Summary of educational activities in the senior group.

Topic: “How bread is grown.”

Program content:

1. To acquaint children with the work of grain growers in ancient times and in our time, to convey to their consciousness that bread is the result of a lot of work of many people.
2. To consolidate children's knowledge about different types and varieties of bread, and about folk proverbs and sayings.
3. Develop manual skills when modeling baked goods, activate vocabulary: generous, loaf, abundant, agronomist, baker.
4. Foster a caring attitude towards bread and interest in the profession of baker; respect for the work of the people involved in its cultivation.

Material: illustrations of the nature of Russia; pictures of bakery products; black bread, white bread, various buns; D/i “From grain to spikelet”; the diagram “How bread came to the table” in ancient times and in our time; ready-made salt dough; stacks, boards, napkins.

Move: The teacher invites the children to look at illustrations depicting the nature of Russia. Motherland... This is the region where we live. This is our city, street, house, forest, this is all. What surrounds us. Russia is the country in which we live, it is our Motherland. What a beautiful word! And dew, and strength, and blue spaces...

Our seas are deep.

Our fields are wide

Abundant, dear

My generous land!

Guys, what does generous land mean?

Children: answer the question.

Educator: the land produces rich harvests of grain, vegetables and fruits; many mushrooms, berries, nuts, and medicinal herbs grow in the forests. Yes, guys, all these riches are given to people by the earth. On a generous land, generous people live. Russian people have long been famous for their hospitality. What product was the most important, most revered in Rus'? Not a single holiday was complete without it?

Children: Bread.

Educator: That's right, water fish, Berry is grass. And bread, as they say,

Everyone's head!

Educator: Bread must be treated sacredly and carefully, because it is obtained through hard work. But in the old days, bread could only be taken with clean hands and could not be thrown away. And if they dropped it, they definitely had to pick it up and kiss it. Who knows what the bread that is baked for the holiday is called?

Children: Loaf (consider an illustration of a loaf).

Educator b: Here, he is a fragrant loaf

With a fragile twisted crust,

Here it is soft, golden,

As if filled with sunshine!

Guys, what is bread made from? Where do you get flour from? Yes, there is wheat and rye flour.

Educator: What is baked from wheat flour? What are baked goods called?

Children: white bread, buns, cookies, bagels, loaves.

Educator: Semolina is also made from wheat flour, its resins are not very fine. But black bread is baked from rye flour.

Let’s play the game “From Seed to Spikelet” and remember what is necessary for the life and growth of plants (we put the pictures in order: 1 - planted a grain. 2 - the sun warms, the rain pours, etc.)

Educator: Well done, you completed the task. Do you want to know how people used to grow bread in the old days? (the teacher tells using illustrations. In those distant times, there were more forests than now and people first cut down trees, uprooted stumps, then plowed the field with a horse and sowed it, it was not machines that sowed grain, but people scattered handfuls of grain. When the ears grew, men took scythes, women cut the sickle ears and collected them into sheaves. The sheaves were placed in high stacks. Then each spikelet was threshed with chains, peeled from the husk. They were put into bags and put into barns for storing grain).

Now let’s talk about how bread is grown in our time: (the teacher talks using illustrations. Now people don’t work manually, modern technology does everything for them, grain growers prepare the soil for sowing, then tractors plow and harrow the land, loosen it and begin sowing . Seeders are attached to the tractor, they place grains of wheat and rye in the ground in even neat rows. An agronomist monitors the growth of the seedlings. When the grain is ripe, the harvest begins. Harvesters go out into the fields, they cut off the ears, knock out grains from them, which are poured into a special sleeve into the combine bunker. The grain is taken to an elevator, to a flour mill, where flour is made. And the flour is taken to a bakery, where various baked goods are baked from it. The finished products are delivered to stores).

Guys, how many of you know proverbs and sayings dedicated to bread? Let's remember them.

Children: Without bread there is no lunch.

Lots of light - lots of bread.

If there is bread, there will be song.

