We didn’t know what to expect so we arrived in plenty of
time for the first tour of the day at 9:00 a.m.
Tours are given 5 times a day and there is a small fee.
When we first walked into the gift shop a very energetic
woman called out to have some coffee and that the day's rice sample would be
ready soon.
The gift shop.
We quickly figured out this was a very small operation.
They take gumbo seriously around here.
Kesla was the enthusiastic woman who greeted us, and she
would be our guide for the tour. We were
the only ones on the tour.
As we started the tour we walked back outside past the parking lot and to the
rice mill.
Although this is an operating mill, they weren’t
processing rice today. Apparently, they
only process rice on an “as needed” bases.
In 1981, the Mill was placed on the National Register of
Historic Places.
P.A. Conrad founded the Conrad Rice Mill and Planting
Company in 1912. He would cut the rice by hand and let it sun-dry on the levees
before putting the rice in the threshers. The rice was poured into 100-pound
bags and taken to the mill. At that time, the mill operated only three to four
months out of the year. Conrad would sell his rice from inventory, waiting for
the next crop to harvest.
Today grain is bought from growers in the area. The trucks drive onto the scales and drop
their load through this hole into the basement of the mill.
The mill is very dark inside.
Kesla went over all the steps in milling rice. She explained how the elevators moved the
grain between the three floors and how the augers moved the grain from
side to side to the elevators.
Whole rice out of the field.
First you take off the husk. Sometimes this takes 2 or 3 times through the
machine.
Husk.
The pearler removes the bran.
The rice is graded.
Broken rice is sold to breweries.
The finished rice is sent to the packing machine.
The elevator is for moving grain up and down and the auger
moves grain sideways.
This is the conveyor belt with attached buckets that
are inside the elevators. This belt was laying on the floor to be repaired.
The green packing machines automatically form the rice
bag, fill it and seal it.
The gray packing machine with the sewing machine attached
is semi-automatic. It drops the rice
into a kraft paper bag, trims the top of the bag, and sews it closed.
These machines can pack from 7 oz to 25 lbs. of rice.
In the 1950’s, “KONRIKO” was trademarked as an acronym
for “CONRAD RICE COMPANY.”
A few years later, P.A. Conrad retired and left the
business to his three sons. After many
years of operating the mill, the brothers were at retirement age and
eventually only three New Iberia grocery stores remained as customers.
In 1975 Mike Davis bought the mill from the Conrad
brothers. Within 10 days of the purchase, the mill was back up and running
after laying dormant for two years.
The original part of the mill was built in 1912 and
received additions in 1917 and 1930.
After our tour we headed back to the gift shop. Today’s rice sample, wild pecan rice, was ready
for testing!
Lots of different spices can be sprinkled on the cooked rice.
Kesla explained to us that the mill’s claim to fame is
that they only produce brown rice and that it cooks in 25 minutes instead of 40
minutes like other companies.
It is very good!
Wild Pecan Rice is neither a wild rice nor does it
contain pecans. The name is intended to
conjure up images of the wild pecan trees flourishing in the fertile rice
growing areas of southern Louisiana.
We made a few purchases.
The wild pecan rice is very aromatic and has a rich,
nutty flavor. The yellow rice is their regular brown rice with saffron and turmeric.
I wish we had been able to see the mill in production. It would have certainly been magnet
worthy!
I did buy a magnet - they were pretty.
Next time: More
Louisiana attractions
(Hope I'm not duplicating a comment--internet is acting up for me.) I was very interested in this post. My mom and dad met while working at a rice mill in Abbeville, the Louisiana State Rice Milling Company. He weighed rice in summers between semesters at LSU, she was a secretary for Frank Godchaux, the owner. This is a history of the company, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/riviana-foods-inc-history/. If you're still in the area, I think it would be interesting to tour (if they have one) the Steen's cane syrup company in Abbeville, another old industry in SW Louisiana.
ReplyDeleteVery cool about your parents meeting at a rice mill. We didn't get to do a sugar cane tour, but did go to a local museum that we thought was mostly about sugar cane and processing. Turns out their main exhibit has been displaced by a traveling exhibit (that had just been taken down) so we didn't get to see much.
DeleteWe weren’t in the Abbeville area. But, I found a nice history of the rice mill with a picture of Frank Godchaux. Looks like they made Mahatma rice. I would love to go through a cane syrup factory. Unfortunately, factory tours are hard to find.
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