Modern miller

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 19th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Quick reminder that the merry month of May is WORLD’s new-donor drive. We know that hundreds of thousands listen, and we’re grateful that you do. But we also know that only a fraction of that larger group provides the support needed to produce this program. If you listen but haven’t yet made a gift of support, I’d remind you that during this week, we still have two days left for your gift to be doubled. A regular donor has committed to match dollar for dollar every gift from a new donor that comes in this week. So that’s today and tomorrow to make a double impact. Please visit WNG.org/newdonor and make your first-ever gift.

REICHARD: And thanks very much. Well, coming next on The World and Everything in It: another in our occasional series, What Do People Do All Day?

About seven years ago a man in Texas began considering retirement options. He wanted to be productive. Do something that meets a need. And make a really good pizza crust. So, he opened a grain mill.

EICHER: Right, talk about meeting a need! And he’s doing it by drawing from the past, going back to the time when the lives of the farmer, miller, and baker were not so far removed from one another.

WORLD reporter Bonnie Pritchett tells his story.

REPORTER, BONNIE PRITCHETT: James Brown has a PhD in historical musicology. He has a culinary degree. But when he wanted to open a small grain mill as his retirement gig, his only teachers were other millers, books, and experience.

BROWN: There's no school for the sort of artisan milling we're doing. I mean, we on day one, just turn the mills on and started wrecking some wheat until we figured it out…

James Brown, owner of Barton Springs Mills, and the larger of his two mill imported from Europe. Photo by Bonnie Pritchett

One thing he “figured out” was that from seed to bread to brew, doing things the old way was best. Several hundred tons of grain later, his farmers and chefs seem to agree.

BROWN: Let’s find out what they’re unloading back here…

Walking through the storage wing of Barton Springs Mill Brown identifies the grains stored on the shelves.

BROWN: These here are corn that we're milling for brewers and distillers. These over here that on the second row that are in the blue bags. This is grain that we're milling for culinary, either retail or wholesale. We go through about 400 to 450 tons a year. And each of these bags holds about 2500 pounds. And you started milling how much? 1000 pounds a week.

BROWN: This is Keith. He’s our lead miller…What are we getting?

KEITH KOELER: We’ve got our buckwheat.

BROWN: Oh, sweet!

AUDIO: [SOUND OF FORKLIFT STARTING AND MOVING]

Keith Koehler mounts the forklift and offloads two pallets of buckwheat that just arrived from Trilla, Illinois. Brown hasn’t found a Texas farmer to raise that crop. But that’s his goal for the Central Texas mill—to produce organic, regionally sourced grains for the region’s chefs, bakers, and distillers.

Brown selects the grains he wants grown and partners with regional organic farmers to raise it. He picked the grains from an old catalog, of sorts.

BROWN: I did have something called the 1919 Wheat Classification where they, state by state, tallied up the wheat that was being grown in those regions by variety. So, that was a touchstone for us to go back and say, okay, these varieties were growing here in 1919. That doesn't necessarily mean they will grow here now. But it's a good, it's a good starting point…

Some of those seeds he got from farmers in the United States and Canada.

BROWN: The Mediterranean that we're growing the soft Mediterranean wheat and the Quanah, we had to go to the U.S. gene plasm bank for those.

That’s the Agricultural Genetic Resources Preservation Research facility in Fort Collins, Colorado. It collects and preserves plant and animal genetic material, keeping it safe from natural or man-made cataclysms.

BROWN: We started with eight varieties that no one was growing on the face of the planet when we first opened the mill. And we now have four of those in broad production…

AUDIO: [COMPRESSOR MOTOR RUNNING]

All that grain must be ground—just so—in one of the two stone mills imported from Europe. They’re made of beautiful, pale, knot-free pine. The design is simple—grains are hand-loaded into the hopper crowning the mill. They funnel down through a regulated opening that controls how much grain is fed into the mill.

This morning, Koehler is using the larger mill to grind Blue Beard Durum into semolina for a local chef.

Brown explains the process.

BROWN: So, you have a bed stone here, this lower stone that's stationary, and the upper stone stones what's inside this enclosure spins…

AUDIO: [MILL STARTING]

BROWN: And at first there's a there's a pattern that's cut into the stones; it will essentially have the effect of shearing or clipping the wheat. And as the grain works its way out to the perimeter, that pattern goes out to zero so it starts out sharing and then grinding…

AUDIO: [BANGING SOUND COMING FROM THE MILL]

The stones aren’t supposed to make that sound. Brown, Koehler and an apprentice miller look for the cause of the malfunction. There is no one else who can.

BROWN: All right, we have to make it work. So we just have to effect repairs ourselves and that means fixing mishaps and also wear and tear…

Brown is grateful for the millers who have shared their expertise with him. But the daily grind of mill operations often requires on-the-job training—for everyone. Turns out the mill stones had been knocked out of alignment.

AUDIO: [ENTERING MILLING ROOM (VOICE: Are we ready to rock?)]

About 45 minutes later, with the stones realigned, the semolina milling proceeds.

AUDIO: [MILL STARTING]

Koehler pulls a lever at the bottom of the mill that diverts some of the milled Durham into his hand.

BROWN: He's getting a sample, and he's looking at it for what's...we  call 'particle size distribution.' Not only the size of the grain. Yeah, that looks not bad. He's probably gonna say that's still a little a little large…

James Brown, left, and lead miller Keith Koehler examine samples of milled durum. They know the customer, a local chef, well enough to mill the grain to his preferences. Photo by Bonnie Pritchett

Koehler adjusts the grind and draws another sample.

BROWN: Wow, that really looks pretty. And really, the bran’s coming off very nicely. I think they're gonna love that. I think we start with that…

The small-scale milling enterprise allows Brown to know his customers and their preferences. And it gives farmers the opportunity to see and taste the fruit of their labor.

Kind of how things used to be.

BROWN: Some of them were working with big mills, you know, a truck showed up, took all the wheat and it went away and then they never heard another thing. And now I can bring them a loaf of bread or stick a loaf of bread in the mail and overnight it to them. I mean, I have one farmer who's let's see 68 and he'd never had a product ever made with the wheat that he'd been raising his entire life. And so it's a pretty powerful thing to behold. Yeah, and very rewarding.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Dripping Springs, Texas.

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