never a dull moment

In the manuscript for Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder included a story about Almanzo visiting the starch mill in Burke. It was edited out at some point prior to publication, but I was reminded of it when I was going through my Malone files and found an old map that showed the location of the starch mill, saw mill, and blacksmith shop in Burke.

There were more than enough potatoes to fill the bins in the cellar so Father took a load to the starch factory at Burke.

Burke was a little town down the river a few miles. It had a post office, two stores, a blacksmith shop, a wagon shop and the starch factory and a saw mill run by the same water wheel. A little way down the river was a grist mill that ground wheat and rye and buckwheat into flour and corn into cornmeal.

Almanzo went to Burke with Father and the potatoes. He liked to watch the big, steel saw, at the saw mill, cut through the spruce and hemlock, the maple and basswood logs, sawing them into lumber, and into wagon wood and barrel staves.

He liked to watch the potatoes being made into starch; to see the whole potatoes go round and round in the big, tall vat, with the water pouring through it, while the huge, wooden paddles stirred and turned them, rolling them over and over until they were all washed clean and the dirt had settled and washed away through the slatted bottom of the vat.

Then the potatoes were put through the mill that ground them fine, into a great tub, where the water ran and kept the mass stirring. The parings rose to the top and were floated off by the water.

Then the potato pulp was run into another great tub where it was washed by the running water, until the pulp rose and the starch settled to the bottom.

When the starch had all settled, the water and pulp was drawn off, the wet starch was cut into slabs and sent, on a small track, into the dry kiln. There the slabs were spread on a floor that had rather wide cracks. As the starch dried it broke into pieces and fell through the cracks on to the next floor with smaller cracks. As it became fully dry it sifted through these into a tight floor beneath. From there it was barreled for shipment. The barrels were large and when filled weighed 600 pounds.

Almanzo always thought what a huge starch pudding a barrelful would make.

If he tired of the starch factory and the saw mill, Almanzo could always be happy at the blacksmith shop, watching the blacksmith shoe horses or sharpen plows. It was fun to watch the sparks fly as he beat a hot iron on the forge.

There was never a dull moment waiting for Father at Burke.

- posted by pioneergirl at 1:45 AM