In the mid 1800’s, Ireland went through a brutal potato famine that wiped out as much as a quarter of their population. Irish farmers, so reliant on its potato harvest every year, could do nothing once ‘late blight’ had wiped out the potato crops.

Fast forward about 150 years, and in the Northeast we are this summer experiencing our own strand of blight. According to Professor William Fry of Cornell University, the current outbreak of tomato blight has spread because of infected tomatoes sold by Wal-Mart for home-gardeners. Wal-Mart has since recalled all tomato seedlings that were produced by the company that produced the infected tomatoes. Once infected with blight, a tomato crop can be wiped out within days.

Farmers in the Northeast have become extremely concerned about the possibility of the blight wiping out their harvest. The blight, which is a fungus that can develop in the soil and usually infects either tomatoes or potatoes, is extremely contagious and capable of jumping from one plant to an entire field if the infectious spores seep out from even one opening.

The blight fungus works at an alarmingly fast pace as well. A couple that came down to the garden the other day told me an ominous tale about what happened to their tomatoes this summer. They had been growing at a prolific pace, in large part thanks to the increased amount of rainfall we’ve seen this summer. But one day, they noticed a powdery white substance accumulating on their tomatoes. Within a couple of days, their entire supply of tomatoes had been wiped out. There was nothing they could do about it. The only prudent thing would have simply been to destroy all of their tomatoes, but the blight saw to that, anyways.

The only preventive measure that can be taken against the blight fungus is a certain fungicide, which makes it especially dangerous for organic farmers.

So far in the 1812 Garden, I haven’t seen any signs of blight. Our tomatoes have been growing at a prodigious rate and I would be extremely disappointed if anything was to happen to them. But putting things in perspective, it’s hard to get too worked up about our tomatoes. If we lose them, then we lose them. But for the many farmers who are relying on their tomato harvest as a big source of income, this blight has had far more serious ramifications. And certainly no one needs further reminder of what the blight meant for Irish potato farmers in the mid 1850’s. The blight fungus is one of the most destructive poisons out there for a farmer.

Moskin, Julia. "Late Blight Fungus Threatens Tomato Crop in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic." The New York times 17 Jul 2009 Web.3 Aug 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/nyregion/18tomatoes.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tomato%20blight&st=cse>.

Christina Matulaitis ‘09
Food for Thought Seminar, Fall 2008

What is a scythe?
    A scythe is a traditional agricultural hand tool used for mowing and harvesting crops.  It is no longer in widespread use today, having been replaced first by horse power and then by mechanized machinery, but is increasingly gaining popularity among some old-fashioned farmers.  The use of a scythe has been described by many as an enjoyable task and is even featured as the topic of 19th and early 20th century poetry.  In “The Scythe Song,” Andrew Lang, a Scottish poet, writes:

MOWERS, weary and brown, and blithe,
What is the word methinks ye know --
Endless over-word that the scythe
Sings to the blades of the grass below?
Scythes that swing in the grass and clover,
Something, still, they say as they pass;
What is that word that, over and over,
Sings the scythe to the flowers and grass?
Hush, ah hush, the scythes are saying,
Hush, and heed not, and fall asleep;
Hush, they say to the grasses swaying;
Hush, they sing to the clover deep!
Hush-- 'tis the lullaby Time is singing --
Hush, and heed not, for all things pass;
Hush, ah hush! and the scythes are swinging
Over the clover, over the grass!
Parts and Types

There are two main parts of the scythe: the blade and the handle, which is called the snath.  The blade is constructed out of iron and steel.  A high quality blade is light in weight with a very sharp blade that can cut tissue paper without tearing it.  However, at the same time, the blade must be tough enough to resist breakage if a rock is hit in the field during mowing.  In order to maintain a razor-sharp edge, the blade requires whetting at intervals during the mowing, usually every 15 minutes.  When the scythe was a predominant agricultural tool, blades were made in many different lengths to suit various tasks.  Today, blades usually measure about 27 inches.
    The second part of the tool is the snath that connects to the blade.  Snaths are made out of wood and come in a range of shapes, from perfectly straight to curved in order to fit to one’s body.  There are usually about five feet long.  Grips are the two knobs jutting out from the snath so that the mower can grasp the tool.  One grip is located towards the middle of the snath, and should be lined up with the mower’s hip when the blade is on the ground.  The second grip is located at the end of the snath.  These locations allow the mower comfort and ease when using the tool.
The scythe is commonly pictured with its counterpart, the sickle.  The sickle is also a traditional agricultural tool that serves nearly the same purpose a as scythe.  The scythe largely replaced the sickle because of its efficiency and comfort, but a sickle can come in handy when a scythe is not suitable.  The main differentiating property between a sickle and a scythe is the length of the handle.  A sickle has a short handle and requires the use of only one hand and the mower bent over, whereas the scythe has a much longer and blade and the mower can remain upright.