If you don't work, you won't get bread.

The people have words - the bread of life - the head.

Educator: Yes, guys, even now the work of grain growers is still very difficult and intense! And so that you and I could bring home an ordinary loaf of white or rye bread, combine operators, tractor drivers, drivers, and bakers did a great job. Many hands touched the grain so that it turned into a loaf of bread!

Educator: Do you want to be a baker? We will now prepare various breads and bakery products from salt dough for the game of shop. Do you agree? Wear aprons and scarves. Each of you choose which products you want to make. Divide the dough by pinching or using stacks.

Once you’ve chosen it, see what techniques you can use to sculpt: pinching, rolling, flattening, pressing, smearing. Bagel - roll the dough into a sausage or stick and connect the ends with a pinch; braid – roll up two sticks and weave them into a braid; loaf - roll the dough, reducing the edges and increasing the middle, make cuts on top, pancakes and pancakes, flattening the dough, etc.

Whoever made it, put your products on a tray and together we will take them to the oven for baking. Oh, what great fellows made different products, like real bakers. That's it for our acquaintance with bread! Did you like it? Very good.

Cognition. Summary of a lesson on familiarization with the outside world

Topic: “How bread is grown”

Target: Introduce children to the process of growing bread.

Tasks : 1. Give an idea of ​​how bread came to our table, pay attention to the content of people’s labor, their coherence and mutual assistance in work, and the mechanization of labor.

2. Improve the grammatical structure of speech.

3. Learn to solve riddles.

4. To consolidate children’s knowledge that bread is one of the most important food products in Russia.

5. Instill in children a sense of respect for people’s work and bread.

Methodical techniques:

The teacher's story, reading poems, proverbs, riddles, looking at illustrations, questions for children, children's answers to questions.

Vocabulary work.

Plowing, sowing, sowing, harrow, plow, harvest, cornfield, combine, sourdough, straw, barn, vat elevator.

Materials and equipment:

Pictures, poems, ears of wheat, wheat and rye bread, dried bread, cookies.

Preliminary work:

Reading an excerpt from A. Musatov’s work “Here’s a Loaf”; “Who is in charge in the field?”, looking at illustrations, memorizing proverbs, conversation.

Literature: K.V. Nazarenko “Methodological recommendations for the set “How bread comes to us”

organized children's activities

1. Organizational moment.

Attention attention! Those wishing to take an exciting journey into the world of work and knowledge! I ask everyone to take their seats and let's hit the road.

Guys, guess the riddle:

I'm black

I may be white

I am ruddy

And a little burnt, sometimes

But it’s not a problem!

What is this? Children's answers.

That's right, it's bread.

He takes a napkin from the tray on which there is an exhibition: white and rye bread, dry bread, cookies, gingerbread.

2. Conversation about bread.

We all eat white and black bread every day; many love dry bread, cookies, and various cakes.

Children look at it and share their impressions.

Who knows what they're all made of? Children's answers.

- What is flour and where is it obtained from? Children's answers.

Wheat flour is obtained from wheat grains, and rye flour is obtained from rye grains. To obtain flour from grains, you need to spend a lot of labor: first grow rye and wheat, then harvest. This is what grain growers do. Guys, do you want to know what kind of work this is? Children's answers.

First, grain growers prepare the soil for sowing. In autumn, fertilizers are applied to the fields using special spreading machines. Then they plow the ground with tractors, mixing fertilizers with the soil and at the same time harrowing - this is loosening the soil so that there are no lumps.(Showing illustrations)

Harrow - This is a device that loosens the ground so that moisture, air and heat enter it.

Strong machines help people grow and harvest bread. In the spring, as soon as the ground thaws and dries out, a tractor comes out into the field. Who is leading it? Children's answers.

The tractor pulls an iron plow, which plows the ground deeply.

(The teacher reads an excerpt from Pogorelovsky’s poem)

Tractors go out into the steppe

Pulling plows on a trailer

Plows cut like a knife,

Fat juicy black soil.

