Photo shows modern day rice drying using plastic sheets on a farm in Bario. Rice grains must be well dried and stored. Milling is done as and when needed as no preservatives are used in the rural areas of Sarawak. Bulk buying and storage of local indigenous rice is not advisable as the milled rice without chemical preservatives cannot remain fresh long. Weevils will start crawling around the milled rice in the jars.
this is a traditional Foochow wooden rice mill in a rural setting (Changle), a photo I took when I went to visit Fujian a few years ago. I remember the fragrance of rice being milled and the different bags of rice, and husk. Family owned and probably home made milling machines are still found all over Fujian as people treasure their farm equipment since time immemorial.
And here is a photo in Long Terabungan, where my friend's sister in law mills her home grown Adan rice. She mills her rice whenever rice is needed to keep the family's rice supply fresh. Such a mini rice milling machine is made in China and is fitted in a small hut right in the middle of their family rice plot.
My grandfather and his Wong relatives owned Hua Hong Ice and Rice Mill for years and the factory made good money from rice milling and ice production, even throughout the Japanese Occupation. The factory was sold only in 1956.
Grandfather sold milled rice too but he sold more the rice husks, a by product of rice milling to farmers who reared chickens, ducks and pigs. It was cash and carry business deal as he did not like to be owed money by anyone.
My aunts remember that fresh husks had a special aroma and boiling the husks to make a health drink was medically a good treatment for beri beri. They all agreed that there were a lot of vitamins in this special health drink during the Japanese Occupation. My grandfather and great grandfather encouraged the consumption of this health drink. May be that was the reason why my aunts, uncles and even my father did not suffer from beri beri during the war.
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