A Historic Day

There was a mill recorded at Hawk Mill Farm in the Domesday book of 1086. It was also recorded in the Inquisitio Comitatus Cantabrigiensis (The Inquisition of the County of Cambridge), value 5s.4d.

A controversial (and the subject of a court case, White & others vs Chesterton RDC) watercourse diversion to alleviate flooding resulted in a lack of water to drive the mill meaning it fell into disuse in 1937.

Today, 22nd January 2022, for the first time in 85 years corn grown on the farm was milled again, history spanning over 936 years. The tabletop

Mockmill used clearly has a much lower output than the original mill apparatus and uses electricity instead of water power, but importantly to me uses stones for the grinding process. 

The wheat being milled has of course changed over the decades as new more productive varieties are bred. However, the wheat I grow is a blend of the three varieties Solstice, Zyatt and Skyfall that have been “grown on” (seed from on crop resown the next year) for four years and there is a thought that this blend adapts itself to the soil and conditions it’s grown under on the farm. Therefore, I’m claiming it as my own variety!

The flour I produced is wholemeal and requires sieving to remove the bran element to produce a purer white flour similar to that which we are used to purchasing. The modern commercial milling process uses a series of mills with steel rollers which “shear” the grain and the resulting flour is milled and sieved several times to get it fine and pure (white flour) enough to market.

I have a small flour hand sieve to remove some of the bran element but it only seemed fair that the first loaf I baked (well our Panasonic baked!) was HMF wholemeal.

We recently bought a Panasonic bread maker (recommended) and have been experimenting with blends of different flours sourced for our excellent local Darwin Farm Shop. My thinking was that these are an excellent way to reliably make some good loaves before getting too experimental.

However I can report that my first loaf of Regen-Ag, Hawk Mill Farm 100% wholemeal bread was absolutely delicious.

My really experimental milling/baking will have to wait until after harvest as this is when I’ll have some heritage wheat to use. I’ve planted a small area of a blend of 20 old varieties that have been crossed (interbred) 190 ways. These seeds have then been further subjected to natural field selection over at least 15 generations. Each year the grain continues to naturally select the grains that perform best on the soil that they are being grown on.

The resulting wheat blend has huge diversity and I looking forward to seeing this “Heinz 57” crop at harvest.

I also have a plot of Millers Choice which is a population of long straw wheats selected to have a dominance of red wheats (Lammas varieties) rather than the more modern Squarehead wheats which should offer flavour, good milling qualities and disease resistance. Some of these varieties were grown as early as 1650! Whilst wheat from the 1960s is old Spelt is has a much longer heritage.

Spelt is a species of wheat that has been cultivated since approximately 5000 BC. I have purchased some Spelt flour and blended it with strong white bread flour and it makes a very flavoursome loaf. Spelt also grows very tall like other old wheats but has the disadvantage that once harvested it need de-hulling to remove the outer husk. This is a process used on oats to remove the groat before it is milled or flaked so a common process but no one that is often done on farm.

David White

(Vice Chairman, Farmer, Miller, Baker, Consumer!)