Spelt and Stones - Bob's Red Mill, Portland by Chris

August 10, 2007

Thought I’d try to post a few quick thoughts while we have a spare moment here on the bus.. need to keep everyone up to date out there on the world wide web. First though, I feel obligated to note that Portland, Oregon is a beautiful city; gorgeous weather, lovely old architecture, a spectacular public transportation system, and an exceptionally bicycle-friendly culture and infrastructure (which earns big points in my book).

Anyway, we awoke early this morning to enjoy a hearty breakfast at Bob's Red Mill on the outskirts of Portland. Bob's is an impressive company that uses traditional stone mills to grind a dazzling variety of grains (I'm pretty sure I've never seen so many different grains in one place).

We had the pleasure of meeting Bob, several of his company's friendly staff members, the two farmers who grow the spelt that Bob grinds into flour, and the owner of Nature Bake, a Portland bakery that buys spelt from Bob's to make fantastic bread (he brought a few loaves for us to sample). Pretty neat to see the whole group - farmer to processor to baker to consumer.

After breakfast, we toured the facilities, marveling at the traditional stone mills and the enormous bags of grain. I was really psyched to learn about the mills – apparently, the stones are all cut from a particular quartz quarry in France, then shipped to Denmark, where they're fitted into mills by a highly specialized mill manufacturer.

I was most impressed though, by the fact that despite major expansions in production and distribution, Bob's Red Mill remains devoted to producing healthful, natural products using traditional, natural production methods. As Bob emphasized, their production process is very simple; grain is purchased from farmers, "kissed" by the stones, and sold to consumers. Equally impressive is the fact that the company retains complete control over all aspects of production; everything from the grinding to the packaging to the label design is done in-house; nothing is outsourced to other companies. It's always a pleasure to see a good company enjoy success.

Want to read more about our events today?

The Real Dirt on Farmer John and a Pie and a Pint
Plate and Pitchfork
Zenger Farms
Growing Gardens

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