In the centre of the olive grove, in the bottom of the valley, is a bare scrubby patch of land, slightly-raised above the olives, which is never touched. It is an ancient threshing floor. When we bought the house we were told that the threshing patch should be left unploughed. It’s a patch of exposed bare rock, on a slight slope to prevent water gathering after rain. In winter it is covered with grass and weeds, in summer it is burnt gold. We guess the patch is raised above the land around it so the wind could help with the winnowing, the separating of the grain from the chaff, once the threshing had been done. As I understand it, the sheaves of grain would be loosened and spread across the threshing floor. Then people, donkeys or horses would walk round and round, tearing the ears of grain from the stalks and loosen the grain from the husks. After this, the broken stalks and grain would be collected and thrown into the air so the dusty chaff would be blown away by the wind. The short straw would fall some distance away, to be gathered later, and the grain would fall onto the threshing patch.
5 to remember
una era – the threshing floor
el grano – the grain
el tallo – the stalk
la paja – the straw
el burro – the donkey

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Chaff, grain & dust: how wheat was treated in #Spain via @Spanish_Valley http://wp.me/p3dYp6-9N