And now the earth becomes soft, loose, obedient.(Showing illustrations)

Now you can start sowing!

Seeders are attached to the tractor, and they place wheat grains into the soil in equal, neat rows.(Showing illustrations)

The wheat has sprouted. The grains in the ears ripen all summer. The field at this time is all green, very beautiful.

The sun draws stripes in the sky,

The birds started singing...

Ripe ear to ear,

Sweet bread of my land.

(Showing illustrations)

- I also call a grain field a cornfield.

(The teacher reads an excerpt from a poem by Yu. Zhdanovskaya)

My field, my field, my golden field!

You are ripening in the sun, filling the ears;

By you, by the wind, as if in the blue sea,

The waves just keep moving, moving in the open space...

But the grains are ripe. The harvest begins.(Children repeat the word in chorus and individually)And other machines enter the field - combines.(Showing illustrations)

- He goes through the wave, grain flows from the pipe” - this is a riddle about a combine harvester. Who works on the combine?

Children's answers. (combiner – new word, repeat the word in chorus and individually)

What does a combine do? Children's answers.

Combine - cuts the ears and threshes grains from them; these grains are poured through a special long sleeve into trucks, which constantly drive up at the signal of the combine operator. And large yellow shocks of straw come out of the combiner's straw storage tank at certain intervals.(Showing illustrations)

- Cars transport grain to the floor - this is a large open area where the grain is cleaned and dried under the sun. Then part of the grain goes into seed barns, and the rest of the grain is handed over to the state. This grain is transported to elevators - special structures for storing grain.(Showing illustrations)

- To obtain bread and other grain products, grain is taken from elevators to flour mills or mills, where it is ground into flour.

There's wheat in the mill

This is what's happening to her here!

They are taking it into circulation!

They will grind her into powder!

The grains became flour.

(Pogorelovsky)

Where then?

Children's answers. (to the bakery)

That's right, the flour is being taken to the bakery. At the bakery there are huge vats of sourdough. Flour, salt, sugar, water, yeast are added to the vat with the starter, and special machines use mechanical “hands” to knead the bread dough. Other machines cut the dough into equal parts and transfer it to large ovens for baking bread, loaves, buns, bagels and everything that we love so much, without which not a single breakfast, lunch and dinner can do.

3. Physical exercise “Bread”

Flour was kneaded into the dough,(Clench and unclench their fists)

And from the dough we made:(Clap with palms, “sculpt”)

Pies and buns, (Alternately extend the fingers of both hands, starting with the little finger)

Sweet cheesecakes,

Buns and rolls –

We will bake everything in the oven. (Both palms turn up)

Delicious! (Stroke the belly)

You see, guys, how much work it takes to get bread. The Russian people have always treated bread very carefully.

4. Reading proverbs

Bread is the head of everything. Just three words, but exactly what the proverb says about the importance of bread. Guys, let's repeat the proverb and remember it.

Repeating the proverb by children in chorus and individually.

Listen, guys, what other proverbs about bread are there:

“Without bread there is no lunch”

“Bread is father, water is mother”

“If there is bread, there will be song”

“A lot of light - a lot of bread”

“You need to take as much bread as you can eat”

“You should always finish your bread”

“You shouldn’t throw bread on the floor”

5. Ball game “Question and answer”

Target: develop the ability to select words with the same root as the word “bread” for answers.

Game task : When catching the ball, concentrate and give the correct answer to the question.

Material: ball.

Progress:

The teacher asks a question and throws the ball to the child, the child answers and returns the ball to the adult.

Call the bread affectionately (Khlebushek)

What kind of bread crumbs? (Bread)

What is kvass made from bread called? (Bread)

Device for cutting bread (Bread slicer)

Bread storage container? (Breadbox)

Who grows the bread? (Grain grower)

Who bakes the bread? (Bread Baker)

Name the factory where bread is baked? (Bread factory)

What are dough products called? (Bakery)

6. Reflection

Guys, please tell me:

What work do grain growers do in the fields to grow a good grain harvest?

