Rice – amazing stuff!

 

A trip to the market a few miles from Medana Bay with Kerstin from Lop To proved to be such an interesting experience.  En route as we were walking along the main road, we passed a sign indicating a welcome to Prawira Village so “why not” - we decided to investigate. Good choice.

 

We were greeted by one of the local chaps who showed us around, stopping at a couple of ladies weaving palms to make thatch roofing and more ladies grating coconut for cooking. He also showed us a toy that they make, a gasing, which is a carved wooden spinning top. As a child, I certainly remember spinning tops but these were quite amazing as one pull with the string and they spun for absolutely ages. I didn't time them but they seemed to go on impossibly long.

By this time we were joined by a couple of the ladies of the village who spoke fairly good English and were taken to the rice paddies where the harvesting of rice was in progress and the procedure explained. Now I don't know how I've got to this age and never really understood the process involved in the growing and harvesting of rice. I've simply gone into a supermarket and purchased it in a plastic bag and not given it too much thought. However, a month or so back with a group of cruisers, we got into a discussion on rice and we all had to admit that we knew nothing about it. Curiosity got to me so I then did a bit of research on internet. In truth, I came out none the wiser so this was just exactly what I needed – show and tell.

As luck would have it, the crop was being harvested while we were there so they showed us the first stages of cutting the plants followed by the interesting machine used to separate the grains from the stalks. The resultant grains were laid out to dry then bagged awaiting a special machine which visits all the nearby rice paddies to remove the chaff from the rice grain. The leftovers are fed to the cows who apparently love it and then the bi-annual procedure of planting again; all done by hand. The next time I cook rice, I'll certainly have a new respect for the amount of labour required to put it on my plate.

We still keep learning something new every day.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Door to 'guest' cottage

The community kitchen

Ready for harvesting

Rice kernels drying

Packing prior to the polishing

Removing kernels.....

and the machine that does it

The village well

Nursery school

Other scenes en route to the market:

Letter box??

Chinese influence

Elaborate architecture

A common means of transportation

The market