04/30/2025
This past Friday found Angela (me!) waking up before the sun, not to start a bread bake, but to head across the mountains and join a group of fellow grain enthusiasts at the Bread Lab in Burlington, WA, to learn about maintaining our New American Stone Mills from the mill maker himself, Andrew Heyn. It was my first time meeting Andrew in person, though many email exchanges and phone calls had occurred over the years trying to troubleshoot various aspects of Mildred and Big Bertha (or is she Millicent?? We still haven't quite decided). Sitting in a room with other movers (millers??) and shakers (sifters??) in this grain world was inspiring, energizing, and, frankly, nourishing. While I'm often nervous heading into these kinds of meetings and classes, that darned imposter specter looming in the corners of my brain, I come away from these experiences filled with so much more than just knowledge, in awe of the efforts happening in our respective mills, bakeries, farms, and breweries. I am simply grateful for the sense of empathy and time spent with other like-minded individuals, swapping stories, experiences, various tips and tricks for working with these local grains and tools, methods for the (seemingly at times) madness, and ideas for increasing our collective local grain love. 🌾These kinds of meetups seem all the more important during these times rife with uncertainty as they offer a kind of grounding and centering, bringing me back to the core purpose of this business, this lifestyle: community, and excellence. Thank you, , and thank you Andrew and the other millers & bakers both in that room, and across the globe, striving each day towards a more resilient, nutritious, colorful, and of course, flavorful, future. ❤️Check out our stories for more play-by-play action of the day's activities and stay tuned as we flex our muscles dressing Mildred's stones in coming weeks. 💪✨💫
