A combine (above) harvesting wheat fields in front of our farm house
Local villagers collecting the leftover wheat for their livestock (above). Can you spot the 'hidden' dogs ?!Here is a photo of the wheat being harvested in front of our house around 2 weeks ago. (You can see photo’s of this same field taken in late June when it was still green over here).
The Combine Harvester which you can see in the photograph is a German one. This wheat is destined for the local market, wheat being one of the crops which we grow on the farm for the local Tanzanian market. (It mostly ends up being milled into different kinds of flour, and is used by one of the large bakeries in the city for making bread, too.)
As with our bean hay, we allow the local villagers to come in after we have harvested and collect whatever they need for feeding their livestock (a lot of wheat is sometimes left behind that the Combine’s “miss” or are unable to harvest). This is a service we offer to the community and we do not charge them for it - it can very often make a huge difference to a herd of livestock and the family it provides food to, especially when grazing is scarce. Some people who do not own livestock also come to collect the leftover wheat, which they then bundle and sell to livestock owners for hard cash.
In the second photograph you can see this same field (and beyond) about a week after it had been harvested, with a few people on it collecting the leftover wheat for their animals. They were actually all children (who shouted constantly at me as I was taking the photo “Mzungu ! Mzungu !” … “White Man ! White Man !”) as many children here are given the responsibility to look after livestock and it is shockingly common to see kids even as young as 4 or 5 herding small groups of goats and cows in very remote areas and even more common to see older kids doing the same.
(Can you spot the ‘hidden’ dogs in the 2nd photograph ? If you click on it to enlarge it, you’ll see Josie and Mbwenya, who came all the way across these fields after a day of exploring in the local village, to get their supper. They were eagerly awaiting it in this photo, as the sun was just about to go down for the night …………………….)
The Combine Harvester which you can see in the photograph is a German one. This wheat is destined for the local market, wheat being one of the crops which we grow on the farm for the local Tanzanian market. (It mostly ends up being milled into different kinds of flour, and is used by one of the large bakeries in the city for making bread, too.)
As with our bean hay, we allow the local villagers to come in after we have harvested and collect whatever they need for feeding their livestock (a lot of wheat is sometimes left behind that the Combine’s “miss” or are unable to harvest). This is a service we offer to the community and we do not charge them for it - it can very often make a huge difference to a herd of livestock and the family it provides food to, especially when grazing is scarce. Some people who do not own livestock also come to collect the leftover wheat, which they then bundle and sell to livestock owners for hard cash.
In the second photograph you can see this same field (and beyond) about a week after it had been harvested, with a few people on it collecting the leftover wheat for their animals. They were actually all children (who shouted constantly at me as I was taking the photo “Mzungu ! Mzungu !” … “White Man ! White Man !”) as many children here are given the responsibility to look after livestock and it is shockingly common to see kids even as young as 4 or 5 herding small groups of goats and cows in very remote areas and even more common to see older kids doing the same.
(Can you spot the ‘hidden’ dogs in the 2nd photograph ? If you click on it to enlarge it, you’ll see Josie and Mbwenya, who came all the way across these fields after a day of exploring in the local village, to get their supper. They were eagerly awaiting it in this photo, as the sun was just about to go down for the night …………………….)
