First of all, about the stone mill
Looking through the relevant information, the stone mill was invented by Lu Ban, with a history of at least two thousand years. It consists of two identical short cylindrical stones and a millstone, and grinds various grains by rotating the upper fan and the lower fan of the extrusion mill. It embodies the wisdom of predecessors and the sustenance of generations of history. Stone mill is an ancient craft and culture, which has been passed down from ancient times to the present.
When I was a child, I heard from my elders that the stone mill was an indispensable tool for rural farmers. Most of them are made by exquisite masons, and ordinary masons can't grind them out. According to relevant information, the material of the stone mill is mostly solid stones selected by masons from the mountains. First, use a hammer and chisel to carve out two circular plane grinding pieces, namely, the upper fan and the lower fan of the stone mill (also called yin-yang fan). The lower fan is a fixed disk, the upper fan is a rotating disk, and grinding holes are drilled on the disk to facilitate the leakage of grain. Masons cut tooth-like texture on the contact surface of two grinders, which is convenient for grinding. In the process of machining, particles enter the contact surface of two grinding plates from the grinding eye of the upper fan and move outward along the regular texture. After two stone mills, they are ground one by one and ground into powder. The upper fan stone mill is also chiseled with two symmetrical grinding rod holes, which are used to fix wooden sticks during push-pull grinding.
Second, the stone mill was once a common food processing tool for farmers.
In my memory, our old house is a house with three rooms, four halls and one ditch. My family shares a house with several uncles. There was a stone mill in the hall at that time. Because the hall is shared by several families, so is the stone mill. This stone mill is about 60 cm in diameter, made of rock and weighs about 200 kg. The stone mill is placed in the middle of several wooden shelves made of Chinese fir. The wooden shelf is very strong, and the stone mill on it rotates, so the wooden shelf won't shake at all. Although the stone mill is simple and rough, it is the most labor-intensive. All corn, wheat, sorghum and rice that need to be ground in the house must be transformed into food through its labor. You can say that.
At that time, our farm dishes were all ground one by one, and the main form was manual traction grinding. During traction grinding, the grinding handle is sleeved on the buckle made of two brown ropes suspended on the cross beam, and the smooth shaft of the grinding hook is inserted into the wooden handle of the fan on the grinding machine. People stand behind the grinding hook, grasp the handle with both hands to do push-pull repetitive actions, and the stone mill moves in a circular motion under the action of the grinding hook. Generally speaking, it takes at least one person to push and pull, both left and right.
I remember that it was during the people's commune, and everyone who had labor during the day had to participate in collective production. This is a common thing. Every household uses the morning and evening mill. Every morning or evening, the rhythmic rumble of the stone mill will wake us up from a sweet sleep, but we are not upset, because the stone mill is turning, and the next day we will have food.
When I was a child, my mother mainly did the task of grinding flour at home. Every day after dinner, my mother always drags her tired body to do it, and sometimes she asks her brother to help. At that time, three meals a day for six or seven people in the whole family had to be slowly ground out of the stone mill. With the growth of age, I don't know when I started to take the lead. After many trainings, I got the gist. First of all, I should adjust my pace and posture. Secondly, I want to be single-minded, have endurance and tenacity, and learn to lead. I feel very happy, because I can also help adults do some housework.
Every New Year, the houses in my hometown are very lively, and the atmosphere of the New Year is very strong. Rice flour sorghum mill, next to every household. Everyone helps each other and is very busy. The long rotating sound of the stone mill and people's laughter constitute a very harmonious prelude to the Spring Festival.
Third, unusual stone mill workshops.
