BOOK SERIALISATION
Native: Oat couture/ Harvesting by hand Are the old ways really the best? In his extract from his award-winning book, Patrick Laurie tries doing without machines to cut and thresh his crop
By Patrick Laurie
Oats fell and dropped a blizzard of chaff; white flakes like fish scales blew in eddies under the high clouds. Swallows skimmed by and stirred them in a bow wave. I found bare soil, and light plunged down into the roots
to reveal sprigs of nettles and thistles, fat hen and chickweed. Then I stacked the stems in a heap and tied them tightly around the middle with string like a corset. I’d seen it done it books, but I had no idea if this was right. Even my elderly
neighbour Sanny had a machine to do this binding job; he was not sure what to make of my ancient method. He said it looked alright, and I noticed that he was calling my bundle a ‘sheaf’. It made a pleasing sight, buxom and waspwaisted. Soon there were five
Artwork: Sarah Ross-Thompson
The oats passed beyond the colour of rich and lovely gold, and it was time to begin the harvest. I borrowed a sickle and cut bristles of straw until I got a feel for that stuff. It was glossy and thick, and soon there was stubble crackling under my feet.
Whether raising cattle or growing their feed, Laurie’s Galloway farm is run along lines that his ancestors would have had no problem recognising
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