Milk fan, one of the eighteen monsters in Yunnan, "milk made into slices for sale", is the flavor food of the Bai people in Dali. Anyone who comes to Dali will always look for a piece of such milk to taste. However, in Dali, the milk fan is more like a home-cooked dish, or a snack for children, and for Dali people, "milk tablets" are not strange at all. As a folk art that has been passed down for a hundred years, in 2020, the milk fan making technology was also selected as the fifth batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage representative projects in Dali Prefecture.
In Shangguan Town, Dali City, there is a Lezhong Milk Fan Factory that specializes in processing, making and selling dairy products, and at the same time drives the surrounding farmers and rural surplus labor to transfer employment, and has embarked on a path of industry driving rural revitalization.
Greeting the first rays of the morning sun, dairy farmers in Shangguan Town began to get busy in their own cowsheds. Feed, milk, clean the barn... Although busy, everyone is satisfied and happy.
Early every morning, Li Yufeng, a villager in Machang Village, Shangguan Town, began to milk the cows, and now milking is very convenient, using machine milking, both clean and hygienic. Li Yufeng told reporters: "We have to milk the cows twice a day, at 6 o'clock in the morning and 6 o'clock in the evening, the milked milk is sent to the milk purchase point in the village of Lezhong Milk Fan Fang, which can milk about 70 kilograms of milk per day." ”
Li Yufeng, 53 years old, and her husband, Yang Jinxian, are well-known industrious people in the village, and in between doing farm work, they also have three cows at home, and Yang Jinxian is also responsible for the milk purchase of Lezhong Milk Fan Fang in Machang Village. Every morning at 7 o'clock, Brother Yang came to the open space outside his door on time, waiting for the nearby farmers to deliver milk.
Yang Jinxian said: "Our milk purchase site buys more than 500 kilograms of milk every day, and more than 300 kilograms of milk when it is less. Now the family's income is not bad, there is a salary of more than 1,000 yuan at the milk purchase point, the family also has three cows, the daily milk production is about 70 kilograms, and there is an income of more than 200 yuan per day. ”
Wang Jixian's family, who lives near Li Yufeng's home, has raised three cows, and for more than 10 years, Wang Jixian's milk has been handed over to the purchase point, and the distance of a few steps has reduced Wang Jixian's burden, and the fixed-point purchase has also made her not have to worry about the milk without marketing.
Subsequently, the reporter came to the Lezhong Milk Fan Factory in Shangguan Town, and the milk just collected was being transported to the factory for processing. Entering the factory, you can see that there are disinfection locker rooms, fresh milk cold rooms, closed drying rooms, finished product refrigeration rooms, etc., and the workers are making milk fans in an orderly manner in the factory.
On the operating platform, Yang Hongfeng, a villager in Hewei Village in Shangguan Town, is skillfully making milk fans. In the past 6 years, her milk fan making skills have changed from unfamiliar to skilled, all relying on the help of Yang Qiong, the head of Lezhong Milk Fan Workshop.
For this job, Yang Hongfeng said: "I come here every morning at about 8 o'clock, work 8 hours, work here conveniently, close to home, and earn about 2800 yuan per month. ”
Like Yang Hongfeng, Wang Xiaolan, a villager in Jiangwei Village, also likes this job at the doorstep of his home, which can take care of young children and have a stable income. Wang Xiaolan said: "I am more satisfied with my current job, working here can take care of my 13-year-old daughter, the family can also take care of it, and I can earn money to improve our lives." ”
Milk fan is a kind of delicious cheese passed down from ancient times in the various ethnic groups in western Yunnan, the fresh milk is boiled and mixed with three to one edible acid refining and coagulation, made into thin slices, wrapped around a thin rod to dry, milky white, flaky, rolled, shaped like a folding fan, so it is named milk fan. There are many ways to eat milk fans, raw, dry, fried, fried, fried, sandwiched milk fan puff pastry, melt in the mouth, is a must-have dish for hospitality in Dali Bai area. The milk fan can also be chopped and added to the second sweet tea of the three Bai teas.
As one of the traditional dishes with a long history and the most characteristics of Dali, Dali milk fan is loved by locals, and tourists who come to Dali are also full of praise, so in addition to Dali local, there is also a demand for milk fans in the markets inside and outside the province.
Yang Qiong, head of the Lezhong Milk Fan Workshop in Shangguan Town, introduced: "I began to contact the milk fan in 2005, at that time I was just doing it at home, only a few small racks a day, when consumers said that the milk fans I made were of good quality, and then gradually became bigger, driving some of the surrounding farmers, they sold me fresh milk every day, and also gathered the surrounding rural women to teach them the milk fan skills I learned, and made milk fans with me." ”
For many years, as long as nearby villagers found Yang Qiong, she would always teach them to make milk fans without reservation and broaden their employment channels. In 2019, Yang Qiong was rated as the representative inheritor of Dali Intangible Cultural Heritage Project (Dali Milk Fan).
Yang Qiong said: "Now there are 6 fixed employees in the factory, and there are 5 households in the village to help me process milk fans, and each household has 2 employees. The daily output of milk fans is more than 300 kilograms, mainly wholesale to Customers in Dali and Kunming. Milk noodles are developed by us last year, the sales volume is relatively large, mainly sold to Tibet, quite popular, last year sent more than 3,000 pounds, this year ordered about 5,000 pounds. ”
All along, Yang Qiong insists on hand-producing milk fans with the traditional production technology of milk fans, because the milk fans produced are of excellent quality and pure taste, which are welcomed by the majority of consumers. In response to the government's call to protect the Erhai Sea and avoid pollution of the river channel into the lake during the production process, Yang Qiong took the initiative to relocate the milk fan processing site, which was less than 50 meters away from the Mi Tho River, to the Zhao Jiadeng Group II of the Jiangwei Village Committee of Shangguan Town, and protected the Erhai Sea with practical actions.
Rural revitalization and industrial prosperity are the foundation. Only by promoting rural revitalization with industrial development can agriculture become an industry with a head start, farmers become attractive occupations, and rural areas become beautiful homes for living and working in peace and contentment. We also learned in the interview that although the overall development momentum of Dali's characteristic industries is good, some industrial development is also facing difficulties and problems such as insufficient processing and innovation capabilities of agricultural products, backward technology level, and single publicity and sales model, how to rely on rural resources to make characteristic industries develop better and faster, so as to become a "fragrant food" that drives more villagers to get rich, we still need to think and explore.
Reporter: Zhu Ying, Wu Zhi
Editor: Chen Sihua
Duty Week: Zhang Hui Hu Yaling
Editor-in-Chief: Li Sheng