Today Chris Jenkin dropped over their winnowing machine for the ‘This Land’ event that will take place at Kestle Barton this weekend. The Landrivick Winnowing Machine is possibly more than 120 years old.
The beautiful wooden contraption would have been used to separate grain from chaff as well as to get rid of pests from stored grain. Winnowing would take place after threshing and is a technique developed by ancient cultures. A handle at one end is turned to make the fan spin and blow out the chaff. Shaking sieves at the other end allowed the machine to dress the grain by grading it and getting rid of small stones, dirt and seeds.
