Hi,

Harvest time in Czartajew is the time of year when Grandpa Witek and Uncle Marcin are never at home 😁. They spend whole days out in the fields.

For me, it is a time of summer holidays and, most often, sunny weather, because you cannot harvest grain when it is raining.

Grandpa and Uncle Marcin come back from the fields at around 8:00 p.m. and they are completely black from the rapeseed. They look a little better when they are harvesting wheat 😀

When Grandpa and Uncle Marcin are working in the fields, they usually do not eat anything, but they drink lots of water. They believe that sometimes it is good to fast. Besides, they do not have much time to eat because harvest time is often a race against the weather — the grain being harvested needs to be dry.

During harvest time, I ride my bike to the fields with Mum. I like watching Uncle Marcin harvest the crops. Sometimes I get to ride with him in the combine harvester. Sometimes we also bring Grandpa some tools when the combine breaks down in the field.

The harvested grain has to be taken to collection points to be sold. Before that, samples of the grain are tested. This tells the farmers what price they can get for the rapeseed or wheat.

This year, Grandpa sent Mum with some wheat samples to Brańsk. Grandpa explained to Mum how to get there: “When you are already on the main road, turn left at the first roundabout and then turn sharply right at the next one.”

When Mum arrived, it turned out that the results would not be ready for another hour and a half, so she decided to drive to Ciechanowiec as well, to leave the samples at another place. There, she had to wait until the next day for the results. But that is how it is during harvest time — you cannot plan everything.

Maja and I also had our own little part in this year’s harvest. With Mum’s help, we put three bags of rapeseed aside for the next sowing. I got terribly dirty and looked almost exactly like Uncle Marcin after a whole day of harvesting rapeseed 😀

I already know that harvest time is hard work that actually begins a whole year earlier, with preparing the fields for sowing. For me, though, it is a time of carefree summer days and wonderful memories.

See you for now!

P.S. Mum turned on the GPS in Brańsk anyway and still got lost 😃. Then she went back to the main road and followed Grandpa’s directions. She also had trouble finding the right place in Ciechanowiec.

(Psssst… this is our secret. Mum decided that it was nothing to brag about 😀)