Winnowing

In its simplest form, it involves throwing the mixture into the air so that the wind blows away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grains fall back down for recovery.

[1] Dionysus Liknites ("Dionysus of the winnowing fan") was wakened by the Dionysian women, in this instance called Thyiades, in a cave on Parnassus high above Delphi; the winnowing-fan links the god connected with the mystery religions to the agricultural cycle, but mortal Greek babies too were laid in a winnowing-fan.

In Saxon settlements such as one identified in Northumberland as Bede's Ad Gefrin [4] (now called Yeavering) the buildings were shown by an excavator's reconstruction to have opposed entries.

[7] The development of the winnowing barn allowed rice plantations in South Carolina to increase their yields dramatically.

In 1737 Andrew Rodger, a farmer on the estate of Cavers in Roxburghshire, developed a winnowing machine for corn, called a 'Fanner'.