Cleaning our Wheat

This week we finally got around to getting some of our grain cleaned. At first we tried to clean all the grain by hand with 1/4 inch screens, but this was a long and laborious process, and we just couldn't seem to get the sunflowers in the wheat separated. As it turns out, the small seeded sunflowers that John grows in his maze are just about the same size as a wheat kernel.

Stan was able to track down an Emerson kicker, an old seed cleaner no longer in production, from a museum. I guess it's not an antique anymore when you make modifications.  These cleaners used to be used in grain elevators to test incoming grain for the amount of dockage (impurities in the grain). Once a few more modifications were made (it actually moved across the floor when running, so it needed to be stabilized on a forklift) and it was good to go. It goes at a pretty good pace too.

We decided to get the cleaning process on video, and you can see Anna here explaining what's going on. Hope you enjoy it.