School: Rossbrin, Béal Átha an Dá Chab (roll number 16079)
- Location:
- Rossbrin, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Cormac Mac Carrthaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0288, Page 398
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- Long ago there was a Quern in every Gaelic house. This Quern was a flat circular stone with a few holes bored through it. It was made up of two circular stones. The bottom one was larger and much heavier than the top one. In the centre of the bottom one there was a hole in which was firmly embedded a wooden plug There was standing upright from this plug a tiny bar of iron. On the top of this was another wooden plug so that the top stone of the Quern fitted evenly on the lower one. At each side of this piece of wood there two holes through which the Quern was fed. Between the centre and the edge there was another hole in which was firmly fixed a wooden handle to work the top stone of the Quern. While grinind the wheat the top one revolved while the underneath Quern remained stationary. The revolving of the Quern chrushed the wheat. It was worked by two persons and one of them "fed" it at the same time with wheat. Each day they ground enough for the next day. When the wheat was ground into flour they made bread of it and baked it on a griddle. This griddle was an oval-shaped tin with two ears. When one side of the bread was baked on this griddle they had to turn it to bake the other side. On the other hand they dried the wheat over the fire after an hour they ground it mixed it with sweet milk and ate it that way they called this "Rebun"
