Beans and Grain

Pushing the grain up with a tractor.

On Friday, Bill and Lisa installed a new grain bin for the farm. It was quite a feat to get it up and attached to the barn, but it looks beautiful. It is such an awesome new addition to the farm because it allows us to get organic Vermont-local chicken feed delivered from Whitman's Feed Store in North Bennington. In the past, we have had to drive to New York to pick up a similar product. The grain bin is a proper storage unit for grain in that it allows no moisture to permeate and has a handy fullel at the bottom. The chickens are happy and so are we!

And it's up. Doesn't it look awesome?!

Winnowing dry beans from the chafe.

We have been focusing our efforts at shelling dry beans this week. We grow five types of dry beans: Cannelini, Vermont Cranberry, Red Kidney, Soldier, and Painter beans. The crop is planted at the same time as green beans, however we allow them to dry in the field and mature longer. We harvest them in late September into drying racks and store them in the loft of a barn to allow proper air circulation. We thresh them by hand to separate the beans from the chafe, the dry organic matter attached to the beans, and winnow them in front of a fan to separate the last pieces from the yummy beans. It is exciting to us to have such a hardy and storage-worthy crop to sell to our customers and to provide our CSA members.

Lauren with cleaned Soldier Beans.

We still can't wait for some sun, but we are being patient and getting things accomplished nonetheless!