农业+生活方式

诺拉轧机

发布于2021年9月8日上午12:00

Nestled in the North Georgia mountains just outside of Helen sits a building that’s been working in tandem with the Chattahoochee River for 145 years. 而外面则发生了一些变化, 诺拉米尔粮仓 still grinds corn on the very same 1,500-pound French Burr mill stones installed by John Martin in 1876.

A goldminer who settled in Georgia, John Martin knew a thing or two about milling. Wealthy enough to afford the very best in late 1800’s technology, John Martin purchased a cast iron turbine for his mill.

“A turbine is 80 percent more efficient than a paddle wheel, and costs a lot more money. He also purchased pink granite burr stones from France, and there’s nothing that compares to that pink granite. They are the same type stones that George Washington used at Mount Vernon,汤米·马丁说, who’s been the miller at 诺拉轧机 off and on since the 1980s. 

和工厂创始人没有关系, Martin does have ancestors who were millers near Sweetwater Creek State Park. 做过心理健康咨询师, firefighter and other jobs throughout his life, he’s found milling to be his preferred labor of love — just like his forbearers — and just like those who have come before him at 诺拉轧机.

In 1902, the mill was purchased by Lamartine G. Hardman, who would later become the governor of Georgia. He named it Nora after his little sister who had passed away. Someone who Martin called a “very wealthy fella,” Hardman added a generator under the building in 1911, making it one of the first buildings in White County to have electricity. 街对面的房子, 是约翰·马丁原来家的一部分, became home to almost every miller since Hardman.

After a succession of millers throughout the years, 在80年代早期, Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Ron Fain leased Norah Mill from the Hardman family and it has been his family’s work ever since.

“Ron got it going for his father to have something to do in his later years,马丁说. “I showed up in about 1989 and he put me in charge of doing whatever grandpa said. I started milling and learning the history of the area from Grandpa Fain, and I still haven’t left.”

One of the main reasons Martin has stuck around so long, 费恩家族四代人的传承, 是因为他相信碾磨是这样的吗, 用老方法做事是最好的, and the cornmeal — all natural with no additives — is the best tasting meal on the market.

“这是我们工作的关键. We offer whole-grain products and we do not de-germinate to mass produce. The way a lot of commercial cornmeal is made, the germs are taken out and sold separately. Then, they turn around and enrich the product with manmade chemicals. 我不希望我的食物里有化学物质，”他说. “石磨, whole-grain cornmeal has such a different flavor and moistness, 因为里面还有油.”

马丁对这件事的看法是如此强烈, he’s been known to convert busloads of Northerners into grits lovers.

“我喜欢说我是一个勇气顾问. I walk people through their fear of grits,” he said with a laugh. “We get tour buses from Ohio and other Northern states full of people who swear they won’t even touch grits. 然后他们尝了我们的，他们很喜欢. One thing I love most is educating young kids about milling and also the look on people’s faces when they taste our product.”

他正在教育来访的年轻人, Martin explains that 诺拉轧机 produces and packages their products much the same as they have been for generations.

“我们用布袋包装, 当我在那里和年轻人一起工作时, I explain that we didn’t just throw things away back then. 人们会反复使用，反复使用. And when they got too thin, granny made a quilt out of it. 东西是用来重复使用的.” 

Plus, he said, people love the nostalgia of the cloth bags in which the cornmeal and grits are sold. 参观粮仓, tours of the working mill are regularly offered, and many folks enjoy feeding the rainbow trout in the river. 在邻近的乡村商店和礼品店, visitors can purchase mill products and other specialty items like syrups, 堵塞, 煎饼粉, 铸铁锅等等. 小厨房里有样品供应. 最热门的商品总是谷物. In fact, grits are 诺拉轧机’s national best seller.

“We ship thousands and thousands of pounds of grits all over the U.S. Shaq owns a restaurant in Los Angeles and we send grits to him. 他特别想要我们的, 虽然我不知道他是怎么找到我们的,马丁说, 加上2,我定期给拉斯维加斯寄去一万英镑, 佛罗里达和纽约. “You wouldn’t think nobody up North would eat grits, but there’s a shrimp and grits craze and they’re learning about store-bought versus whole-grain grits. 我们的纯, whole-grain grits are a night-and-day difference and they make completely different tasting shrimp and grits.” 

Word of 诺拉轧机 has even spread across the globe.

“Tokyo sent a film crew here and did a film segment on us. I may be famous in Tokyo,马丁说, noting that he’s already famous on TikTok.

罗恩·费恩最小的女儿, 乔安娜·费恩·塔普利, continues to manage and operate 诺拉米尔粮仓 alongside her husband, 丰富的. 当大流行来袭时, Joann and 丰富的 increased their internet presence — especially through creative TikTok marketing — and their online sales skyrocketed. Now that the granary and country store have opened back up, Martin said the business is once again welcoming school busses and group tours, along with visitors to Helen — some of which have been shopping at 诺拉轧机 for generations.

“We are still a family-run operation, and we are so proud of our product,” he said. “We have people who are regular customers, who’ve been coming for 40 or 50 years. I get 90-year-old men walking in and saying, ‘I used to come here as a boy with my daddy.“这里有很多历史.”