Hospital Farm's Rice Harvest

Right before the rainy season started (about 5 days ago) a one-acre test plot of rice was harvested from the hospital's west field.   

Harvested Rice Field

Everything is done by hand - from the planting to the weeding to the cutting, drying and threshing.

Boards used under the tarp when threshing

The last remaining rice to be cut

Here's an action shot of Don Quijote (not his real name) explaining to us how the rice is harvested.

Our personal tour guide explaining the process

Once the rice has been cut and dried in the hot sun for a few days, a large tarp is laid out and the rice is threshed onto it and then the straw is discarded. 

Rice drying and waiting to be threshed

The threshing (whipping the rice against those boards to make it fall off into the tarp)

Below is about half of the harvest from the one-acre field. Each bag weighs over 100 pounds. We were very impressed with the amount and we were told this will provide enough rice to feed both the Children's Home and the hospital for the coming year. 

The rice still has the hull on it making it brown.  Once de-hulled, it will look like the white rice you're familiar with.