HEROrganic FLOURSINBIGDEMANDATTHEMILL
25 January 2002
HEROrganic FLOURSINBIGDEMANDATTHEMILL
Organic flour and tasty bread produced in an old watermill
make for a thriving business, as Wendy Owen discovers
ANA JONES has always been passionate about organic food but her passion turned into a full-time occupation in 1975, when she and her husband bought a working 18th century water-powered corn mill in Cumbria.
She has since developed The Watermill into a thriving business, producing 11 different varieties of organic flour which she sells by mail order and to wholefood shops.
Entering the bright sugar-pink mill at Little Salkeld, Penrith, is like going back in time and the place is full of bustling activity with everyone covered in a dusting of brown flour.
Next door, in the organic café, the remains of a supper put on for an evening group visit is being cleared up and there is a delicious smell of baking bread and cakes. The place is also open every day except Saturday for anyone who wants to look around the mill.
"There are only a handful of working watermills in this country and we are pleased we have been able to make this one into a paying concern, even though it is very labour-intensive," says Ana.
The mill also hosts bread-baking and wholefood cookery courses and Ana is adamant that making bread is very easy. "A loaf of bread can be made in about an hour-and-a-half from start to finish," she explains. "There is no magic secret about it, it just takes a bit of practice and good quality ingredients."
She admits that organic bread is expensive, ranging from £1 to £2 for a single loaf. But she argues that hand-baked bread is much more filling than the standard sliced white loaf and contains no chemicals or additives.
Compared with most commercial milling operations, The Watermill is a very small enterprise indeed. A standard roller-type flour mill usually handles 30t of grain an hour, whereas the full-time miller, Derek, processes just 3 or 4t a week. In total, the mill buys 140t of grain a year, not only wheat but rye and barley, which is used to make bread and cakes for people with wheat intolerance.
"Almost all our wheat is grown by two organic farmers and that is very important to me. I like to discuss varieties and I prefer to have the older ones if possible because I believe they are more digest-ible. Maris Widgeon is a long straw wheat normally grown for thatching but it makes consistently tasty bread. Hereward too is delicious and Malacca and Axona give the bread a good yellow colour."
Visitors are always fascinated to see how the mill works and Ana finds that few people have given a thought to how flour is made before they arrive.
She explains that the grain is crushed between the static bedstone on the bottom and the runner stone above which is rotated by a water-powered spindle.
This simple process results in 100% wholewheat flour, which can then be sieved to make unbleached white flour by extracting the bran, which is the coarse outer layer of the wheat berry.
"Most millers choose their grain as a result of scientific tests. But we prefer the traditional method. We just put a small sample of wheat in a coffee grinder and make a loaf out of it. That way we can be sure the colour will be good and the bread will taste nice," says Ana.