Buy Our Grains
Bloody Butcher Corn
An heirloom variety that has been grown in Appalachia since at least as early as the mid-1800s. Its exact origins are unknown, but it was also grown in Tennessee, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Small family farms have been diligently saving its seed generation after generation. It is prized for its distinctive beautiful color and unique flavor.
Heirloom Yellow Corn
Our heirloom corn is a variety of corn known as Cateto Orange Corn, originally hailing from South America. Traces of its genetics are found in many commonly grown modern varieties of maize today. While popularly grown in Argentina and Brazil in the late 1800s, a version of it made its way to Cuba in the early 1900s, where it became known as Maiz Argentino or Especial.
Heirloom White Corn
Our heirloom white corn is a variety of corn known as Truckers Favorite. Truckers Favorite is an open pollinated variety originally developed in the late 19th century as a green roasting corn. Though most folks now prefer modern sweet corn, Tucker’s Favorite has stuck around thanks to its excellence as grits, meal and hominy.
Wheat
We use a few different regionally varieties of wheat in our products. For our bread flours we use hard red wheats and our pastry flours are soft red wheats.
Spelt
Spelt also known as farro grande--is one of the most versatile grains we mill. Simultaneously delicate and robust (it is equally suitable for bread and pastry), it’s applications are as far ranging as porridge, pilaf, pizza and pierogies. One of the wild grasses of the fertile crescent that spawned mediterranean agriculture, modern varieties are relatively unchanged from their ancient ancestors.
The variety we mill is Maverick, which is known for its soft texture and aromas of honey and hay.
Rye
We use a variety commonly known as “danko” which was bred from a lineage of Northern European ryes known for their high starch content and excellent performance in traditional whole rye loaves of the region. Danko itself hails from Poland’s Warta River valley and is well adapted to the Mid-Atlantic climate.
Buckwheat
Originally domesticated in China 8,000 years ago, it was also one of the first crops cultivated by European settlers in North America. Though no longer as popular in this part of the world as it once was; it is regenerative to tired soils, requiring little nitrogen and only a short growing season. For these reasons buckwheat may be the most ecologically friendly “grain” on the market. It also makes distinctly delicious pancakes and noodles.
Oats
Originally a secondary crop of the fertile crescent, the humble oat eventually migrated to northern climes where it thrived in the cool, wet summers. It found a following among the people there as a porridge and the rest is history. Our Streaker oats are bred to have a loose hull that is easily removed during harvest, therefore requiring no specialized dehulling equipment. This makes growing oats more viable for the small farms that we like to source our grains from.
Mixes
Try our special blend of buckwheat, wheat flour, and cornmeal—stone ground and mixed in small batches. By using locally grown, non-GMO grains, you get a real taste of Virginia for breakfast. It’s all you need to be ready for the day.
Heirloom Blue Corn
Our heirloom blue corn is a variety of corn known as Ohio Blue Clarage Dent Corn.
This is an old variety that has a higher sugar content than most other dent corns, which makes its cornmeal have an undeniably sweet flavor. It mills easily and makes speckled blue and white flour. Old-timers claim that if you feed blue clarage to your chickens, the chickens will eat more, lay more eggs, and put on more meat.
Popcorn
The variety of popcorn we are offering is known as Dynamite! Popcorn has been around almost as long as corn itself and this variety is an old heirloom from South America. Dynamite has been known for its big kernels, bright orange color and lightly buttery flavor ever since the seed was introduced to this country a century ago. William Hale has been growing it for almost that long here in the Virginia foothills on certified organic acreage–he claims it’s so good it’ll blow your top off!