Traditional Greek Sesame Seed Harvest

Unless your Greek is a lot better than mine, you probably won’t understand what’s spoken, but these are still fascinating videos of a traditional Greek sesame seed harvest.

The seed pods on sesame plants suddenly open and throw their seeds when they mature, so in order to harvest the seeds you have to, well, do what these guys are doing. This is where the expression ‘Open Sesame’ comes from.

In these videos they leave the plants to dry for 8 days each in two different kinds of stacks. In the Greek climate, they sow seeds between 20 May and 10 June, and the harvest is between 15 August to 15 September.

Thanks to Mary who provided the links and translations of the details above.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

4 Replies to “Traditional Greek Sesame Seed Harvest”

  1. just another note

    at the end they throw the sessame from high and the wind takes the small dry leaves or other materials. with this way it remains only the sesame. The broom makes the same job

    hmhmhm what else? they sow 400grams per acre (4000 square metres). The easy eway for the old farmers to weight the 400grams was to throw the sesame 12-13 times with their handful.

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