Children's answers. (plow, harrow, sow, reap)

What machines help the grain grower?

Children's answers (tractors, combines, trucks)

How should you treat bread?

Children's answers.

Bread is the main wealth of our country and it must be protected.

Fragrant and tasty bread is always present on the table. Adults and children eat it with pleasure. At the same time, not everyone thinks about how bread is grown.

This process takes place in several stages and takes a significant amount of time.

Growing and preparing cereals

First, wheat is grown. To get a good harvest, it is sown before winter. The field for its cultivation is carefully prepared: cleared of weeds, fertilized and plowed. Sowing of seeds is done using special equipment. After emergence, the wheat is treated for pests and re-fertilized. The crop is harvested after the grains are fully ripe and their moisture content is about 17%. After this, the wheat goes to the mill, where it is made into flour.

Yeast and sourdough

To get tasty and aromatic rye bread, you need to use sourdough. Yeast and lactic acid bacteria are used for its preparation. If you plan to bake white bread, then, as a rule, only live yeast is used for it - the dough is prepared from it.

Kneading dough

The dough is kneaded using sourdough or dough. Flour, sugar, salt and sunflower oil are added to it, as well as cereals and bran, if they are provided for in the recipe. The dough is kneaded in a large container - a dough mixer. After this, the dough passes through a special conveyor and ends up in cups, where it arrives within a few hours. As a rule, during this time the dough has time to rise twice.

Baking bread

The finished dough is cut into portions on a conveyor belt. They go through molding and go straight into the oven. The dough is baked for about 35-45 minutes at a temperature of 98 degrees. The result is aromatic and tasty bread. Remove bread from the oven manually or using vacuum suction cups. The bread is left to cool for a while, and then laid out on pallets and sent for packaging or sale.

Ready-made bread can be stored for three days; only some varieties do not lose their freshness and taste for 10 days.

Galina Yurkina

Galina Yurkina, teacher at MBDOU kindergarten "Romashka"

Program tasks:

To consolidate the knowledge of older preschoolers about bread, as one of the valuable products and greatest riches on earth; knowledge of professions, bread growers.

Enrich your knowledge of how it appears on the table bread how far does it go before we eat it?

Consolidate knowledge of proverbs and sayings about bread.

Practice counting, knowledge of geometric shapes and numbers, skills expressively read poetry and dramatize.

- Activation of the dictionary: ear, rye, wheat, mow, reap, thresh, elevator, tractor driver, combine operator, miller, baker.

Develop attention, coherent speech, memory, activity and fine muscles of the fingers.

Cultivate a caring attitude towards bread, respect for people's work.

Methodological support: projector, laptop, slide show "Where the bread has arrived?» , educational game "Logical chain", proverbs and sayings about bread, geometric mosaic "Spikelet", an image of spikelets, tractors, a loaf cap, attributes of a miller, baker, tractor driver and combine operator.

Preliminary work: looking at an album « Bread is the head of everything» , excursions to the field and grain current, memorization of poems, proverbs and sayings about bread, role-playing game "Harvest", conversations about the work of adults.

Move classes: (The teacher brings in a loaf of bread of bread) . Bread! How often we talk and hear about him! They wake up in the house in the morning, and someone from the family is in a hurry to buy fresh food for breakfast. bread.

"Here he is fragrant bread, with a crunchy twisted crust;

Here it is warm, golden, as if filled with sunshine!

He came to every house, to every table.

It contains our health, strength, and wonderful warmth.

How many hands raised him, protected him, took care of him!

There is native juice of the earth in it, cheerful light of the sun in it...

Grab both cheeks grow up to be a hero! (S. Pogorelovsky).

How does it happen bread, the same one we buy in the store every day? (Children's answers).

The teacher summarizes the children's answers with a story and a slide show "Where the bread has arrived?» :

1 slide. Grain growers already in winter they begin to think about the future harvest - they make snow retention so that there is a lot of moisture in the soil and more will grow of bread.

