Processing Grains...a winter activity

Farmer Bill is having some prototypes of machines for processing grains built by Lu Yoder. A few of us got together to try them out today.

This is him adding the black bean plants to the Thresher. The plants were just pulled up. No need to separate the hulls. 

And then just exercise for a few minutes...

Remove empty hulls and repeat.

The result is beans and smaller pieces of plant that we then bring to the Winnower.

Again get on for a little more exercise while someone pours the beans in the top and watch for beans in the slot to know how fast to ride. Here he is choosing the right size screen that will bounce the beans and debris while a fan blows the lighter stuff out and the beans fall onto a slide and into the box on the side.

Black beans...ready to eat.

This Dehuller removes a harder casing on things like rice. All very exciting for smaller farms. For more check out The Ivory Silo Seed Project facebook page and this video called Grain Bikes.