Uses
Beginning in the Roman Empire, farmers have relied on this tool to harvest their fields.  Continuing though history, the scythe has had four main uses: mowing hay, cutting weeds, maintaining lawns, and harvesting small grains.  The first and most common use of the scythe is for mowing hay.  Before gasoline-powered tools, farmers relied on the scythe to cut the hay that would be used to feed the farm animals and mulch gardens.  One acre was considered an average day’s work of mowing for one man, but many farmers could cover more ground.  Even today, some farmers find a scythe much more effective than modern machinery, especially in mowing the edges and corners of fields, where large tractors are unable to maneuver.
    Another common use for the tool is the cutting of weeds.  It is more efficient than completing the task by hand, but the farmer must be more careful and precise in his slice than when mowing a field of hay.  Similarly, scythes are a useful tool in maintaining lawns.  Before the invention of the hand-pushed rotary lawn mower in 1831, lawns were trimmed by nibbling animals or long-bladed scythes.  Lawns are easiest to mow in the morning, when the grass is heavy with dew and the scythe blade can cut right through it.
    The final main use of the scythe is for harvesting small grains, including wheat, barley and rye.  The only grain crop than cannot be successfully harvested with a scythe is corn.  A cradle-scythe was developed for the specific purpose of harvesting grains.  It has a rake-like attachment in order to catch and collect the crop once the scythe cuts it down.  This version lays out the grain more neatly than a regular type.  The scythe has a variety of different uses on a farm and can perform some tasks better than modern equipment.
    Mowing Techniques & Methods
If done correctly, the use of a scythe should be comfortable and not at all exhausting.  The mower should begin standing upright with knees slightly bent and an overall relaxed body.  This stance allows the worker to continue mowing for long periods of time.  The mower then twists his body to the right, almost looking over his shoulder.  He proceeds to swing the scythe across his body in one continuous movement and finish with the tool to the left of him.  The grass is thrown to the left of the area that has just been mowed.  The twisting movement of the entire body is essential in order to the mower to gain momentum for the swing.  The blade of the scythe is to remain parallel and very low to the ground throughout the entire process.  The scythe cuts a swath, or a patch, or field in a crescent shape which can be as wide as ten feet.  Rudyard Kipling compared the mowing movement to sailing: “The foresail scythed back and forth against the blue sky.”  In this image, the mower is the mast and the boom is the scythe.
    For large fields, a team of mowers was generally employed.  They would begin at the edge of the field, arranged in even intervals horizontally.  The quickest mower would take the most leftward position and begin mowing first.  The mower to his right would follow a few strokes after him, and continue on down the line.  The workers would mow straightforward and proceed to turn clockwise, making a spiral pattern of swaths in the field.  It was common to sing songs during team mowing, which helped maintain the rhythmic motion of the work.

Today
The scythe has largely been superseded by machinery in modern times.  However it is still a common farming method in rural parts of Europe and Asia.  Peter Vido, author of “The Scythe Must Dance: An Addendum on the Practical Use of the Scythe,” researched the uses of scythes in America and discovered them also being used in rural areas.  He himself uses a scythe to maintain his garden, thoroughly enjoys using the fool and recommends other to try it.  Growing up in Slovakia, he saw the scythe used frequently, which meant that it must be an energy efficient method of harvesting.  He finds mowing with a scythe empowering and very useful in field of wheat that a mechanical mower would have trouble mowing.
    Upon trying to use the scythe myself, I discovered that it does indeed feel like the extension of my body.  With the tool in my hand, I felt like I had time-traveled to the past, to a more simple way of life.  The breeze blew through the trees and the scythe whispered through the meadow.  I can understand why farmers find the fool peaceful and relaxing, especially compared to raucous tractors.
    The snath was long enough for me to stand upright in the field.  The twisting motion was difficult to get used to and at first the scythe felt heavy and awkward.  As I continued to mow, it became progressively easier, but I still need a lot of practice to be able to mow an acre in a day!