2 slide. Tractor drivers transport fertilizers to the field for future seedlings. Fertilizers for plants are like vitamins for children.

3 slide. In spring, tractors go out into the field. Tractor drivers have a lot work: you need to plow, loosen the soil - prepare a soft bed for the grains. No wonder They say: “Spring day feeds the year”.

4 slide. Seeders entered the plowed field, sowing in three rows at once. The grains fall straight into the ground. The fields are huge and can be quickly sown only with the help of technology.

5 slide. Then the tractor drivers harrow the sown field.

6 slide. Time passes, grains sprout from the ground, shoots appear, and now the entire field is covered in golden ears Grain fields are like the sea. The wind blows and the ears of corn sway like waves.

Slide 7 Autumn is coming. The ears became golden, the rye and wheat ripened. It's time to harvest the harvest. It is forbidden hesitate: the ears may fall off and the grains will fall to the ground. Harvesters are out in the field, cutting the ears and threshing them, separating the grains from the ears. Combine operators are rushing to harvest while the weather is good.

8 slide. The harvest has been harvested. Cars carry grain to a new home - a huge elevator where the grain is stored.

Slide 9 The grain is then sent to flour mills where it is ground into flour using electric mills. Flour is transported in special vehicles to bakeries and bakeries.

10 slide. Bakers bake from flour bread, loaves, rolls.

11 slide. Bread They bring special machines to stores. People buy in stores bread.

12 slide. Bread every person needs. Popular proverb reads: « Bread is the head of everything» . A lot of people work to bread arrived on our table. Needs to be protected bread. Bread is our wealth. Never quit bread! Take care of him!

Now let's play "Logical chain". (Children arrange the pictures in order, by numbers, to create a path to bread, as in the slide show).

Phys. just a minute: How many ears of corn are there in the field?

We'll take so many steps. (Walking to 10).

How big is the loaf?

Raise your hands higher! (Hands up and stretch).

Now bend down lower

How the wheat sways. (Bends to the sides).

How many tractors are there in the field?

Let's do so many jumps! (Jumping up to 6).

Bread- one of the greatest creations of human hands, the result of the labor of a farmer who raised a golden ear of precious grain. Tiny bread The grain contains many healthy minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates and protein. Truly, the seed of life! What shape is the grain? Let's collect a wheat ear from the grains.

The game is being played “Who will collect the ear of corn most quickly?” from geometric mosaic.

What proverbs and sayings do you know about bread?

Praise be to the hands that smell bread!

And lunch is not at lunch, if no bread!

- Bread - grandpa roll.

Buckwheat porridge is our mother, and bread rye - dear father!

Gold and silver are only stones, and wheat is a jewel!

Guys, let's play loaf and remember the professions of the people who work so that we eat tasty and healthy food every day bread.

A re-enactment is underway "Harvest Festival" (poetic text by T. Kolomiets, Russian text by V. Prikhodko).

Our great-grandfathers said: “Bread is the Gift of God.” But they did not bake it with thermophilic yeast, which appeared before the war. Since then, people have forgotten the taste of real bread. Moreover, they don’t remember that in the old days bread was always baked using sourdough. All components of the starter are exclusively of plant origin and cause the fermentation process.

The famous peasant sourdoughs (sourdough is a liquid dough fermented with hops, raisins with the addition of natural sugar or honey, white and red malt) were prepared from rye flour, barley, and wheat. It was these starters that enriched the body with vitamins, enzymes, biostimulants and, above all, saturated it with oxygen. Thanks to this, the human body became energetic, efficient, resistant to colds and other diseases.

Baking bread in folk cuisine was a kind of ritual. The secret of its preparation has been passed down from generation to generation. Almost every family had its own recipe.

We made bread about once a week using various sourdoughs: rye, oatmeal. Although the bread turned out to be coarser, the use of unrefined rye flour contributed to the preservation of all the beneficial substances contained in cereals. And when baked in a Russian oven, the bread acquired an unforgettable taste and aroma. Such bread will not become stale or moldy even after a year.

