Saturday, February 24, 2018

24/02/2018 A visit to a nut oil producing water mill

Maximum temperature today 8C, minimum -4C.  Dry, but total rain since 1 Jan is now 279 mm; 13 km/h North Easterly winds with up to 29 km/h gusts.

Winter trees but the ivy remains green!


as above.


Driving through Pont d'Agris.


Logging.


Arrival at the mill.

The river Argence runs both sides of the mill, this is near the entrance...


and on the other side...


with the sluice gates.


The water wheel...


as above.  The wheel is 4.55 metres (14'11") in diameter and 0.77 (2'6")metres in width. It also generates electricity.

Inside walnuts being manually cracked to remove the kernels... 


The mill wheel inside...


the stone wheel that crushes the walnut kernels...

The wheel in action crushing the kernels,,,


the crushed kernels are then heated here, there is a fire burning underneath...


and here they are extracting the oil into the bucket.  We were allowed to taste the warm oil and it was delicious. 


We did not see this machine in action but we wonder if this is what cracks the shells mechanically rather than manual labour with a hammer!

Here are some very short videos of the machinery in action.  With our slow connection it took some time to down load them so I hope they help to give you some idea of the what is going on...

The stone crushing the kernels as they are tipped in.  The lady was telling the child to get back as he was getting too close!!!

As above.



For those that have been following our trip to Nevis the 4 and final part of our holiday is HERE.

19 comments:

  1. Whenever I visit Europe and see these old mills they fascinate me to no end. At one time, of course, they were the life blood of some communities.

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    Replies
    1. We did a tour of 5 mills a couple of years ago ranging from flour to different oils and beer making. This year we just picked one that we had not seen before and it was much better plan. The elderly couple who live and run the mill were delightful, and of course there was plenty of oil, and some other mill products from elsewhere on sale. Cheers Diane

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  2. Love it! Thank you so much for these beautiful pics.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Aritha and glad you enjoyed this tour. All the very best and good wishes to Ralph. Diane

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  3. They are making oil from the walnuts? I have not heard of walnut oil. How fascinating!

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    Replies
    1. They seem to make oil from all nuts here, I have both walnut and hazel nut oil in the house for use. Cheers Diane

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  4. Replies
    1. It certainly is and it is still supplying oil. If we want any oil (we did buy some) they said just phone and order. Hope all is well. T'other Diane

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  5. This was fascinating. I wish I could have seen the oil being extracted.

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    Replies
    1. The short videos were the best I could do. Our WiFi connection is so slow and even these took a long time to download. Have a good day Diane

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  6. Love the blue skies in these pics and kudos to the people maintaining such old traditions for us to see how life was like in the past.

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    Replies
    1. Blue skies are a bonus but with it comes the chill and heavy frosts. For these people it is not even like life in the past it is still a working mill. Cheers Diane

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  7. So very interesting! Love your photos, Diane.

    Hope you're having a good day.

    (p.s yes my daughter is home and improving every day. thanks for caring)

    xoxo

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    Replies
    1. It was very interesting to see it all happening and to be able to taste the fresh oil. So pleased that your daughter is on the mend. Take care and have a good week. Diane

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  8. How very interesting. Must take a lot of nuts and be rather expensive oil.

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    Replies
    1. Gaelyn it is not cheap but a small bottle goes quite a long way to use in salads. The taste is delicious. keep well Diane

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  9. This is very interesting! This is the first time I heard of walnut oil!

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    Replies
    1. We have all types of nut oil here, they are very popular. Keep well Diane

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  10. I'm so glad you took the time to upload the videos Diane, fascinating to see. I wonder if they have any accidents, it does look a wee bit dangerous, although I'm sure they have been doing it this way for many, many years and know exactly what they're doing!

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