Women of Wheat Harvest Hein says flexibility is the key
By TERRY BEBERMEYER
Staff writer
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Even since Bible times, women have played roles in the harvesting of crops. Some brought water and nourishment to the fields, others actually joined in the harvest, using the sickle and gathering the grain.
With the exception of technology, harvest roles have not changed much through the centuries. Today still, many women play integral roles throughout the harvest season, and oftentimes, they are the stabilizing force through the harvesting process.
Beth Hein is one such "woman of the harvest." Having grown up in a farming family, Beth has been familiar with the harvest process since she was a little girl. However, it wasn't until she was married that she began her role as truck driver as well as the many other roles she plays during the harvest season.
A typical day, according to Beth, starts by waking early to get the regular house chores completed, watering the garden, and taking care of the green beans, which according to Beth, "are always ready during harvest regardless of when you plant them." Then she quickly moves on to begin preparing the three to four meals for the day.
"You never know from one day to the next when you'll get started in the field. It all depends on the weather. If it's cloudy and humid, you don't get started until later in the day. But if the weather cooperates, and it's sunny and windy, and the guys are able to get cutting early, they usually eat before they go out to the field at 10:30 or 11." This is the big meal of the day.
After cleaning up from lunch, Beth heads for the field to begin trucking load after load of grain to the elevator. Depending on whether or not other relatives are helping drive, Beth may deliver one load and return to the field just in time to switch trucks and head out again. Beth says, "Sometimes you meet yourself coming and going. There's usually very little down time." Especially when they finish one field and have to move all the equipment to the next.
Sometimes it works out that sisters-in-law are around to bring the late afternoon meal out to the field. Otherwise, toward 4 or 5, Beth makes a detour, stopping at home to gather a quick, light meal of sandwiches, pop, and dessert — always a must, according to Beth — to take to the field.
Then it's back to hauling until 10 or 10:30 p.m. when they return home. Depending upon how tired and how hungry everyone is, she quickly gets out the fixings for another meal before hurrying to bed, waking up, and beginning the routine again.
Beth really enjoys being out in the field when the cutting is going on and being a part of a family effort. However, she doesn't enjoy the uncertainty of the routine. So many factors play into upsetting the schedule — changes in weather, breakdowns in equipment, etc. — all of which affect not only the field work, but the kitchen work as well. Sometimes Beth has to go into "fast food" mode to have a meal ready on the spot.
"The key word is flexibility," says Beth. "You have to be ready to face whatever you come up against."
Beth remembers one harvest in particular when she was a little girl, her father's crops got totally hailed out. "He was going to start combining the next day, and a hail storm came through that night and literally beat the wheat into the ground."
She remembers, "He loaded us kids up on the hayrack and took the tractor and pulled us out across where the wheat field had been the day before, and there wasn't a kernel of wheat to be seen, there wasn't a leaf on a tree. The crop was totally gone."
Unlike a few other women in the community who help even with combining, Beth has no desire to operate that large machinery. She is content to confine herself to hauling the wheat and trying to balance that with her many other responsibilities as mom and housewife, as well as her many obligations in her church and the community.
Beth is not unlike many other women in the community who during this season wrestle with the many jobs and responsibilities that come with helping with harvest. They're not superwomen, but they do what they have to to maintain stability in the frenzy of the season. They're definitely "women of the harvest."
