Once upon a time, there were 18 mills on the upper rivers, the Vidrovan, Boljasnica, Rastovac and Susica - the mills of Perkovic, Raicevic, Matanovic, Maksimovic, Djukanovic, Piljevic, Medjedovic, duke Nikola, Buca, Novi mlini, and watermill Djuricic.
They were also posts for cloth, Medjedovic, Mijanovic, and Raicevic. Today they do not work, most of the mills are in ruins, and the tradition is kept only by the Raicevic mill in Vir.
When Tomo and Milosav Raicevic returned from America, in 1905, they bought the mill from Janko Vukotic, who cut off the rivers Vidrovan and Boljasnica and made a benat (dam) for the watermill to work.
"The mill was always operational. Sometimes, in front of the mill, there was a queue for two or three days. They had grain coming on horses and donkeys from Golija, Piva, Zupa, Banjani, and they had a priority - first, they were milled for them, then for the hosts. The mill worked well, and they could make a living from it, and as a remuneration, people gave 'contribution' - five percent of milled flour," says miller Drago Simanic, who does not let the old craft disappear completely.
His grandfather, father, and uncle worked in his cousin's mill, and six years ago Drago decided to have a try in this job, as well.
"As a child, I watched my grandfather working, later my father and uncle. I liked working in the mill, and six years ago I decided to start doing this myself as well. It does not work like in those old times; there are no queues as there once was, there are less sowing and milling. There were once four barrels; now there are two. I work the most from November to the New Year. Then on two winches from morning till evening I mill a ton of wheat. On one winch we have corn, and on the other buckwheat and rye," says Drago.
Mill has been refurbished in recent years, and two 80-ton silos have been made but are not yet in use. Glad, like all millers, argues that grain milling in the traditional way, on stone and water, preserves all the nutritional properties of cereals and that the flour from the mill on electricity and this one on the water cannot be compared.
"They say it is not the same taste of flour from the mill on electricity and this one on the water. Unfortunately, no one brings wheat anymore and rye much less than before. The corn and buckwheat are mostly being milled, which are brought from Duzi. I have permanent clients from Zupa, Duzi, Rastovac, Golija. All these are older people who mill grain mostly for their needs, for a sack or two." Whether the grain will be coarse or small depends on the customer's request, and Drago has already figured it so well that as soon as he puts on the grain and turns on the winch, he can assess what kind of flour will come out.
"I know exactly what the flour will be, whether it is dry or not. Last year was quite dry. Not only the length of grinding but also the quality of the flour depends on the moisture," says Drago, adding that he can mill a hundred pounds of grain at once for roughly one hour and a half.
He shows the mill, explains the process of work but does not hide the pleasure of praising the area he lives in, by saying it is a real paradise on earth.
"There is no spiderweb on a mill that works," says the German proverb. There is no place for the spiderweb in Raicevic's mill. Drago says he believes it will continue to be so in the future.
Text by Svetlana Mandic, on April 21st, 2019, read more at Vijesti