1, manually rotate the push-pull mill
When we were young, we often pushed the mill, which was customarily called pulling mill. This can be seen everywhere in Chongming rural areas, but we rarely see the scene of pushing and shoving around the stone mill like northerners. I remember when I was about ten years old, our children often went to Bangzhen together and passed Guo's home in Xicheng. I was surprised to see Guo's manpower pushing and pulling the mill. The Guo family is a street-facing house, and the house is not big, so it can only use a push-pull mill, which covers a limited area. On the upper plate of the stone mill, a wooden stick is fixed horizontally. One end of the stick is tied with a belt for pulling on the shoulder. The Guo brothers pulled forward with a shoulder strap on their shoulders, and the other abdomen pushed forward against the crossbar, constantly entering the grinding eyes. As the two brothers bow forward in tandem, the millstone sometimes sings happily and sometimes groans heavily, and it goes on and on.
2. Buffalo grinding
In my memory, I am most interested in buffalo grinding, also called cow grinding. Cattle mill is to pull the cow into the corner of the mill, blindfold it, insert the grinding rod into the eye of the stone mill, then tie the cow rope to the grinding rod, add food and start grinding.
Cow pulling mills are rare in rural areas. In the early 1960s, I was only four or five years old. I often go to the office of Maqiao Caiyuan Brigade to see the cow mill. There is a big auditorium in the office. There is a stone mill in the center of the auditorium, and there is a bean product workshop next to the auditorium. Before the cow's pulling began, the workshop master put a reins on the cow and covered the cow's eyes with a cloth. At this time, with the shouts of the owner, the cow began to pull the grinding piece and kept grinding around the big stone. I didn't understand what it was at that time. I didn't know until later that the cow's eyes were blindfolded. When it couldn't see the light, it would circle around the stone mill. This is the physiological characteristic of cow broaching.
3. Rare small stone mill
When I was a child, I still remember a rare hand-cranked small stone mill, which was mainly used to grind red bean paste or soybean milk, and a few people used it to make water-milled glutinous rice balls and water-milled rice cakes, which were usually seen before the Spring Festival, so only the more particular families had it.
Before making a water mill, mix japonica rice and glutinous rice in proportion, then soak them in clear water for a period of time, and put a small pool on the floor of the hall at home. This small pool is a facility for grinding juice, so it will take several hours to finish grinding water.
To start grinding, first put the soaked rice in a wooden basin for several times, then the peasant woman sat next to the millstone, added the rice mixed with water to the millstone eyes again and again with a small spoon, and another person pushed the millstone in front. At that time, the rotating sound of the millstone sounded very harmonious and beautiful. With the rhythmic sound of the millstone, all the white rice flour juice flows into the small pool prepared in advance, and there are thick gauze towels or other water-absorbing things under the small pool. Generally, the water in the rice noodle juice in the small pool is drained every other night, so that the ground rice noodles can be made into rice cakes or glutinous rice balls. Grind red bean paste and soybean milk in the same way.
Fourth, the stone mill needs to be chiseled frequently.
Sharpening a knife is not a mistake for a woodcutter. The stone mill has been grinding for a long time and needs to be chiseled. The stone teeth are deep and concave, and the grinding speed is faster. Every spring, the elders in the family will ask the masons to carve the stone mill again. Masons hold a small hammer in one hand and an iron chisel in the other. According to the grain of the stone mill, they carve stones on the stone mill hammer by hammer. The stone splashed in the stonemason's hand, and sparks splashed under the iron chisel.
In my memory, my cousin Chen Feixiang, who lives in the town east of Panlong, is a skilled stonemason. In the free time after the Spring Festival, my uncle and brother-in-law invited Chen Dage to carve a stone mill. After breakfast, the mill in the hall also moved to the open space. At this time, Chen Dage also came. He took out hammers and chisels, big and small, from his backpack and kept working, tinkling, tinkling, and even the house next door could hear the sound. Many onlookers knew that Shi Jia was in the mill, and they all came. Everyone marveled at Chen Dage's skillful skills, but Big Brother always chiseled without looking up, like a finely crafted craftsman. After lunch, Chen Dage kept on his way. He will carefully chisel with a small nail and hammer according to the texture on the stone mill, and constantly remove the stone powder and stone particles from the mill. It was not until the evening that the tinkling sound gradually stopped.