With our holidays behind us, the mill is hard at work keeping up with a steady stream of orders! We have also found time to offer a “Guest Flour” milled from Squareheads Master grain.

This grain has a wonderful story which I share below!

The grain is grown by Jonathan Wheeler whose family own Bardwell Windmill in Suffolk. Jonathan is a steam traction engine specialist and owns his own engine plus a set of threshing tackle. He is also passionate about both traditional crafts and our agricultural heritage. Each year, Jonathan grows a number of acres of Squareheads Master grain which he cuts and then dries in the field using the traditional method of sheaves and stooks.

Once the grain has dried, he threshes it using his steam threshing tackle as the video below demonstrates. Jonathan has kindly offered us some grain this year which we offer to you! From a baking perspective, it is a lowish protein flour with large soft flakes of bran. A lovely flavour which is used best by blending it with some higher protein wheats such as the Priors White Flour .

Everything is used, the grain, the straw which is sold to Thatchers and the chaff which is used for animal feed. As you can see from the video, the work requires a dedicated team of hard working people and reminds us of the way our forebears worked together in our rural communities. The sacks of grain are the old half hundred weight sacks – you certainly know when you’ve moved a few of those in a day!

It’s been a busy few weeks at Priors Flour HQ, so we email today to bring you up to date with some pictures of the fantastic repair work which we’ve completed and to provide early warning of a suspension of the mail order service during June due to planned staff absence. This work has cost in excess of £4,000.00 – so you can see what your flour purchases enable!

Mail Order – offline between 3rd June and 23rd June

To give you a heads-up, we will not be taking mail orders between the above dates, so please get your orders in ahead of the break. The mill shop and mill itself will be open as usual, so if you are able to come to Swaffham Prior, you can pick up your flour as usual on Thursday mornings between 9am and 1pm and on the 9th June from 2pm to 5pm (2nd Sunday of the Month opening).

Maintenance Update

Following an earlier post where we showed you the damage done by the winter rain and cold, we’ve been hard at work completing a series of important maintenance tasks! Our lime mortar specialist James Ingram worked for two solid weeks to repair the damaged brickwork using lime mortar and local reclaimed bricks:

After leaving the brickwork to dry for a number of weeks, we have then re-surfaced the top of the cap with a new coat of fibreglass flowcoat, repainted the fantail and finally, re-tarred the mill tower! A huge amount of work as the video below shows! Our thanks to millwright Cameron Southcote for all his work – it’s been a huge team effort! The repair bill for this work alone is over £4,000.00 so, please keep supporting our work!

Fosters Mill is celebrating National Mills Weekend 2024, opening our doors on Sunday 12th May from 2pm to 5pm to welcome visitors as the nation celebrates our Industrial Milling Heritage.

Given that we are in the midst of repair work at the mill, our celebrations are slightly more limited than in previous years, but if you’re looking for something to do this Sunday, our part of Cambridgeshire offers a unique opportunity to visit lots of mills, including ourselves, in a short distance!

Wind is forecast, so we will be working away, milling on the wind for you to see!

Burwell Windmill, Wicken Windmill, Lode Watermill and Fosters Mill will all be open – so come and join us for a tour, refreshments and a chance to stock up on store cupboard essentials!

Our thanks to the Mills Section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings for all their work in co-ordinating National Mills Weekend. Find out more here!

If, like us, you have struggled to get your head around the claims, hype and facts made by some new flour producers regarding their regenerative credentials, you will be interested to read the evidence based information recently released by the Soil Association exploring the differences between organic and regenerative farming practices.

As traditional millers who are committed to the principles of organic production, a system that can confidently demonstrate (through evidence gathered through audits) it delivers what it claims to deliver, we have been increasingly concerned by the marketing-heavy claims made by some producers of flours made from grains grown under regenerative systems. The speed with which this segment of our industry has grown has been suprising, especially when compared to the pace at which organic systems develop – a pace which is primarily goverened by the time taken to move production from conventional farming techniques, through the “conversion” process (a number of years) to certifiable organic farming.

We have no concern with competition, but do have concerns that customers are not being misled. As you will see from the Soil Association information, organic and regenerative systems approach broadly similar aims, but in different ways and achieve subtly different outcomes due to the standards which each system works to achieve.

We are also pleased to work to deliver a system that can confidently demonstrate the following:

See below to download a pdf of the infographics shared above:

This blog post shows you what your flour purchases will help fund over the coming weeks as we embark on repairs costing over £6,000.00!

2024 is going to be an expensive year. Owning a Grade 2* listed building, as some of you will know is both a blessing and a curse – huge enjoyment, but the responsibility of maintainance and upkeep of the historic building fabric.

The hideous weather of the last winter has taken its toll and this year, we are faced with significant costs repairing the brickwork of the mill tower, in particular the North face. The mill is constructed of soft Cambridegshire bricks – yellow bricks which are then coated in coal tar, the traditional way to keep the rainwater out. This works well on the sides of the mill which get sunlight – what water does get through cracks in the tar evaporates out as the wall surface heats in the sunlight. Sadly, the sun does not reach the North face of the mill and consequently, water gets trapped. With last winter’s extremely wet weather, we have had the double whammy of soaking wet brickwork and then frost heave on those cold winter nights (yes, we had enough to cause major damage….).

You can see this with my explanation on our Facebook feed:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/942736880624897

The video above shows the result – bricks which have disintegrated or been badly damaged as the fronts of the bricks break away due to frost heave. All of this has to be repaired. So far, our brick / lime mortar specialist has replaced 30 bricks as he has rebuilt sections of the tower wall before repointing it. This is done with lime mortar, so that the tower can breathe and absorb the movement which occurs as the mill works – turning into wind and the sails rotating.

Once the new lime mortar is dry, the tower will be re-coated in tar in the traditional way as this still offers the best waterproofing.

In addition to this, we will also re-coat the mill cap in fibreglass this year and carry out a range of other maintenance tasks. The bill will be in excess of £6,000.00, so your help by purchasing our flour is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for any help you provide by buying our flour.