What Is A Riddle?

Gottcha, didn't I?  You thought I was going to give you some cute, funny riddle you can take to your friends tomorrow-hehe.

This is a neat thing, I was looking at colonial time tools that were used on farms of the time.  I saw, in a list of old time tools, a riddle.  Of course I thought, what is a riddle?  Well, I found out and now I 'm going to share it with you.

Here is the short answer: A riddle is a large sieve used to separate soil or compost particles, or for separating soil from vegetables.


The word is an English word that comes from the middle English ridell.  It simply means "course sieve".  They are usually circular, made of Beachwood with a metal, hand woven wire mesh in the middle.  They are, generally 18 inches in diameter and have a mesh anywhere from 1/2" to 1 1/2".

They are used by gardeners to improve soil quality by removing unwanted material. 

There you go, how can something like this be applied on your homestead?