Bibliography

Lang, Andrew.  The Scythe Song.
    http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/lang01.html

Tresemer, David.  The Scythe Book: Mowing Hay, Cutting Weeds, and Harvesting Small
Grains, with Hand Tools.  Chambersburg, PA: Alan C. Hood & Company Inc.,
1996.

photos: www.scythesupply.com/thescythe_intro.htm
             www.wikipedia.com

Emma Stewart '08

Food For Thought Seminar, Fall 2008

Grains are perhaps the most important source of calories for many cultures around the world. Botanically, grains are technically the fruits of grasses; culturally they are the basis for many diverse diets. They can be prepared in many different ways, but grinding grains into meal or flour is method of diversifying the means by which they can be cooked and consumed. Processing grains requires drying of the fruit, removing the inedible, cellulosic husks or cobs, and finally grinding them to create the powder we know as flour. Before mechanical milling operations were built, pioneer families had to grind by hand the corn, wheat, and rye they had grown. In American history, this was often done using mortars made from logs with a cavity burned out (Haseley).  This was hard, time-consuming work, and mills run by water power employing large stone grinding wheels soon became the method by which whole grains were ground into flour.

This is dried Iroquois heiloom white corn. All of it was grown in the heritage garden.

In Mexico and parts of Central and South American, where corn is the principle grain consumed, grinding dried corn was done using a metate y mano, or “grinder and hand.” People have been using metate stones as long as maize has been domesticated, since about 7000 BCE. Traditionally women ground the dried maize kernels for making tortillas, an energy intensive practice done daily. The metate was so critical to Aztec foodways and culture that baby girls’ umbilical cords were buried underneath the metate when they were cut.

The device is two heavy stones: one large flat slab with short legs and a depression in the middle, and another smaller hand-held stone that fits into the depression. To grind corn, one puts corn into the depression and runs the stone back and forth (with a lot of pressure!) over the corn kernels until they are broken into corn meal.  The more pressure one applies, the more efficient the grinding is, so the women who use metates kneel or squat over the device so as to get good leverage.

Growing, harvesting, drying and grinding your own grains is indeed a lot of work. I learned this first hand this fall. I harvested about 40 ears of Iroquois heirloom white corn in late September from the 1812 Garden. We lost some kernels to insects, some to fungus, some to unpollinated stamens, and some to poorly developed grains, but the harvest was quite bountiful overall. The corn was harvested later than one would harvest sweet corn for eating on the cob; the kernels were big, white, starchy, and relatively dry. We left all the corn to dry on the cobs in a dry attic except one ear; this one was left in my car for several weeks, where it probably cooked at low temperatures. Those dried in the attic had more of a corn taste compared to the ear left in the car which actually tasted a little milky.

Once they were completely dry, I knocked the kernels off the cobs by hand; it took about an hour and half to do 40 ears, but the grains alone looked impressive.

This is me grinding the corn by hand at the co-op

I let the kernels dry off the cob for a few more days in a warm area, and then it was time to grind. I used a hand-crank grinder in the Woollcott Co-op that has gears that adjust to give either finer or grainer flour. The finer the flour, the more difficult the crank was to turn, so I opted for an intermediate grain size. The grinding took about 2 hours total. At first it was fun and as the novelty wore off I was able to recruit volunteers who wanted to try it for themselves as well.

We have a metate, but the mano is too wide to fit into the depression and the grains slip through without being ground. I tried it out anyway, just to get a feel for what it would be like.  It certainly felt like a lot of work, kneeling and grasping the heavy stone in my hand.

This picture is me modeling how to use the metate y mano

The finished product of my grinding is about 7 or 8 pounds of corn meal, ready to be made into Iroquois cornbread, or in the Mexican tradition, tortillas. It was hours upon hours of work for this small amount of corn meal – and I didn’t even have to plant or care for the corn this summer. It is humbling to realize just how much work goes into growing and processing grains. No wonder the Aztecs had such reverence for maize and the metate; such a huge part of their lives were dependent on them!

References

Haseley, Janey Long. “History of the Renssalaerville Grist Mill.” 1996. Upper Hudson Library System. 11 Nov. 2008. <http://www.uhls.org/NICHE/RvGristHist.htm>.

“Metate.” 2008. Mexicolore. 11 Nov 2008. <http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/index.php?one=azt&two=art&tab=two&id=104>.

Smith, S. E. “What is a Metate?” 2008. Wisegeek. 29 Sept. 2008. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-metate.htm>.

Yaguda, Rebecca. Personal interview. 11 Nov. 2008.