Threshing place - a donkey is made to walk in the circles on a straw put on a concrete surface. This separates the grain (some remainings still visible in the middle of the place) from the chaff (left of the picture) and straw (around the perimeter) - Santorini, Greece
Threshing is the process of beating cereal plants in order to separate the seeds or grains from the straw. Although once done by hand using a flail on a threshing floor, this tiring task is now mostly done by machine. Threshing is one of the tasks a combine harvester performs, along with harvesting the plant and cleaning the grains. In some places, it is common to see plants spread along the surface of country roads so the grain may be threshed by the wheels of passing vehicles. Although threshing removes the straw and the chaff, it does not remove the bran.
See also
Threshing with hand flails, Great Britain, c. 1750.
