Grain mill business “too neat to let go”
Jochen, left, and Ute Maurer, right, demonstrate a range of grain mills to two visitors from Nelson, Trisha Krishnasamy and Marama Bevan. Photo: Neil Wilson.
“For any kind of healthy living, the fresher your food is, the better,” says Ute Maurer, explaining the main advantage of grinding your own grains.
Ute and Jochen have owned The Grain Mill Company for about two-and-a-half years. They bought it from its founders, Galen and Nicole King, because “it was too neat a business to let go” according to Jochen.
“Galen and Nicole started it up when they were looking to buy their own mill and they had friends who said they’d like one too. It still works that way for us, but now lots of people find us via the internet.” www.grainmills.co.nz
Storing grains can lead to wilting and various forms of degradation, say Jochen and Ute.
“After a year in the cupboard, flour has the same texture as it had when it went in, but the vitamins have degraded,” said Jochen.
Rolled oats are steamed to make them last and to prevent them from going rancid, said Ute. “When you eat freshly rolled oats they have all their enzymes and vitamins, so it’s not just about taste, it’s about goodness too.”
Originally the Maurers would take orders for mills from interested people and import the machines on demand. There was an eight-week delay in that process, so now they are keeping a limited supply in stock all the time.
Ute says the mills are not cheap but they do last a long time, and they enable people who like to bake their own bread to produce their flour to their own taste. “The mills are ideal for people who like to make sourdough bread and who like to kibble wheat to various degrees of coarseness.”
Jochen and Ute have a display of mills in Golden Bay Organics and they are happy to demonstrate the machines to anyone who is interested.
Neil Wilson
