Mills small memories of prose essays

In the early years of rural rice and flour processing, mainly rely on stone mills and stone grinding. The steel mill processing corn grits, sweet potato noodles, in our village is the early 1970s.

The earliest steel mill in memory is located in the second production team at the east end of the village. At that time in the team site of the three cowsheds east and then connected to an adobe house, the steel mill is arranged in this one-room house. The old universal electric mill, driven by an electric motor, mainly grinding corn grits, dried yam noodles, beans and miscellaneous noodles.

At that time, there was no roller milling machine for processing wheat flour in the village. In those years, the village folks could hardly eat much white flour, because at that time the wheat yield was very low, the planting of wheat is also less, wheat flour is the expensive fine grain. Wheat flour milling, still with the old stone mill and stone mill.

The emergence of the steel mill, to the traditional way of life has brought welcome changes, not only liberated people by pushing the mill pounding grinding intense labor, but also for people to save a lot of time. Universal steel mill grinding flour, divided into the use of coarse Luo and fine Luo two processing methods. Sometimes the head of the family also sends some wheat to the mill, and the miller will change the fine Luo for processing, and grind it into whole wheat flour without bran. This whole-wheat flour is a bit loose, and although the rice has a crisp wheat flavor, it tastes like it has some of the bran's faggy flavor, and the dumpling pinch can't be rolled out to a tough, tight skin, not as strong as the flour milled by the stone mills.

The traditional stone mill stone mill processing wheat, wheat bran will be coarse Luo sieve out, the flour is fine, strong, strong, unlike the electric milling processing of high temperature will be burned to the flexibility of the flour. Therefore, the traditional stone mill stone milling flour, with the original flavor of wheat, strong viscous soft, hand-rolled noodles pulling, cooked and eat also strong smooth, wheat flavor, than the electric milling processed flour is much more delicious.

Later, the flour milling of the second squad was canceled, and it was converted into a brigade mill, which was located on the south side of the road not far to the west of the second squad's team site. During this period of time, they began to add a new grinding machine, single mill roller mill, bran separation, mill placed in a Dongzhuang Road South Jiajia Hutong Road west of the west house. I remember in my teens, there were a few years of grinding noodles, and then grinding noodles in that slip of the west house, began to gradually collapse from south to north roof, the northernmost mill did not wait for the collapse of the move.

The mill was moved to an old unused house on the west side of the crossroads, belonging to the seventh and eighth production teams, which cooperated in grinding noodles. Not long after, this mill was closed. The exact reason is not known, it may be that the mill is not profitable or due to other things. I remember that the production team used the universal mill to process a lot of sweet potato blocks from spring rice-planting, which were ground up and made into dough, and then processed into dry vermicelli by boiling, leaking, and drying in a cauldron.

After the village east of the third team site near a household open mill, originally four teams, and then contracted to an individual and sold to his family, the flour milling point also opened a few years. At that time, due to the miller eager to get rich as soon as possible, regardless of professional conduct, resulting in many grinding flour households complained until out of the game. Later, it was replaced by a mill on the east side of the road south of Cross Street. A few years later, the business was closed and moved. Then it was replaced by a mill on the west side of the south side of the street, which was in the late 1980s. This family began processing corn and wheat, and then stopped the flour mill, only using the universal mill to process corn and other coarse grains, wheat flour processing tasks mainly rely on the south end of the road east of a new mill to complete. Then later wheat processing into the new Henan double milling machine, grinding fast, flour quality is also good, the manufacturer is also responsible for the assembly. My village has also been on a set of double mill, did not grind a year or two, neighboring villages, large-scale flour mills have begun to operate, people will begin to change the face. Grinding less and less people, the village of wheat processing soon stopped, leaving only a corn processing site. After entering the new century, the village corn processing site also began to shut down, the miller went out to work, the processing task of corn grits by the neighboring villages in the south of the two mills to assume up.

The two mills in the neighboring village to the south used to be located not far from the center of the street. One is on the street, and the other is located on the north side of the road, thirty-four meters west of the center of the street. Some years ago, grinding grits and rice, I love to the street of the old man's mill to go, mainly because of this mill is close to the street, with the mill owner gradually familiar, and then this mill in the street, the location of the good. But recently this half a year, this mill basically shut down, occasionally processing some chicken and pig feed, grinding grits and rice milling old machinery and equipment failure did not repair. The miller is old, already eighty years old. Several of his sons also do not advocate him to engage in rice and flour processing. The miller is still idle, so do some sporadic abrasive work, to pass the leisure time, business is also gradually down.

The west side of the street, the original business is good, this time no rivals, business is more hot. This household miller is now sixty years old hanging zero, husband and wife have been cooperating in the mill processing rice and noodles, business is booming, hospitality enthusiasm, technology is exquisite, very much a milling professional expertise, recruiting guests are also more. Near and far the grinding of rice in admiration, satisfaction and return, reputation far and wide around. Even Linxian also some guests drive dozens of miles to this grinding, mainly for its green unadulterated pure grain processing, for the sake of health and well-being.

The miller's name is Hongwu, whose name harmonizes with the founding year of Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, "Hongwu". So, the name was memorized for the first time. The grinding time of his family should be the longest in all the neighboring villages, and according to him, it has been forty years. I remember when I was a teenager and went to this neighboring village to grind noodles, he was the miller. Because of the many years of grinding, and people are smart and capable, they are recognized as the grinding expert of the small mill.

