Najat Habash

The roots of farming began in the areas of present day Turkey and the Middle East about 10,000 years ago.
At the end of summer people of Bakhdida start fertilizing their fields by using manure. Donkey carts were used for transporting the fertilizer from the town to the fields; spades are used to scatter it. The season of farming starts in October when people begin to plough their lands.
The main Bakhdida crops are wheat, barely and lentil, other pulses are grown too such as chick pea and kidney beans.

Ploughing in old days was done by using simple plough which was essentially a wooden bar with a metal blade pulled by donkeys to loosen the soil known locally-OJAR-then the seeds are cultivated by scattering it manually.

Watering the fields is completely dependable on rain water.
Reaping or harvesting the crops starts in the month of May. Every morning flocks of people leave the town either walking or riding donkeys to harvest their own crop with the help of families and friends or by hiring workers. Sickles are used locally known-MAGLA-which is essentially a curved blade with wooden handle. People stoop to mow the crop, the bundles then are gathered to make big piles or shocks known locally-BODRA-after all harvesting is done the threshing process starts.

Threshing in Bakhdida is done on the floor by using the sled like threshing machine powered by donkeys locally known (GAREGRA) as shown in the picture above.
Separating the grains from straws is done through the process of winnowing.

Winnowing is done by tossing the threshed crop in the air by using wooden fanners called locally-MALKHAWA-the remaining straws are then cleared by using sieves.

The sieve-SARADA-is filled with crop then shaken to get clearer product. The left chaff is threshed again by using wooden flails (KHATORTA).
Most houses in Bakhdida have a cellar for storing their crops.

The hay or straw is stored and used either as food for the animals or as fuel for baking bread in a traditional mud oven known (TANORTA).

Milling

After harvest people start to store their crops for winter. Before grinding the wheat would be first washed to get rid of the soil and the extra hay stalks. The wet wheat is then dried in the sun on the terrace of the house. After drying, the sorting process comes next when all family members gather around a tray to take away the weed seeds and stones.

Grinding is done when the wheat is completely clean and in early days this process was the most difficult because millstone-GARASTA-was used, it required a lot of physical labor and a very little amount of wheat was ground at a time moreover the flour contained bits of stones that broke while grinding.

Sieving had to be done after to get rid of bran and large pieces of broken wheat.
The millstone is essentially two disks of stones mounted on top of each other. Not long ago the millstones were still in use for grinding lentils as shown in the picture below.

A more sophisticated kind of millstones were used for getting rid of the outer shell of the wheat. The stones were powered by animals, the lower stone was laid horizontally on the ground and the upper one lay vertically on top of it like a spindle attached to the donkeys with a log locally known-DANEG-. The final product is known-BASOSTA-or pearled wheat, cooked either alone or with chick pea as shown in the picture below.

Mortar (HAWAN) and pestle (DOKMAK) is another common way of grinding, in the olden days these were made of wood or stone. Nowadays metal mortar and pestle sets are available in a variety of different sizes. The HAWAN and DOKMAK are used for preparing a very special dish locally known (KOBEBE).

When diesel powered mills were introduced people started to mill large amounts of wheat flour and cracked wheat-BOLGUR-for the whole winter until the next harvesting season.

BULGOR preparation is long and needs lots of labor but most of Bakhdida people enjoy every step of it.
 Going to the mill was an exciting adventure for kids if they were allowed to accompany their families. Mothers made sure the child stayed away from the huge belts of the mill. Sadly a miller was hit by them and left handicapped for the rest of his life.