SC - Candied Citrus Peel

[Stefan li Rous]

Puck asks tongue in cheek:
does
> > anyone have documentation for period methods of seperating wheat from
> > chaff?
> > ;-)
> > 
To whit, I respond (never able to pass up an opportunity to pass on wierd
esoteric medieval agriculture info that real medieval people would have
known):

You bet! There's tons of pictures. The grain is cut and bound into sheaves.
The sheaves are transported to a large barn area, where the stalks are laid
out on the floor. The stalks are beat with flails by sweaty men usually
stripped to their small clothes (woo woo!). The grain, is then scooped up
into winnowing baskets and fluffled, facing into the wind. The grain, being
heavier settles back into the basket, while the chaff, being so much bran
gets blown by the wind back into the shed. There's a medieval epithet "he
winnows his grain into the wind", ie not conserving the bran which can be
mixed with grain and fed to livestock, in other words, the guy is wasteful.

The grain is stored in bags and taken to the mill for grinding. Once ground
to flour, the flour is passed through a series of boulting cloths, ie
cloths of finer and finer weave to sift out the germ and other
non-white-flour bits. The more boulting, the finer and whiter the flour.
The whitest was reserved for the lords bread and for the Host.

As always, sources for the above information available on request. :)
- --Anne-Marie, who is horrified at the city slickers in the SCA and how they
dont know where their food comes from! :)

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