It’s 350.org global action day! Sterling celebrated by having an upcycling workshop, trail crew,  grain threshing, leaf raking and bread oven baking.

The product of all that leaf raking!

I went down to the farm and helped Andy, Abbie, Rihanna, Sarah, Erin, Jackie and Josh thresh the grain Andy grew all summer. Here is the process…

Undo a few bushels and gather them in a circle with their heads pointing inward…

Take some flails (that Andy made last night!) and thresh the heck out of those stalks. You’re separating the grain from the straw… here’s a video too!

Then you gather the straw into a pile for bedding later and pour all the grain into bins.

Then pour the grain into another from a height so that the wind will carry away the hulls and chaff that you don’t want and the grain falls right into the bucket. Repeat.

After a few hours you’ll have 5 bags of grain and a smile as big as Andy’s… Happy 350!