Processing Cereal Grains
This photo of harvest time in a village in India shows
some of the processes necessary to prepare cereal grains like wheat for
use. The same techniques have been employed since ancient times. At right,
a kind of sled is being pulled by oxen over the harvested grain to separate
the hard, compact seeds from the unusable plant material of the hulls and
stalks of the wheat. Sometimes this threshing of the grain is achieved
by flailing piles of grain with a club or by treading on it. In the background
at left, a man is winnowing the threshed grain by tossing it into
the air with a shovel: gravity returns the heavier grains to the pile at
his feet while a breeze separates the light chaff and blows it away.