The farmer's shrewd man, who is familiar with rural electrician, machinery, planting, breeding and other aspects of craftsmanship, has his own set of knowledge and views on the world of human physics. Maybe it is the reason why practice makes perfect, his craft of grinding flour is very skillful, fine point in place. In addition to his familiarity and knowledge of rice and fodder processing, he is also very good at farming. His small yard is also a small farm. Pigs, sheep, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, pigeons and other animals and birds, all in that small yard settled, and produced a lot of auxiliary economic benefits. He and his partner are very diligent farmers, children are now separated from another, but their small yard always a few gradually growing children together, inseparable, these several generations of people is the small master of the small yard. All kinds of small toys, strollers, skateboards and other small things that children like are placed in the yard in an unobtrusive corner, and schoolbags and workbooks also accompany the children to occupy a suitable place in the yard. When you come to this small courtyard to grind flour and rice, you always feel that the courtyard is full of warm and lovely atmosphere.

On the sixteenth day of the first month of the year, I brought more than thirty pounds of corn to grind grits. This just after the Lantern Festival in the morning, but not as usual, as soon as you approach the hutong where the mill is located, there is the sound of grits gusts, sent into the ear drums. Today's rare quiet indicates that most people are not yet short of rice and flour. Since it was not long after the New Year, there were indeed not many `households' like mine who came here in a hurry to grind grits. I also because in Baoding City, Xushui District Exploration Bureau of the third uncle home, want to ask him to bring some old resonance over the skin of the corn grits back to the city porridge or steam a small nest head, so-called back to basics to improve the food. The first time I saw this is when I was in the middle of the night, and I was in the middle of the night when I was in the middle of the night.

Slightly clean yard door flashing open, the two-wheeled tram traveling to the door of this small yard for a moment, the dog barking, goose honking, reminding the head of the household someone to visit. This two years ago against the south wall and the west wall full of fat pigs and sows of the pigsty, this time no longer fat pig grunts and fighting grunts and small piglets for milk and squeaking squeal after squeal. Instead, it is filled with poultry and pigeons.

The south wall of the pigsty netting dozens of domesticated woodchucks, the top is also covered with plastic sheeting on the roof in order to keep warm. The pigsty on the west wall has a few cages, a combination of circles and cages, and dozens of pigeons on the top and around the perimeter with wire mesh. Pigeons of different breeds, basically belong to the domestic pigeons and so on, or have a larger frame species, guessing that the pigeons and the King's crossbreeding offspring of the King's meat pigeons. The color of pigeon's feather has pure white, tile gray, bright son, fish scale, peach and miscellaneous hair vary, tile gray pigeons are mostly. The pigeons leisurely chase and play in the paradise to which they belong, cooing endlessly.

Not far from the pigeon cage is the dog cage, where an adult yellow dog stands and welcomes visitors with a bark. The north side of the four ordinary residential house, in front of the two stools high cement lanai, the west side of the south is an open tent, where the processing of fodder is housed in the universal mill with the matching three-phase motors and weighing of a bench weighing. On the east side of the yard, there are three east houses facing the west, which are accessible and have no partition wall, and there is a mill for processing rice and noodles.

The door of the mill is pasted with a handwritten spring couplet, which is written by an old middle school teacher in Linxian County, 20 miles to the north. Last year, the mill owner's house door spring couplets, is this through the introduction of relatives, the name of this milling of the middle school teacher to give. This relative passes on a relative's noodle grinding guests, preferring the Liu style ink, pay attention to the penmanship neatly, line ink regular handwriting. He came here in the past two years to grind noodles, convinced that the original double-body roller milling green pollution-free, that this by their own look at the flour milled, eat frankly, no additives and talcum powder worry, with their own home-grown wheat, did not use highly toxic pesticide residues. So he was thankful in the vicinity of the neighborhood there is such a credible mill, and the miller's processing technology is first-class, grinding out the flour dry and wet reasonable, very well thought out. For example, the lunar calendar noodle neither show burning, and will not return to the moisture, to maintain the time is also durable, strong and pliable noodle good, panned wheat processing to remove the impurities is also clean. So thankful, in the annual festival before the heart of the ink, write a good spring couplet gratuitous delivery to the red five mill to show friendship and praise, and spring couplet language is also based on the main house gate and the mill face personally editorial handle, very relevant and very warm heart. Undoubtedly, the miller's family also feel very honored, and other guests praise the teacher's virtues.

The miller, Hongwu, came out of the house to talk to me and asked me if I resonated with the skin as he put the corn I had brought down from the trolley on a bench scale. Since I brought stale corn and was giving it away, I chose the resonance peeling process. In fact, for health reasons, coarse grains without resonance skin is better, but the taste is a bit rougher, and the texture is not as crisp as resonance skin.

After the appointment, the first resonance skin machine for the first resonance skin process, chaff and grain skin with the resonance skin mill buzz was thrown to the side of an exit, while the fine grain particles are put into a large iron tank, stop the resonance skin mill, and then start processing fine grain corn grits. After the grinding stopped, the processed corn grits were put into small flour bags that had been brought along beforehand, and the brown hulls were left behind, with the processing fee waived and the two not looking for payment. This brown skin and do not take away the bran and other fine grains, I think it should be used as pigeons and woodchucks loose feed, I also save the trouble to take away. Two birds with one stone, and both sides benefit.

From the mill house out, and then appreciate that send couplets to the teacher's neat Liu body pen and ink, in front of the mill owner red five complimented a few words of the teacher's elegance of the ink, but also admired the person's appropriate rhetoric. At this moment, he also came from the mood, randomly say a mill door couplets, as follows:

Vertical couplet: "rice and flour processing to benefit the surrounding people, milling exquisite dedication near and far neighbors."

The square couplet of the two door fans: "Grinding fine noodles and rice, prospering the family business and attracting wealth."

The crossword: "Rice and noodles are fragrant."

2018-03-27 at 11:04 pm