But for several decades now, bread has been baked differently. And for this they use not natural starters, but thermophilic yeasts invented by man, Saccharomycetes. The technology for their preparation is monstrous and anti-natural. The production of baker's yeast is based on its propagation in liquid nutrient media. Molasses is diluted with water, treated with bleach, acidified with sulfuric acid, etc. Strange methods, admittedly, are used to prepare a food product, moreover, considering that in nature there are natural yeasts, hop yeasts, for example, malt, etc. d.

This question cannot be ignored either. Where has the whole grain flour that our ancestors used to make bread gone?

Only whole grain flour contains B vitamins, micro- and macroelements and germ, which has fantastic healing properties. Refined flour is devoid of both the germ and the shell. Instead of these healing parts of grain created by nature, all kinds of food additives are added to flour, chemically created substitutes that can never fulfill what nature itself created.

It has been proven that only bread with hop sourdough contains all the essential amino acids, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins Bl, B7, PP; minerals: salts of sodium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, calcium, as well as trace elements: gold, cobalt, copper, which are involved in the formation of unique respiratory enzymes.

Apparently, it is no coincidence that ears of grain are called golden. Bread with hop sourdough gives the maximum juice effect, i.e. it actively extracts from the pancreas, liver, gall bladder enzymes and other substances necessary for complete digestion that improve intestinal motility. A person who consumes such bread is filled with energy, stops getting colds, his posture straightens, and his immunity is restored.

What to do?

— Return to baking bread with sourdough, which was used in ancient times and in the recent past! Bring back the millstones!

For thousands of years, grain grinding was carried out between stone graters and millstones. With this grinding method, there was no loss of high-quality substances - all valuable vitamins, aromatic substances and enzymes were preserved.

In the middle of the 19th century (1862), grinding between metal rollers (rotating at different speeds) was invented, and the entire complex process of grinding wheat grain in a modern varietal mill is aimed at separating the endosperm as best as possible (from which flour is now obtained ) from the germ, scutellum, aleurone (enzyme) layer, shells (bran). That is, the most valuable components of grain that play an extremely important role in human nutrition are removed and sent to waste for animal feed.

There are 18 of them in the embryo protein, including 10 essential ones (lysine, leucine, promine, arginine and others). For example, the content of biologically active substances tocopherols (vitamin E) in the germ is 30 times greater than in the grain.

A lack of vitamin E in the body causes serious metabolic disorders and infertility. All children are born with a low content of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K; a lack of vitamin E in mothers is the main cause of premature birth. When the expectant mother does not take vitamin E at all, the newborn's exposure to oxygen can cause the destruction of red blood cells and cause jaundice.

The shells (bran), which is fiber, remove organic dirt - excess gastric juice enzymes, bile acids, bilirubin, cholesterol. Bran helps normalize the intestinal flora - they adsorb pathogenic microorganisms, leaving E. coli alone, and normalize intestinal motility. In addition, bran is polysaccharides, the best food for our bifidobacteria: in 1 cm3 of gastric juice there are about 10 million bifidobacteria. Therefore, it is quite natural that when we unknowingly deprive bifidobacteria, which produce, for example, vitamin B12, of food, the mechanism of diabetes mellitus is triggered.

What is the value of grinding between stone millstones?

Firstly, and this is very important, after grinding the flour remains “alive” only for several days.

Secondly, the entire complex process of grinding wheat grain in a modern varietal mill is aimed at separating the endosperm (from which flour is now obtained) as best as possible from the germ, scutellum, aleurone (enzyme) layer, and shells (bran). That is, the most valuable components of grain that play an extremely important role in human nutrition were removed and sent to waste for animal feed, including vitamins.

When grinding between stone millstones, high-quality substances are not carried away - all valuable vitamins, aromatic substances and enzymes are preserved. A manual mill makes it possible to grind soft and hard varieties of wheat, rye, barley, oats, soybeans, amaranth, etc.

