Every bit of the environment is used when its harvest time in China.
We're now in a vast flood plain north of Nanjing and the mighty Yangtze River. Water and rich earth is everywhere. Within a few kilometers of leaving the small town of Ming Guan we hiked close to a lake where tiny communes were settled amidst water filled paddies of rice.

Wherever we looked people could be seen wading through the mud, planting rice, laughing and joking, enjoying a labour of love. Such a wonderful sight, to see this ancient rice culture of Asia preparing for a new dawn.

Just a few kilometers further the wetlands gave way to rolling hills of the rich earth covered with the red and yellow golden shades of full grown wheat. Here the fields were as active as the paddies, but these fields were not being planted they were being harvested.

Back on the main road we passed through more communes and all of them, every household it seemed, were busy harvesting the wheat, separating the chafe from the grain; in ways that have long gone extinct in the west.

Photo: A Cycling Pancake Lady Sells Goodies To The Farmers

The roadside was now a vast wheat dryer, where men, women and children with pitch folks, brushes and other such ancient handmade tools, tossed the straws into piles and swept the wheat grains into even layers. “

Oh Look at that.” Said Konomi “He's separating the wheat in a very old way.” Every now and again a man wearing a wide brimmed hat, to keep the bits from falling on his head, would toss a whole load of wheat into the air to separate the stalk from the grain.

Photo: Konomi, Yuij and Joy, munching on fresh wheat grains.
The rich rich earth, what a happy sight to see such merriment of people planting and reaping. Truly this will be a day to remember and be thankful for.

Photo: Visiting family volunteers prepare to go back home