Harvesting Sorghum

In late August, I did a post about the crops growing on our compound. Here's what the sorghum looked like a month later, when it was ready to harvest. It can get really tall!

A head of ripe sorghum can contain hundreds of seeds.

According to the U.S. National Sorghum Producers' website, sorghum is among the most efficient crops in conversion of solar energy and use of water. It is a high-energy, nutritious, drought-tolerant crop.

Here, sorghum is the food staple and is used to make a thick porridge that is eaten with a sauce. In Sahelian Africa it is used to make couscous.

The ripe sorghum on our compound was harvested by some of the church ladies, most of whom had helped plant and weed the crop during the preceding months.

The sorghum is harvested by hand. The harvesters pull down the stalks, cutting off the heads, then sometimes trampling the stalks down so they can go further into the field.

The ladies with their harvest, to be used to help the needy in the church.

A few more facts about sorghum:

• In the United States, South America, and Australia grain sorghum has traditionally been used for livestock feed and in a growing number of ethanol plants. 

• Sorghum is also gaining popularity in food products in the U.S. because it is gluten-free. It is an excellent substitute for wheat, rye and barley for those who cannot tolerate gluten.