[Note: See Coop Pricing Sheets for Stutzman grain prices.]
Today I traveled with Karl of Ag Access to visit the Stutzman farm and mill in Wayne County. It was a "field trip" so that I could meet Monroe Stutzman in person and get a tour of his milling facility.
There are three farms in their family which are all devoted to growing organic grains. They specialize in growing spelt. This is the second generation of the family to run the mill. Because they are Amish, the entire operation is quite fascinating. Over the years they have bought up old machinery that cleans, hulls, sorts, rolls, sifts and grinds the grain. Some of the engines are powered by diesel. One room contained the "puffer" machine which puffs up to 200 pounds of grain at one time for their puffed cereals. Another piece of equipment bakes the honey onto the puffed grains in what looks like a big tumbler.
They have everything located in one large building structure which accommodates a small storefront at one end, and all of the milling equipment at the other. When I walked in to the storefront I could smell the wonderful aroma of their spelt graham crackers baking. (Boo-hoo! I couldn't try any samples!) There is a kitchen area off the storefront which accommodates their commercial bakery operation. In the middle room of the facility is a cold storage facility, interestingly powered by an old truck unit. All of the grains and flours are stored in this giant cooler after they have been packaged.
Monroe Stutzman earnestly inquired about the quality of his grain. He is very intent on creating the best possible product and wants to hear feedback. He is still fussing about creating an absolutely white flour. His spelt flour continues to have about 5-10% germ and bran in it, which is not acceptable by commercial standards. I told him, however, that I didn't think this was a major issue for those in the food coop. He was also interested in knowing what grains he should be planting for the future. Karl and I encouraged him to continue planting the hard red bread wheat, and to find a source for the Prairie Gold seed. Several years ago the family received a grant from the Ohio Department of Agriculture to grow hard red wheat experimentally on Ohio soil to see how high the protein content could be. The results were surprisingly high!
One possible market we discussed for future grain sales was the homeschool community. I told him that many of our coop members are also members of local homeschool support groups. In recent weeks I have been contacted by a few homeschool mothers interested in purchasing local Ohio certified organic grain at these very reasonable prices. If you know of anyone who would be interested in grain orders for the future, please put them in touch with me. Karl was very helpful about this possibility since Stutzman's is part of his regular truck route. In the case of large orders he will deliver. He prefers that people contact me for arrangements since he is on the road most of the time.
All in all, I came away very enthusiastic -- once again -- about supporting a local Ohio farm family that is dedicated to a high quality organic product.
