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The thresher or thrasher machine uses its drums and shakers to separate grains from the stalks and the husks. In other words, it separates the wheat from the chaff.
Threshing was done by hand for thousands of years before the machine was invented. The wheat sheaves were laid on the ground and beaten with flails. The remnants were then thrown into the air from baskets to separate the loosened chaff from the grain. This was slow, hard work. It kept a great number of people in work.
So when the threshing machine was invented and came into use in the 18th century, it was seen as a threat to the livelihoods of the agricultural workers. In Kent and Sussex, and later as far as the Midlands, farm workers set out the destroy the machines. These riots were called the Swing Riots and part of the anti-machinery Luddite movement.
The first threshers were set in the barn. But when a horse or engine could be used to power the machine, it meant that the thresher could be taken into the fields.
Jean Francois Millet: The Winnower
 Kamut flour is often connected with Ancient Egypt and its Pharoahs. The word kamut is one of the Ancient Egyptian words for wheat and was recently put to use as a brand name, a modern registered trademark, for the flour. But the grain’s other name, Khorasan, comes from the Ancient Persian province meaning where the sun arrives from. It grew in the fertile area between Mesopotamia and Egypt and hasn’t been bred over time, like many other grains.
The bread is whole grain, dense and cake-like.
500 g of Kamut Flour (Waitrose, health food shop)
Half a teaspoon of salt
1tsp of Easy bake yeast
1 tsp of sugar (honey?)
375 ml warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
Mix all the dry ingredients together.
Stir in the warm water then knead vigorously. Leave until it has doubled in size (about an hour).
Knock back the dough, add the oil and knead it in until it is incorporated.
Transfer dough into an oiled 2llb bread tin. Let it double in size (around 30 minutes)
Bake in a pre heated oven for 35-40 mins.
It is quick if you mix and knead with a food processor, and leave the dough to rise for the first time in the processor’s bowl.
Where did this come from? : A recipe on the side of the packet.
500g / 1lb Spelt flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil
15 g easy bake yeast
400 ml warm water — (35-40C)
1 tsp honey
Grease an oblong loaf tin. Preheat the oven to 180C, 370F
Mix flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl.
Rub in the oil.
Dissolve the honey in the warm water.
Add the honey water and mix for three minutes in using a wooden spoon, with the bowl in your lap.
Place the dough in the tin and cover with a tea towel, tent-like, allowing room for the dough to expand.
Leave to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size.
Bake for 35 minutes and cool on a wire rack.
Very good toasted.
A quick way to make this is to use a food processor with a steal blade (or a dough hook, which I haven’t tried).
Where did this come from? : Abbie Norris
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