In Mallorca, oats and barley are normally harvested at the beginning of July, with other cereal grains such as wheat or triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye) coming in about a month later, in August. This year, the July harvest was delayed by about two to three weeks due to some heavy rain at the beginning of June which resulted in the ground being too boggy for the heavy machines to enter.

Last week, the ending of the cereal harvest season was celebrated in the finca of es Pujolet in the municipality of Ariany by almost a hundred payeses (farmers) from a dozen villages in the Pla area all joining their machinery and men to reap, thresh and winnow the ordi (barley) in a field spanning an area of 22 quarterades (more than 15 hectares). The joined effort of 13 combine harvesters resulted in the work being done in about 90 minutes, when a single harvester machine would have taken all day and a long one at that. Before the feat, an exuberant breakfast was celebrated at the Sa Torre restaurant with a hearty arroz brut.

The photo (top) was chosen from my archive. It was taken in Sineu, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: March 10th, 2011. The time was 16:04:12. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of ultimahora.es and the photographer, Antoni Pol.

Muchas gracias.