The Flour Mill – Part 1: Stone Ground

"You are grinding too fast," said Ruthie.

"I'm turning the wheel," said Noelle.

"It's a stone. Not a coffee grinder."

Noelle let go of the iron handle and stepped back, dusty to the eyebrows, laughing. The old water mill stood by a rushing creek in the hills of Vermont, a tall grey-timbered building with a huge wooden wheel turning in the stream, a slate roof and a floor that trembled with the grind of the stones. The air inside was warm and sweet, thick with floating white flour that lit up in the sunlight from the windows like gold dust.

She was thirty-one, a baker from Burlington, in a floury apron, with a mass of dark curls tied up in a scarf and a plain, honest face. Ruthie, thirty-five, the miller, was broad and sturdy, with cropped grey-brown hair, a canvas apron and arms as strong as a blacksmith's. She had run the mill for twelve years. Her grandfather had run it before her.

"Why not faster?"

"Because heat spoils the grain."

"How can heat spoil it?"

"It scorches the oils. Makes it bitter." Ruthie dipped a hand into the flour chute and held a pinch to Noelle's nose. "Smell."

It smelled of wheat and warm bread and something sweet, green and nutty. Noelle closed her eyes.

"That's the best flour I've ever smelled."

"It's slow."

"I can tell."

She stayed all afternoon. Ruthie showed her the stones, the wheel, the long wooden sluice. She showed her how to dress the stone, with a hammer, chipping fine furrows into the grinding face. Noelle's arms ached. The flour was in her hair, her eyelashes, her teeth. When they finally sat on the porch with mugs of cider, the sun was low and gold over the hills, and the creek chuckled beneath them.

"I've been buying flour from a catalogue for ten years," said Noelle. "I had no idea."

"Nobody does."

"Can I ask you something?" said Noelle.

"Yes."

"Could I bake here? In the mill? With this?"

"Green?" said Ruthie, a wheel, a stone.

"Green," said Noelle, beaming. "Very green. Is there an oven?"

Continue the story: Part 2 – First Loaf.