April 9 2019, the renovations are done and my milling room looks so fresh and easy to work in. Today the health inspector came to inspect the facility and it got approved to be an official mill!!! Thank you, Case, Koos, Margo, Justin, Thirza and Maurice for all the hard work to get this accomplished. And also Corrie, Henrieke en Ronald, Denise, Conrad and Emmalyn for encouraging me and helping out with house chores so I had time to work in the mill! A special thank you to my nephew Wilmar who came just in time from The Netherlands to help with the last small jobs! this means also that I can start selling my flours to restaurants , a whole new path to go! Thank you also to all my faithful customers who showed me that I am selling a good and healthy product! This encouraged me to go this step ahead! I am able to mill again and hopefully in 14 days I can start to offer you 2 new products. White whole wheat flour and Buckwheat flour. My grains are currently cleaned at the seed cleaner and I hope they will be cleaned and back in 14 days. Another new thing I can offer you is sifted flour. No matter which kind you want I am able to sift out the bran so the flour will be softer and more suitable for baking cookies and cakes. I added some pictures of the new milling room, the silver pan-like machine is the sifter.
0 Comments
It is February 14 and still cold!
We started renovating the mill room! I hope to be able to get my health certificate for food business so I would be able to sell to restaurants and have my flour in the health stores. But right now this keeps us very busy and excited! Right now I can't mill because off all the sawing they are doing but hopefully that job will be done by the end of this day and I can clean every thing and mill again next week. I milled some flour ahead of this, so I do have flour in stock but it is not as fresh as you are used to. Today is January 16 and a grey and colder day! I am not going to complain because so far I have been enjoying this mild winter. Last Saturday it was 20 C in the sun and I took the opportunity to dry the laundry outside and gave my mill a big cleaning!
This week Friday, I hope to attend the small market, organized by Real Estate Center @ the exhibition park in Lethbridge from 3.30-6.00 pm. February 1 and 2 I hope to be at the trade show in Claresholm. I also handed in my application for the Lethbridge Farmers Market for the coming season! Lots to look forward to, again! Time really flies by.
The Farmers market season is already a while behind us and ever since I have had weekly orders. This makes me really happy! Also the comments I get from you how you like my fresh milled flours! Thank you all for that! And a hearty welcome to all my new customers from far and near! In October we could finish our harvest and now I will have 2 new products! We grew buck wheat and white wheat! Both are waiting to be cleaned at a seed cleaner before I can start milling. I am also waiting for my sifter to get installed so I would be able have flour without the Bran. Rest me now to wish you all a Blessed Christmas and all the best for 2019! Case and Herma Van Garderen and family! Coming Saturday I am supposed to go to Millarville .
Due to unforeseen circumstances I won't be able to attend this market. I hope to meet you there again on October 6 which will be the last market for the season in Millarville. Will make sure that I have plenty of fresh milled flour for you so you are able to stock up for the Winter! After a week of Holidays with our family, it is good to be back again.
On Monday , the former miller from Nanton and his wife came to visit my mill. This was a very nice visit and I could share my experiences with them. It was also back to milling to fill some orders and since I sold out on Aug 4 on the Millarville Market. Thank you to all the people who took the time to come out and talk and buy from us!!! I had to mill for this coming Saturday when I hope to be at the Lethbridge Market. I hope to meet a lot of you and you are able to buy fresh milled flour! After all this milling my milling room was very white from all the flour dust, so me and my oldest daughter gave it a good cleaning!! Summer is flying by with all the work on the farm, yard, garden and my milling business.
August is here already and today I went to the Millarville Farmers market. We had a good and enjoyable day and met a lot of new people. Next week we will be closed for a holiday with our family. We hope that we can soon start with the harvest of the buck wheat and the white Spring Wheat. Can't wait to sell those new kind of flours to you! If you have missed me on the market and need some flour, feel free to send me your order! Spring has finally arrived and I am enjoying the nice weather and the new green leaves on my plants and trees. Farmers market is going to start again this Saturday in Lethbridge. I will not be able to attend every Saturday however, will give you the dates which I hope to be there. May 19- June 2- June 30- July 21- Aug 11 or 18?- Sep 8- Sep 29- Oct 20. On the following Saturdays I hope to be on the market in Millarsville. June 16-July 7- Aug 4- Sep 1- Sep 22- Oct 6 In the mean time I have been experimenting with my flour. I wanted to be able to make a nice bread using only my own flours with no need for a white flour. I found a recipe for a whole wheat country bread and after some tries I got a good tasting kind of bread. My whole family agrees with that! (and that says something...since it is not easy to please all 10 people) This bread is easy to make and does not take long to prepare. I hope to have the recipe on my table at the markets and may even make some bread flour packages for purchase. In the meantime my husband and son have been working on clearing a piece of land what previously was a little pasture. They are planning to seed White Spring wheat and some buck wheat there for me. If all goes well I hope to have whole white wheat flour in the fall.
It is still winter and summer seems far away. Still this is the time that I am busy preparing for the coming farmers market season. All kind of paperwork needs to be done and I am getting excited about all this.
In the time we were closed, my husband Case and me went back to The Netherlands to visit our family. We used this time also to visit a windmill which is back to work and learned a lot about milling, what kind of flours, how to mix and get flour "softer". It was very interesting and I am experimenting right now for my own use and hopefully for the coming farmers market season. You can visit their website to have a peek of your own: www.windotter.nl Another exciting move? is that I signed up to go to the Millarville's Farmers market. I hope to go there once a month when I am accepted. This means that I can't be full time in Lethbridge on Saturdays. The first and last month I hope to be there twice, and in between I will attend once a month as well. My products are easy to store and I am always open to get orders in between. I also hope to spend time on learning how to sift and if it is possible to buy a sifter. My products will be whole grains this season because we are not allowed to sell just white flour without putting back all the vitamins, tiamin etc. So there is still a lot to learn for me! We are currently closed.
We hope to start milling again in the week of February 5. |
Archives
April 2024
|