Amber Waves of Grain

Wheat Harvest near Dixie, WA                                             © Diane B. Reed

"Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain . . ." I find myself singing these lines a lot at this time of the year. Wheat harvest is underway in eastern Washington. The combines are harvesting wheat in the hills of the Palouse, leaving a trail of dust and fields of stubble. Trucks are lined up to receive the bounty, and grain elevators are overflowing. If you pass the grain elevators on the Snake River you'll see cone-shaped mountains of wheat, ready to be loaded into the barges to go down the Columbia River and to the rest of the world.

collection of Fort Walla Walla Museum

Although the harvesting has changed over the years, dry wheat farming has been the biggest agricultural pursuit in the Walla Walla Valley and north through the Palouse since the 1860s. Technology has brought bigger and better combines, and the massive mule teams have long been retired. 

 Nowadays we're seeing more and more vineyards, an increasing number of  garbanzo bean fields but, without irrigation, the wheat fields will stay wheat fields. This year the Midwest drought has made crops from the Pacific Northwest even more important. We've been fortunate that despite a wet spring our weather has been otherwise normal this summer.

Grain elevators north of Walla Walla              © Diane B. Reed

Oh, and there's another phenomenon that occurs around the same time as the wheat harvest. I was having coffee with some friends here in W² recently and someone commented excitedly about a big cloud of black smoke they had seen on their way in to town. One of the long-time Walla Wallans at the table snickered under her breath. Natives and long-time residents know that burning fields is a common practice to remove stubble. When you've lived here for awhile you get used to it. It can appear to be pretty spectacular, but it's over remarkably quickly. 

© Diane B. Reed 

Between the wheat harvesting and the back-to-school ads in the newspaper, it's clear that summer has begun to tip into fall.  Happy harvest!