“I harvested, harvested, I even tied sheaves…”
The harvest was an important event in the life of every village. At such times, the community concentrated with every nerve on harvesting the new crop of wheat. At harvest…in accordance with ancient custom, the pronouncing of sentences were not made and even prisoners were freed to enable them get bread for themselves for the winter.” All who could worked in the fields, the elderly and mothers with small children took care of the animals and the harvesters. Today in the age of air-conditioned combine-harvesters, there is no question any longer of this cooperation. We take the flour and bread in the shops for granted. We have no idea how much work and effort went into this for our forefathers.
When the master hired the harvesters, they prayed together after the agreement. Only afterwards could the work begin. The scythe-men who cut the grain from the still standing wheat headed the parade. The scythes were hammered twice a day, first before the beginning of work at dawn, then at the noon break. The scythe-men were followed by pickers, who gathered the cut wheat. They had to be careful not to leave a single stalk of wheat. The wheat collected by the pickers were tied into sheaves. The work of the binders was not exhausted by this. They got up early in the morning, at 3 or 4 and they were out in the fields to prepare the twine to bind the sheaves. At such times, the haverstraw, which served to bind the sheaves, was still flexible from the morning dew. The twine was laid on the ground, the binders placed the wheat on them, and tied them into sheaves. Sheaves were placed into stooks. They put one at the bottom so it would hold the ears, then they packed on it 16 sheaves crossways in rows of four. On the top of the ears was the so-called priest sheaf, which represented a part of the priest’s share. These were generally placed spread out, so as to protect the sheaves below from rain, wind, and hail. At the end of the harvest, the master waited for the harvesters. The workers announced that they had carried out the work and delivered the harvest wreathe, then they drank to work well done.
The harvest was hard physical work, which the village residents carried out for days. Hard work demanded good food; though it was interesting that not every harvester was given meat. Most often it was cabbage noodles or potatoes with noodles and they drank cool water from csubullo (in other speech areas, lajt or vatale). Only the scythe men were given meat.
