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.

With Easter around the corner, please see below the dates on which our mail order service will be closed for staff holidays:

Closed from 20th March 2024 until 2nd April.

Orders received on the 20th March will be processed before our break, then again on the 2nd April.

The mill shop remains open, so customers who can come to the mill will be welcomed on the 21st March and the 28th March!

Happy Easter Everyone!

#RealBreadWeek is upon us and what better way than to re-stock your larder than with some of our new high protein milling wheat & flours, milled from wheat grown by Angus McDowall of North Berwick.

Reduced Prices

We are pleased to have been able to pass on some of the price reductions we have achieved in purchasing this latest harvest. You will recall that grain prices for the 2022 harvest rocketed after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Thankfully, the market has calmed down somewhat and as a result, we have passed on savings to you on all our grains and most of our flour products.

New High Protein Milling Wheat

We have recently taken delivery of Mulika variety wheat grown in North Berwick. The 2023 harvest turned out to be a real headache for us millers. Drought in the early summer of 2023 meant the spring sown grain crops struggled for lack of moisture at a key period in the growing cycle, especially in the South East and East Anglia. As a result most of the usual farms we would by from produced grains which were pinched (small and shrivelled) leading to poor Bushel weights. Whilst protein levels were good, the high proportion of bran to starch (too little starch), meant either millers had to blend parcels of wheat together (something we don’t have the space to do), or to go further afield. Thankfully, the cooler growing conditions of the North East enabled Angus to grow a crop with fuller grains and our new flour has a protein content of 13.2%.

Our new flours and high protein grain have all the qualities you would expect from the Priors Flour and, cheaper prices to boot! See our test bakes – sourdough by hand & machine bakes!