From Grain to Glass – Spirt of York
“When you can’t find what you’re looking for, sometimes it’s best to do it yourself. That’s exactly what Melissa McKeown did when her and her brother started @1847flours (Fergus, ON) back in 2014.”
Get it at Spirit of York
“Fresh-milled flour from a stone mill is just like fresh-cracked pepper. It has more flavour to it,” says Melissa McKeown, who owns 1847 Stone Milling in Fergus, Ontario. Think of it as flour milled the old-fashioned way. The process grinds the entire grain (including the oil-and-nutrient-filled germ and bran), which some say makes stone-milled flour more nutritious compared to the commercially produced stuff (which is ground into flour after the hard bran and germ is removed).”
Red Fife wheat was the original wheat grown in Canada in the early 1800’s. Spirit of York now uses our Heritage grain to distill Spirit of York Red Fife Wheat Vodka. They source our Red Fife wheat from Fergus, Ontario, where it is still grown organically and Stone Milled the way it was in 1847. Take a step back in History and enjoy the unique, rich, smooth taste of this Vodka.
Get it at spiritofyork.com in the Toronto Distillery District!
By milling the entire grain at a very low temperature we retain all the naturally occurring vitamins, minerals and oils. No need to fortify! Conventional mills superheat their grains and remove the hull before milling to increase the volume/yield and maintain a long shelf life.
Before chemical bleaching was discovered mills used to let their flour sit for approximately 12 weeks to develop the gluten, through natural oxidation in from the air. Since the chemical bleaching process was discovered mills were able to mill and ship in a very short period of time without having to store the flour. This processes also removed all the great vitamins and minerals naturally found in the flour. This created the need to fortify the flour because it is such a staple in our diets.
Fresh milled bread flour has different properties than bleached bread flour. Bleached literally means when the flour turns from a brown colour to white. Oxygen in the air reacts with the flour to turn it white. This natural oxidation process helps develop the gluten in the flour, making the dough stretchy. If you like a light fluffy loaf add 1tsp of vital wheat gluten per cup of fresh milled flour. If you like a denser hearty loaf use the fresh milled bread flour as is! Another major difference is the taste. The oxidation process also tends to mellow the flavours of the grains.
We try to source all our grains from local Ontario farmers. Some grains such as Kamut, don’t grow well in our Ontario climate. Those are sourced from Western Canada. All our grains are from Canadian farms. Our farm is currently in transition from conventional to organic. Our hope is to produce certified organic grains for milling.
Our grains are always Certified Organic!
