Love at First Sight and Growing Dream

It was a “love at first sight.” I saw a small grain mill in my friend’s kitchen around 2017. It was beautiful and I immediately wanted one for myself. It brought back sweet memories from the time I was in Germany. College students fetched milk from local farmers and baked bread in student residential hall (Studentenwohnheim) where I lived. At a family I visited, the matriarch of the house casually milled the wheat berries and baked cake. For them, It was nothing special. Since then I dreamed of a day I could do the same.

Many years passed. For a long time, I bought flour in the bulk section. It would be better than buying a bag of flour which can sit in my cupboard for a few months, wouldn’t it? “Besides skipping the packaging material, the flour would be more fresh that way” I thought. “Not really!” was what I learned. Because the flour starts getting rancid as soon as it is milled and the process speeds up everytime it is exposed to air, each time someone opens the bulk bin lid to scoop some flour, rancidity increases. The smell I associated with whole wheat flour was indeed the smell of the rancidity - or so I was told.

So when I saw a small grain mill at my friend’s, I knew this was the way to go. BUT the mill I wanted was too expensive. I waited for another seven years. and finally late last year, I bought one. Yahoo!

According to Kevin Morse of Cairnspring Mills, there ware 24,000 regional grain mills throughout USA 120 years ago. Virtually every town had a mill where people could buy freshly milled flour or take the grain they grew to have it milled. In 2023, that number was 166, many of which were owned by big food corporations. Mills were not accessible for average consumers directly.

The issue with having mills in the hands of small number of corporation is not only the rancidity and compromised nutrients of the flour, but it is about commodification of the grain, who and how the price is determined, what kind of flour is available for consumers, how much farmers are paid, and what happens when the distribution is disruppted (Remember COVID? Flour shelves were empty for months at grocery stores).

The bread I baked with my freshly milled flour filled the entire house with amazing aroma. And a thought of (though indirectly) knowing who had grown the grain warmed my heart. But as I said earlier the home mill is not cheap. Now that I have my dream of milling in my kitchen came true, I am dreaming up ways to share the experience with my community. What if each library had a tool rental where community members could check out the mill? Can we start something like the Wheat Patch Project where bakeries in Northampton, MA were encouraging customers to grow wheat in their yeard? My dream is growing!