The Real Seed Catalogue

The best vegetable seeds for the Kitchen Garden

Processing Grain with a Rubber Mat

This is one way we have found to process small quantities of grain quickly and easily. We used a rubber doormat with little bumps on it, if you don't have one you could try using the mats from your car - any mat with a deep texture on it should work well.

This does work best on a clean, tiled or lino floor, as you can then sweep up and reuse any bits that escape.

Here we are using Spelt, but it works well for Oats, Wheat etc as well.

All you do is wash the mat and your shoes, then roll the grains around on the mat with your foot.

We are only doing a small quantity here to make it clearer, but you can do much more at a time.

Now pour the mixture through a 1/4 inch riddle into a big bowl - only the clean seed and tiny bits of chaff will fall through.

If there are lots of grains still in their husks they will be caught in the riddle and you can put them back on the mat and stomp on them some more.

In the picture the wind is coming from right to left.

You can see how the chaff has blown away onto the ground at the bottom left, while the denser grain is less affected by the wind and has gone into the bowl.

Repeat this 3 or 4 times to get rid of all the chaff.

If the wind blows stronger, pour from lower down.

The first time you try this, do it over a plastic sheet, so that you can try again when you miss! It is very easy to get the hang of it though.