local grain economy
The very first piece of equipment that Mountain Oven bought back in 2010 was a used 8” Meadows grain mill. We have always believed in the immense value of fresh-milled flour.
When we relocated our lives and the business to Paonia in 2018, we found the support to go deeper into our use of local grains. The next couple of years propelled this work forward in ways we couldn’t have imagined.
In February 2020 we hosted a Grain Gathering to talk with our local farming community about our vision to work directly with them to have grains grown for bakery use. In August of that year, TK of North Fork Organics (one of the growers who had attended the Grain Gathering) came into the bakery with a fistful of wheat and asked if we wanted 50,000 pounds. We sure did!
Through the winter of 2020 - 2021, we built out a room in our facility dedicated for milling. In May 2021, we installed a new mill - a 48” granite mill and adjoined sifter from New American Stone Mills, a purchase supported by a 0% interest loan we received from the 2Forks Club.
By the spring of 2021, local grain was readily rolling into the bakery. With our new millstones spinning and a growing supply of local wheat, we started learning how to mill in earnest!
Transitioning our bakery formulas to using locally grown fresh milled flours became a major focus and we created a goal for ourselves: to become a 100% local grain bakery. We are currently milling over 60% of the flour the bakery uses. We still have much work to do to achieve our goal of baking with 100% local grain. Our community has supported our work as do our fantastic local growers.
In May of 2022, we were awarded a Farm to Market Grant from the Colorado Department of Agriculture. This grant is supporting the next steps in our project: Local Grain Processing in the North Fork Valley. Our project entails building infrastructure in our facility to increase our storage and processing capacities for local grains.
To resolve the challenges of storing the harvest for our growers, we are installing a silo for bulk storage onsite at the millhouse. We are also purchasing and installing a grain cleaner, enabling additional producers to grow grains for us who do not own their own seed cleaning equipment. We are also installing elevators and augers to facilitate an increased volume of grain to move through the millhouse and help us bring locally grown, fresh milled flours to our regional market.
We are looking for more farming partners to join our network of growers.
If you are interested in growing grain for human consumption (wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, etc.) please reach out! Farmers of all scales are a good fit for us - anything from an acre to 50 acres of field space can be an appropriate size for the many grain varieties we are interested in sourcing.
We are seeking additional funding opportunities to ensure our ability to keep this project moving forward. If you would like to support this work, please contact us directly at bread@mountainoven.com.
