Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

"No, it only works seasonally, from now till early spring." Then I told him how Vater had been modernising the factory each year. At first only the potatoes grown on the farm were used in the factory, but recently that large pit had been added and farmers from the surrounding area would be delivering their potatoes and fill it shortly with potatoes. As this factory used a lot of water, we were fortunate to be able to use water from the lake.

We entered the factory through a side door. I showed Helmut where the washed potatoes came into the graters, and I warned him to keep his fingers out of there, as the teeth were terribly sharp and were spinning at enormous speed. From there the pulp was pumped into large settling channels, where the starch was separated from the pulp. As the starch was heavier than the pulp, it settled on the bottom of several trenches, and was then flushed out with a strong jet of water. This starch milk was then piped into a centrifuge which separated the water from the starch. The pulp without the starch was used as fodder for our cattle.

"Come, I'll show you how the centrifuge works. This here is one of my favourite spots."

"But there is no one working here?" He was a bit uneasy as it seemed a dangerous place with lots of driving belts crossing overhead, and pipes going in all directions.

"Oh, yes, there is. There is only one woman here now. Before this new machine came, two women had to work here, and the work was very hard. They had to put their sharp instruments against the wall of the centrifuge, and get the starch out all by hand. The machine does it all automatically. Watch out, here comes Maria. Can I show my friend Helmut how this works?"

"Hallo, Master, we are home for the weekend again, hey? And you want to show your friend? Go ahead then."

I pressed the knob and a very sharp vertical cutting edge moved slowly towards the edge of the centrifuge, where all the starch had clung to, like after a spin of a washing machine. As it touched the crust of the starch it began to force it along a pipe which led to an elevator belt. More and more starch was pushed into the pipe, and the elevator seemed to work overtime, but it managed to carry all the starch up, through the ceiling. Then the centrifuge was empty. Another pushbutton moved the cutting edge back to its former position.

"Thank you, Maria. See you again. Come on Helmut, we have to go upstairs now, to where the elevator belt has carried the starch."

We walked to the top floor, and again a narrow staircase to the top of the huge drier. This area was always warm, and I would sometimes spend hours there. The workers in the factory were already saying, that one day I would inherit the factory, and Günter the land.

"Here, this container stores all the starch from the centrifuge, and the auger distributes it evenly over the drier. Be careful that you don't put

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