Threshing Ground (La Era)
Amy Star and her specially trained Spanish horses help thresh wheat at San Ysidro festival, 2016
Threshing grounds, called eras in Spanish, were essential features in communities that predated or could not afford mechanical threshing and winnowing equipment. Harvesting, threshing and winnowing grains and legumes was a major collective seasonal endeavor that required many hands to share in the work.
O’Odham farmers threshing harvested crops near San Xavier mission. Circa 1920s. Photographer unknown.
In this region wheat is harvested in mid-May, which coincides with the festivities in honor of San Isidro (spelled San Ysidro here), the patron saint of farmers, a local cultural tradition first introduced by Spanish missionaries. Therefore, the San Ysidro Festival at Mission Garden is also the wheat harvest festival. We invite the community to help us harvest, thresh, winnow and even mill our wheat, so people can practice the entire process from wheat field to flour the old-fashioned way.
Left: José María García harvesting wheat with a sickle at Mission Garden / Right: Brothers Jesús and José María García demonstrate winnowing. Raised on a small farm in Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico, they remember their father preparing the era for the harvest every spring.
Pima County Video about Mission Garden and San Ysidro Festival, Pima County, June 22, 2018