Barley is generally an amazing crop and, probably not coincidentally, barley is called the “arrow of light.” In ancient times, barley was fed to gladiators and slaves, that is, those who required, first of all, strength and endurance.

Rye is a natural medicine. In the old days in Rus' it was believed that eating rye increased vitality and lifted the mood. Rye has a general strengthening effect and normalizes metabolism. And the best of bread kvass is rye kvass. This is the most nutritious and biologically valuable drink of all existing today. It is no coincidence that this tasty and healthy drink was admired by foreigners traveling around Russia.

Wheat flour (cereal), obtained using this grinding method, has baking properties that cannot be obtained otherwise. In other words, a hand mill, having a service life of tens of years, will serve you, protecting the health of your family, for several generations.

HOW DOES BREAD GROW?

Repin I.E. “Ploughman L.N. Tolstoy on arable land,” 1887

1. Preparation

Preparing land for sowing is hard work. In ancient times, in most parts of Rus', powerful, impassable forests grew. The peasants had to uproot trees and free the soil from roots. Even flat areas near rivers were not easy to cultivate for sowing.

In order for the land to “come to life”, it was necessary to plow it, and more than once: first in the fall, then in the spring before sowing. In those ancient times they plowed plows or roe deer. These are simple tools that every peasant could make himself. Later the plow appeared, although it did not completely replace the plow.

The peasant decided what to plow. It depended on the soil. The plow was more often used on heavy fertile soils. Unlike the plow, the plow not only cut the layer of earth, but also turned it over. After the field is plowed, it needs to be “combed.” They did this using a harrow. Sometimes a spruce log with a large number of long knots was used as a harrow.

2. Sev

The year began in the spring. The life of the peasant largely depended on sowing. A harvest year means a comfortable, well-fed life. In lean years they had to go hungry. Peasants carefully stored seeds for future sowing in a cool, dry place so that they would not germinate ahead of time. They checked more than once whether the seeds were good. The grains were placed in water - if they did not float up, but sank to the bottom, then they were good. The grains should also not be stale, that is, stored no more than one winter, so that they have enough strength to cope with weeds.

In those days there were no weather forecasts, so the peasants relied on themselves and folk signs. We observed natural phenomena in order to start sowing on time.

Sowing day is one of the most important, but also the most solemn days in the agricultural year. That’s why the first sower went barefoot (his feet should have already been warm) into the field in a white or red (festive) shirt, with a basket of seeds hanging on his chest. He scattered the seeds evenly, with a “secret, silent prayer.” After sowing, the grain had to be harrowed. Peasants planted grain crops not only in spring, but also in autumn. Before the onset of severe cold, winter grains were sown. These plants had time to sprout and appear on the surface before winter.

3. Bread grows

From the moment a grain hits the ground, it strives to get out. The sun shines, warms the earth and gives warmth to the grain. In the warmth, the grain begins to germinate. But not only does the grain need warmth, it also needs to “drink and eat.” Mother earth can feed the grain. It contains all the necessary nutrients for the growth of grains.

In order for the grains to grow faster, the harvest to be larger, the land was fertilized. Fertilizers in those days were natural. The land was fertilized with manure, which accumulated over the year from raising livestock.

In the old days, June was also called grain harvest. The peasants even counted how many warm, bright days were needed for the grains to ripen: “Then, in 137 warm days, winter rye ripens and at the same number of degrees of heat, winter wheat ripens, but ripens more slowly, not earlier than 149 days.”

4. Harvest

Harvest is a responsible time. The peasants had to determine exactly the time when to start it, so that it would be on time and in good weather. And here the farmers watched everything and everyone: the sky, stars, plants, animals and insects.

The ripeness of the bread was checked by tooth: they tore the ears, dried them, and put them in the mouth: if the grains crunch, it means they are ripe.

The day the harvest began was called Zazhinki. Everyone took on the harvest together, the whole family went out into the field. And if they realized that they couldn’t handle the harvest themselves, they called for help.

