The educated youth was reborn and wanted to disappear, but he was locked into a military marriage.

When they arrived at the county, it was just after nine o'clock. Zhao Zheng and Meng Zihao went directly to the county committee. Lu Mingzheng first accompanied Zhu Xiaomin and Chen Xudong to the oil press.

The oil pressing mill is located in an alley in the county town, behind the county supply and marketing cooperative.

As soon as I entered the alley, I could smell the aroma of oil. Chen Xudong sighed: "I didn't realize it before, but it wasn't until I went to the village that I realized that it was harder to get oil in the village than in the city."

Under the system of unified purchasing and marketing, urban residents are allocated three taels of oil per person per month. Although it is a small amount, if you budget carefully, you can still save some for the New Year.

In rural areas that do not produce oil themselves, it will be even more difficult for them to eat oil or exchange grain for oil coupons, or directly exchange grain.

Zhu Xiaomin nodded: "If we can grow sunflower seeds in our saline-alkali land and transport them to the county for oil extraction, at least our brigade's oil consumption problem will be solved."

Chen Xudong asked: "Why have we never thought of growing plants that can extract oil?"

Zhu Xiaomin shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Our place is mainly forest, and there is very little land to grow crops. You don't know that we are short of food recently. If a large area is used to grow oil-extracting plants, what will happen to us if we eat food? ?”

After all, not all dishes require oil, but you must eat food every day.

Chen Xudong thought about the wild vegetable porridge that appeared almost every day, unconsciously touched his flat belly and nodded.

Pushing open the door of the oil press, the aroma of oil hit her nostrils. Zhu Xiaomin took a deep breath and said hello loudly.

At this time, the work of oil extraction had just begun. The workers in the oil extraction mill were grinding the dried flax seeds into powder. Amidst the roar of the machine, they shouted several times before someone inside heard them. One of them was wearing only a pair of clothes. A middle-aged man wearing an autumn coat and a greasy apron came out, looked at the three of them and asked, "What do you want?"

Zhu Xiaomin took out the letter of introduction and explained her intention.

The man took it and looked at it carefully, and asked doubtfully: "Sunflower seeds? We have never squeezed them here."

Zhu Xiaomin nodded: "We know, but there are sunflower seed oil presses in other places. We just want to know if we can do it here? If so, we will plan to plant it."

The man smiled, nodded and said, "As long as oil can be produced, the process of extracting oil is actually the same. It just requires a certain amount. If you plant one or two acres, it's better to do it manually. It's not worth sending it to us."

Chen Xudong was curious: "Do it manually? How to do it?"

The man waved: "I'll show you." He walked inside.

The first room was a grinding machine. The man pointed at it and said, "Here we use an electric grinder to grind dried flax seeds into powder."

Zhu Xiaomin went over to take a look and nodded: "Well, we have a stone mill in our town. If the quantity is small, we can complete this step ourselves."

The man nodded and walked back.

There is a room at the back with a row of large stoves. The big iron pots on the stoves are equipped with a steamer. The stove is fully powered and the fire is burning brightly, steaming out the whole room.

The man explained: "Here, the ground flour is steamed and the raw material is turned into clinker."

This is easier to do.

All three people nodded silently.

Then I followed the man into the third room, and I saw a few people there holding some straw and putting the clinker that had been released into a round mold, covering it with an iron plate, and stuffing it into a machine for pressing. Into cake shape.

The man explained: "This is for making cakes. It must be pressed firmly, otherwise the middle will be loose and the stuff will be wasted."

Chen Xudong thought about it and was a little unsure: "This mold is easy to say, but it can be pressed manually, but it is not as good as a machine."

The man nodded, pointed to a machine behind him and said, "This is the most critical step."

The three of them followed and saw a dozen ready-made cakes sandwiched between several steel pillars. The upper and lower parts were pressed by iron plates made of pig iron. A young and strong young man was pressing down a bearing-like piece. Something, the iron plate is pressed down a little bit, and the cake is squeezed, and the oil inside slowly seeps out, flows into the pot connected below, and then flows out from the leakage connected to the edge of the pot. Put it into a dense basket, filter out some impurities, and put it into the oil drum below.

The principle is clear at a glance, but when thinking about the actual operation, Lu Mingzheng couldn't help but frown: "In this last step, if we rely solely on human power, I'm afraid we won't be able to extract it so cleanly, and things will still be wasted."

The man nodded, pointed to the oil cake on top, and said helplessly: "As you can see, this machine is so big. It requires more than a dozen cakes to be pressed at a time. If there are not many items, it will not be easy for us to operate this step here." .”

Chen Xudong looked at Zhu Xiaomin and stopped talking.

Zhu Xiaomin thought for a while and asked: "Uncle, if our things are sent here for oil extraction, what are the procedures?"

The man pointed in the direction of the alley entrance: "Our place is under the management of the supply and marketing cooperative. These flax seeds are sent by the supply and marketing cooperative. When the oil is squeezed out, they will also be sent to the supply and marketing cooperative."

This should be the mission food given by the flax-growing village.

Zhu Xiaomin understood, and the three of them asked the man for some details, then came out of the oil press and went directly to the supply and marketing cooperative.

Yan Yimin, secretary of the supply and marketing cooperative, is a thirty-six-six-year-old man. He was a little surprised when the three people explained their purpose of visit: "We don't have a large area of ​​sunflower seeds planted here yet. Why aren't you a forest farm? Why do you think of planting sunflower seeds?"

Zhu Xiaomin explained: "We are a forestry farm, but we have a large area of ​​saline-alkali land where we cannot grow trees or crops. It has been deserted for many years. Last year, experts went there and said that we could grow sunflowers, but they couldn't." They all use it to eat, and when I think of somewhere else to use it to extract oil, I want to see if we can. If we can, next year we will plant all that saline-alkali land."

She was eloquent and stated clearly. Yan Yimin nodded repeatedly: "Since you have been to the oil pressing mill and want to know the feasibility, if your production reaches the standard next year, the brigade can contact us directly."

Very good!

Zhu Xiaomin was overjoyed and quickly thanked her.

Returning the letter of introduction to her, Yan Yimin asked curiously: "You just said expert? What kind of expert are you?"

Lu Mingzheng said truthfully: "The forest farm wants to combine agriculture and animal husbandry, so it will build a breeding base on that saline-alkali land. This year, we specially invited experts in this field, because we will be raising animals in the forest, and there will be an expert in agriculture and forestry with us."

Zhu Xiaomin added: "The saline-alkali land was originally far away from the village, so no one paid attention to it all these years. It was because the breeding base was built there and manpower was allocated there that I thought of using that area." Then he simplified the breeding base. Say it once.

Yan Yimin was a little worried: "You have built a breeding base, so you won't be able to grow many sunflowers, right?"