I was fascinated by the device in this video I saw this morning. In the picture above, the rolling cage is being used to de-spine dragon fruit but it also works for separating out fine material from coarser (or unfinished) bits in compost, like I was doing last weekend. I’ve been using a riddle, a large metal sieve, which works pretty well but it is quite slow, hard work. Rolling it in a cage looks like an excellent solution, particularly with this design, where the feet can fit on the sides of a wheelbarrow to catch the results.

Although the video comes from Australia, it looks like the device comes from the USA. is sold out. Unfortunately it is pricier than I expected for a simple machine, no overseas shipping is mentioned and it is presently sold out. Reading round the site, I think the original inspiration probably came from this Instructable, on building a hand-powered trommel soil shifter. It looks like trommel is the technical name for this kind of device and most of the ones you can buy are expensive, industrial machines.

I think I’ll keep an eye open for materials available to me with which I can possibly construct something similar. Watch this space (although don’t hold your breath – it could take a while!).