The work was very difficult. I had to get up before dawn and go to the field. The most important thing was to harvest on time. Everyone forgot about their illnesses and sorrows. What you collect is what you live with all year. Harvesting is work, although hard, but bringing joy. If the rye grew tall and thick, they preferred to use a sickle, and low and sparse fields were mowed with a scythe. Mown plants were tied into sheaves.

5. Threshing grain

The peasants carefully calculated the timing of the harvest, and if the weather did not allow waiting for the grain to ripen, then it was harvested unripe. Green ears were also cut off in the northern regions, where they simply did not have time to ripen.

Usually the harvest was completed by the day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary - August 28 (August 15, old style). The popular name of this holiday is Spozhinki.

The sheaves were first transported to a barn or barn.

Barn is an outbuilding in which sheaves were dried before threshing. The barn usually consisted of a pit where the stove was located without a chimney, as well as an upper tier where sheaves were stored.

Riga – a building with a furnace for drying sheaves of bread and flax. Riga was larger than a barn. Up to 5 thousand sheaves were dried in it, while in a barn - no more than 500. Ripe grain was taken directly to the threshing floor - a fenced plot of land intended for storing, threshing and other processing of grain - and threshed there.

This was one of the most difficult stages of labor. Richer people tried to invite someone to help do this work.

And the work consisted of this: they took a beater (threshed) or a flail and hit the sheaves to “release” the grain. To obtain the best seeds and unbeaten straw, they used a sheaf against a barrel. Later, these methods began to be replaced by threshing using threshing machines, which were powered by horse or steam traction.

A special trade was created for threshers who worked on their machines for hire. The threshing of bread did not always happen immediately; sometimes this process was delayed; threshing was done in the fall and at the beginning of winter. After threshing, the grain was winnowed - usually standing in the wind with a shovel.

6. At the mill

Bread, as you know, is baked from flour. To obtain flour, the grain must be crushed - ground. The first tools for grinding grain were a stone mortar and pestle. Then they began to grind the grain rather than crush it.

The process of grinding grain was constantly improved. A significant step forward was the invention of the manual grinding mill. Its basis is millstones - two heavy plates between which grain was ground. The lower millstone was installed motionless. The grain was poured through a special hole in the upper millstone, which was driven by the muscular power of humans or animals. Large heavy millstones were rotated by horses or bulls. Grinding grain became easier, but the work was still hard.

The situation changed only after the water mill was constructed. In flat areas, the speed of river flow is low to rotate the wheel with the force of a water jet. To create the required pressure, the rivers were dammed, the water level was artificially raised and the stream was directed through a chute onto the wheel blades. Over time, the design of the mill was improved, windmills appeared, their blades were rotated by the wind. Windmills were built in areas where there were no bodies of water nearby. In some areas, millstones were set in motion by animals - horses, bulls, donkeys.

7. Baking bread

In ancient times, housewives baked bread almost every day. Usually the dough began to be kneaded at dawn. They put on clean clothes, prayed and got to work. The dough recipes were different, but the main components remained flour and water. If there was not enough flour, they bought it at the market.

To check the quality, the flour was tasted by tooth. They took a pinch of flour and chewed it, if the resulting “dough” stretched well and did not stick too much to your hands, then the flour was good.

Before kneading the dough, the flour was sifted through a sieve. The flour had to “breathe” during the sifting process.

In Rus' they baked black “sour” bread. It was called black because rye flour was used for its preparation, and it has a darker color than wheat. “Sour” – because sour starter was used.

Having kneaded the dough in a kneading bowl - a wooden tub - and formed rounded loaves, the hostess collected the remaining dough from the walls into a lump, sprinkled it with flour and left it for leavening until the next time. The finished dough was sent to the oven.

Stoves in Rus' were special. They heated the room, baked bread on them, cooked food, slept, sometimes even washed and treated themselves. They put the bread in the oven with prayer. Under no circumstances should you swear or quarrel with anyone while the bread is in the oven. Then the bread won't work.

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