Cleaning wheat berries is much more fun when done with a friend

I think I blogged about cleaning our wheat  more than a year ago but I think it's worth revisiting.  Last fall James planted winter wheat and we harvested it this June.

It wasn't 'till two days ago I had the motivation to clean it.  Part of the motivation was having someone to help me.

I know I've mentioned Susan in other entries and maybe you follow her blog, 6 Sheep and a Llama (which you can access through a link from my blog).  She and I help and encourage each other, much to our husband's chagrin at times when it comes to acquiring new animals, but then, they're getting used to that by now. 

Ok, so, where was I?  Oh yeah, wheat.  Last week I helped Susan cut some downed cedar logs to use for an arbor she's going to build.  In return she came to help me clean our wheat.  I kept looking at the tarp-covered mound of wheat and grass thinking, oh, I need to get to that, but dreading it.  So it was a real treat to have Susan help me dance on it.

We separated the berries from the chaff and then put what was left on the tarp into a copper pot with water where we would wash it and the berries would sink to the bottom and the chaff would stay on top.  We rinsed the wheat again and again and then put the clean berries in the sun to dry.

So far I've cleaned about 20 lbs of berries and I think I'm at least half way done.  Forty pounds of wheat berries ought to last a good while, I think.  I love seeing the berries all packed up ready to store in our cabinets.