and prayed for no breakdowns since the go-fer parts runner was hours from home. Thankfully, all that worked out.)

Timing for the festival is a legitimate question, and one that I heard on Sunday at church.

"Why would they schedule a Festival of Breads in Kansas during wheat harvest? Aren't people too busy? Doesn't it make it harder to involve farm families?"

Yes, summer is busy. Yes, it does make it harder to involve farm families. But, yes, it makes perfect sense. If I had any question, it was answered as I talked to some of the eight finalists.

Photo from the Kansas Wheat Facebook page

The day before the baking competition, the contestants traveled to a wheat farm near Brookville in Central Kansas. They took turns riding a John Deere combine as it "ate" its way across a golden field of ripened wheat. For most of them, it was their first time on a farm, their first ride on a combine and the first time they'd had a chance to talk directly to a farmer about producing the wheat that will eventually end up in the flour they'll put in their shopping carts and make into meals for their families and entries for the cooking contests they love.

Lunch for contestants and others in a farm shed on June 16, 2017 - From Kansas Wheat's Facebook page

After I completed my volunteer time in the children's area at the Festival, I talked to several of the finalists as they made their winning recipes three times during the day.

Cleveland, Ohio, baker Michele Kusma was ready for a job on a farm during wheat harvest. I told her it could be arranged.

She and the other finalists will go back to their homes in Maryland, Ohio, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Utah, Missouri and Minnesota with a story to tell.  The people in their communities may actually listen to them more readily. They can tell about their trip to a Kansas farm. They can share their memories of hospitality offered by Kansans and farm families. 

And that's why I left home during harvest to go, as did several of my fellow producers.

Here's the recipe for the pancakes we served. (I should have taken more photos, but I was too busy mixing ingredients and making pancakes)! For recipes from the finalists and more bread baking tips, visit the National Festival of Breads website.

Three-Grain Pancakes

From the National Festival of Breads

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups soy milk or regular milk
1 tbsp. corn oil
3 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients and mix well. Add wet ingredients to dry all at once. Whisk until blended and still a little lumpy.

Pour 1/8 cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased frying pan or griddle. Flip when pancake has bubbly surface and slightly dry edges.

When cooked through, remove pancakes. Serve with butter, maple syrup, jelly, etc., if desired.