Stöckse potato steaming system
The Stöckse potato steaming plant in Stöckse was built in 1962 to cook large quantities of potatoes for pig fattening . The potato steaming plant was in operation until 1996 and was restored in 2009 to meet the requirements of listed buildings. It is considered the only preserved system in Germany.
history
In Germany there have been numerous Steaming services, where by the second half of the 20th century steam cooking of potatoes in larger containers starch-rich food has been obtained for the pig. In the 1950s, many small farms had their own small kettles in their hallways in which they cooked their feed potatoes. As the number of livestock increased, mobile steam boilers were initially used on farm wagons, which moved from farm to farm and did their job. But as a result of the economic boom after the Second World War and the accompanying boom in agriculture , that was soon no longer enough. In many places, fixed steaming systems with significantly greater capacity were built. In the Nienburg district alone , at least six systems were in operation.
The farmer Heinrich Kuhlmann built the steaming system in Stöckse in 1962 together with a system operator from a neighboring town on his farm. The manufacturer was the now extinct Bruns company from Bad Zwischenahn . The plant went into operation on August 24, 1962. Potato steaming was a seasonal agricultural sideline. The plant was in operation annually from the beginning of the potato harvest in late August for a few months up to mid-December at the latest.
The heyday of potato steaming was the 1960s. Back then, farmers even briefly received a state premium for steaming their potatoes. But with the increasing spread of industrially manufactured concentrate, the importance of steaming systems steadily decreased. Gradually they were shut down and torn down or they fell into disrepair. So the catchment area of the Stöckser plant increased continuously. Farmers interested in steaming took longer and longer journeys and most recently came from a radius of over 50 kilometers to the Soltau or Minden area . With a tractor team with one or two trailers, this was a tedious trip back and forth.
In 1996, the Stöckser plant was probably the last to shut down, but it was not demolished. The last operator, Heinrich Kuhlmann jun., Only dismantled individual parts that were potentially dangerous for children, such as the water basins for the washing water.
In September and October 2009, the complex was extensively restored in accordance with the listed building standards. It is classified as an architectural monument and bears the Lower Saxony monument protection plaque.
functionality
The heart of the steaming system is a boiler stand standing on four steel supports about seven meters above the floor. Inside there are four large steel kettles with a capacity of 33 quintals each , i.e. around 1.5 tons . In them, the potatoes were cooked in 20 minutes under pressure from an atü , the pressure unit at that time . To do this, the farmers who delivered the goods tipped their potatoes into a flood channel, from which they went to a potato wash. Freed from sand and stones, they were lifted 13 meters high with the help of an elevator , where they fell into the boiler via a swiveling pipe. Two boilers at a time were constantly under steam, while the fully cooked potatoes from the other two were transported down through a funnel and a crusher onto the trailer of the delivering farmer and the boilers were immediately refilled via the elevator. The necessary steam was generated in the adjacent boiler house by an oil-fired steam boiler about six meters long with a diameter of 1.4 meters. It had an evaporation area of 37 m² and could therefore evaporate around 1,000 liters of water per hour under full load . This steam reached the boiler stand and the four boilers via a pipe system.
Awards
- November 2010 - Prize for Monument Preservation of the Lower Saxony Sparkasse Foundation in recognition of the restoration and public relations work of the owner.
literature
- Holger Spreen: The potato steaming plant in Stöckse. Characteristic and unique , in: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony , 2/2010, 30th year, p. 63f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Price for monument preservation. Prize winners 2010 ( Memento of the original from December 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Lower Saxony Sparkasse Foundation
Coordinates: 52 ° 38 ′ 18.9 ″ N , 9 ° 19 ′ 50.2 ″ E