Lentils, Garbanzo Beans and Everything In Between: A peak at a farmer’s harvest as USA Pulses aims to double production and consumption of legumes

The dust stirred from the combine harvesting fields of chickpeas, charging

forward like an auburn tsunami barreling across the scenic fields of the Palouse.

On a Saturday morning in late August, farmer Ian Clark

shifted his gaze back and forth along the header –

the front of the combine that gobbles up garbanzos from the field – to check for rocks or anything hazardous that could damage his 40,000-pound

crop-cutting behemoth. Clark, 35, scanned every inch of the header to make sure it didn’t tip too far one way or the other. He also checked to see if the combine was swallowing too much dirt, which could cause the draper, essentially a conveyor belt leading chickpeas to the grain tank, to jam. The sickles of the combine cut much closer to the ground for garbanzos then they would for wh