百年油坊 历久弥香 | Century-Old Oil Mill Filled with Fragrance

Over 300 years after it was first built, the oil mill in Dazichang Village, Haikou Sub-district, Xishan District, is still filled with the smell of fragrant oil.

Dazichang Village Oil Mill, built in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty over 300 years ago, is located in Zhongping Community, Haikou Sub-district, Xishan District. It has been renovated several times, and the existing building, originally a local mansion, was rebuilt in the early years of the Republic of China. The entire oil mill, with its simple architectural style and an earth and wood structure, is a quadrangle courtyard with three principal rooms and four side rooms, covering an area of 400 square meters. The main house is a two-floor building that is three rooms wide and one room deep. Its timber framework resembles a bucket (a beamless structure that only has posts and sloping rafters to support the roof). There are side rooms on each side of the main house, and a patio in the middle.

According to relevant data, the layout of the oil mill and the arrangement of the oil extraction equipment in the room are basically the same as the Longtou Street Oil Mill drawn by famous Chinese architect Mr. Liang Sicheng. It is the only known well-preserved oil mill in Kunming.

When the pomegranate flowers bloom, the “squeezing sound” fills the village again. It is just as if the turning of the waterwheels and the grinding of the stone mills are turning back the clock.

Inside the mill, Wu Lianshu, one of the inheritors of the ancient method of oil extraction, is busy extracting oil along with three or four other workers. With fire burning on the stove and the old ox pulling the millstone, the workers are making oil cakes with earnest attention, The fragrance of rapeseed oil drifts in the air. The dark rapeseeds, which have been sun-dried, fried, ground, steamed and wrapped in oil grass, are stuffed into the wooden press. With the thud of the oil hammer and the workers’ chants, shiny golden oil flows out of the wooden press, releasing a strong fragrance.

Delicious food requires time and effort. Wu Lianshu is very picky when it comes to buying rapeseeds, and with decades of experience, he has developed a pair of piercing eyes. The rapeseeds should be dark and shiny, and the grains should be round and full without any impurities. They shall also be fully dried. Wu Lianshu always makes sure to check it out himself.

Frying the seeds is the first step. High temperature is necessary to destroy the cell structure of the rapeseeds and reduce the adsorption force of the proteins to facilitate the oil separation process.

Making oil cakes requires advanced skills. After the rapeseeds are ground, the next step is to steam them. Controlling the moisture and temperature control is all a matter of experience. How evenly the oil cake is pressed directly affects the oil yield. For the people of Dazi Village who are accustomed to the handmade rapeseed oil from the old oil mill, all delicious dishes start with the first drops of oil. This oil extraction technology, which has been passed down for hundreds of years, still shines with its original vitality.

Now, the oil mill is mainly used to pass down the farming culture and allow citizens and tourists to learn about this traditional oil extraction process. “This ancient oil extracting method has low yield and output. From an economic point of view, it is a losing business. But this is also a cultural heritage, which we are all willing and happy to pass down,” Wu Lianshu said.

The passing down of the oil extraction skills for generations relies on the painstaking effort made by people like Wu Lianshu. What they pass down is not only the craft, but also their belief in life and the diligence and perseverance flowing in their blood.