Stone Milling Of Flour: Ancient Technology Is Catching On Again

A young Vermont couple who got hooked on selling bread baked with a friend’s home-milled flour now find themselves – and their bakery, Elmore Mountain Bread – in the vanguard of the burgeoning stone-milling movement. Grinding wheat between stones is an ancient technology, long since replaced by the roller milling process used by today’s industrial baking companies. Wheat ground by stone not only tastes better, it is more nutritious, advocates say. Unfortunately, it has a short shelf life, because the flour retains the wheat berry’s bran, endosperm and fiber- and omega 3-rich germ. If farmers can grow the right wheat for stone milling, it might mean better bread for consumers, and growing competition for Big Flour from regional bakers like Elmore Mountain.