life - FOOD & DRINK
Flour
Power!..
by Mark Young
St Helens Restaurant
Matt Bowman of the stone
ground flour company has
recently taken residence of
Little Duxmore farm and
with his team of dedicated
staff is taking the Island’s
organic flour market by
storm.
I was introduced to Matt’s flour
through a supplier to St Helens
Restaurant. Knowing my passion
for Island ingredients, Stuart
and Phil of Carisbrooke Cuisine
(408409), suggested we try it for
bread making and since first using
the Vectis Malty, customer feedback
has been so positive that I have
continued to use more products
from Matt’s range in the daily
menus at the restaurant.
Mark: How long have you been
involved in milling?
Matt:
Since childhood. My
Mother’s family have been millers
in Nelstrop in Stockport for about
200 years. We moved to the Island
when I was 4, but whenever we
headed back up north, I would
spend as much time as possible
88
working in my uncle’s mill.
Mark: You really have got flour in
your blood then Matt!
Matt:
Yes, on leaving college I
took an apprenticeship at Marriages
Mill in Chelmsford. An old boy
called Jess Whiteman taught me
to grind flour on stones, although
they were turned electronically the
grinding methods were traditional.
We use these same methods at Little
Duxmore.
Mark: And then?
Matt:
In 1985 I moved to Ranks
Solent Mill in Southampton where
they used much more modern
roller mills. I stayed for two years,
but then did not work in milling
for the next eight years. Eventually
though I did find myself drawn
back to the life and we leased Lower
Calbourne Mill in 1995 it was then
that we formed the Stoneground
Flour Company. In 2001 we moved
to a water mill in South Oxfordshire
and continued the company there.
But the Island and its people are
addictive and we returned in 2004
to take up at Langbridge Farm.
Mark: How far have you come
since 2004?
Matt:
We were milling about
100 tonnes of grain per annum at
Langbridge and by the end of this
year that will have increased to 300
tonnes at Little Duxmore mill.
Mark: Is all the grain organic and
from the Island?
Matt:
Thirty tonnes of what
we mill is organic, twenty of which
comes from our own 107 acres. We
have 77 acres certified organic by the
Soil Association and the remaining
30 acres will be certified by 2008. We
buy a further ten tonnes of organic
grain from other Island farmers, the
remaining 270 tonnes also comes
from Island farmed grain and is
used to make our standard flours a
majority of which goes to mainland
buyers and larger island bakeries.
Mark: So what organic grains have
you got sown this season?
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