Rice Harvest

Our rice field was harvested on March 21. It had turned yellow and was ready. There are combines in the Philippines (see following link), but our field is so small and far enough away from the bigger fields that it was hand cut. After the threshing crew arrived, they went to work.

Rice Harvester

The crew cuts the field by hand and carries the rice to one spot to stack for the thresher. After the field is cut they carry in the threshing machine. The threshing machine is powered by a small diesel engine and the rice is bagged.

Like the fish pen, and hog butchering,  threshing day is a social event (see following link). We had the threshers, kids and neighbors all in and around the threshing area. My father has already seen some of the threshing pictures.  He said that this is how wheat was threshed in Kansas when he was 6 years old (about 70 years ago).  They would cut the wheat, load it on a horse-drawn trailer and haul it to the threshing machine.

http://midlifewandering.blogspot.com/2016/01/pigs.html

Along with the rice from the field, we are buying rice for resale. The farmers prefer to sell locally than trying to take the rice somewhere to sell. Also, when they sell to us, the farmers do not have to worry about the rice being dried. So, Flor hired some of the neighborhood people and in two days all the rice was dried. Rough figuring showed the cost of drying worked out to a couple of pesos a kilo (About a nickle to pound).

Normally a rice field is planted 3 times a year. However, our field is only wet enough during the wet season (November to February) so we only get one planting a year. During the dry season, we will plant other crops.

Thank you for following.