Bridging the Gap for Local Wheat, from Farm to Loaf

As you know, we are bringing an old farm back to life in Willsboro with good bread.

Three years ago, many of you loaned us funds through Kiva to help us build a wood-fired bread oven.

The Kiva community championed our first loan where traditional lending sources wouldn’t and this launched our business to a new level.

Thank you all so much for that support! We truly appreciate it.

That gracious loan support has been fully repaid and we are now on to another project (and a new Kiva loan) that builds upon the foundation of the previous one.

A Stone Mill for the Breadery

For our next project we are looking to deepen our commitment to good bread and to our community by sourcing wheat grown locally and by milling our own flour here at the Breadery.

With this Kiva loan we are asking for a large portion of the funds required to purchase a 26” stone mill from New American Stone Mills from Elmore, Vermont.

Having a stone mill in our Breadery will help us complete the circle from farm to loaf

We’ve baked breads before with freshly milled whole grain flour, on a much smaller scale, and the flavor, aroma, nutrition and quality is unmatched simply because it is so fresh.

Many bakeries across the country are rediscovering the benefits of freshly milled flour for their breads and stone milling, which is a slower & gentler process versus high speed roller milling, helps keep the vitamin E rich oil of the germ and the nutrition of the bran intact.

We’d love to be able to bring these benefits to a wider range of people in our community.

A Deeper Commitment to Local

While all of the flour we currently bake with is 100% organic, much of it is not local.

We came to our farm in the Adirondacks for a sense of place among it’s wild protected, rural beauty and with a mission of feeding our community with the foods we love.

It made sense in developing those plans that we seek out and connect with other local farms with similar values for solidarity, for equity and most crucially for food sovereignty.

With that goal in mind we have partnered with a local farmer minutes away from us that is currently growing certified organic heritage wheat varieties like Banatka and Einkorn, in addition to hard red winter wheat.

With this mill we will be able to not only bake breads with local flours with wheat grown right down the road, we will be able to support a farm in our community by doing so.

Milling Up New Opportunities

Freshly-milled whole grain organic flour will be available to our customers at our farm store, at farmers’ markets and may increase our wholesale opportunities.

For instance, it may be possible for us to provide bread for area schools as there are incentives to purchase baked goods in cafeterias where 51% or more of the wheat is grown and milled in New York State.

Another one of the benefits in having this mill is to use it as a teaching tool and opportunity for children and families that visit our farm to explain where our wheat comes from, demonstrate how it’s milled, talk about the benefits of whole grain flours, and ultimately share some tastes of baked goods from our wood-fired oven.

A Local Grain Economy for the Adirondacks

This project is about building a local grain economy (admittedly a small scale one) for our region and creating a platform for future steps.

From this foundation however we will also share our experiences (our triumphs, failures, costs, etc…) transparently with other farmers and bakers so that they too can join in this open-source movement towards local grains and food sovereignty.

Whether it’s in a pita bread, a cracker or even a bag of flour, with your support we can increase access to locally grown landrace and heritage wheats in our community on a human scale.

Much like wine, wheat can have it’s own terroir here in the Adirondacks and we believe this is something we can showcase by freshly milling flour for our breads, crackers and other baked goods.

As a social finance platform, we cherish Kiva as a fantastic resource to fund projects on our farm and grow our impact in the community.