A building that only does one thing

Built in 1874 to grind for four parishes, idle from 1961, back on the water since 2009. The gearing is the original timber. The electricity is only for the lights and the beam scale.

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A timber mill building standing over dark water, its wheel shaded under the eaves02 · Stone — the wheel house, March
One room, one Tuesday

The stamp carries the clock

Everywhere else on this site the stamp names a stage. On this page it names a time, because there is only ever one stage happening here — 02, stone — and the thing that changes is the hour.

A wooden water wheel with water pouring over its paddles into a timber trough
05.40

The sluice

Two turns of the handwheel and the leat fills. It takes about nine minutes for the wheel to come up to speed, and in that time Ingela walks the floor listening for anything loose.

A wide timber roof structure above a heap of pale loose material in a barn
07.10

Grain down

The week's wheat comes out of the loft by sack hoist, eighty kilos at a time, over the cleaner and into the hopper. The hoist is the loudest thing in the building and the only part anyone wants to film.

A small bright window set high in a dark stone wall under heavy ceiling beams
09.40

First flour

The first twenty kilos go back up the hopper — they carry whatever was left in the stones from Friday. What comes after that is the batch, and it is warm enough to hold your hands in.

A white timber mill building with a large wooden wheel on its gable, seen from the yard
12.30

Wheel stopped

If the furrows need relaying the sluice shuts at half twelve and nothing turns until Thursday. Dressing a pair of stones by hand is two days of work and it is why we will not add a second grain to a Tuesday.

Dusty wooden floorboards running away under a brick wall in a dim loft
16.00

Swept

Flour dust in the air is the one genuine danger in a mill, so the floor is swept and the boards damped before the lights go off. Nothing is stored overnight that was milled that day except the batch sample.

From the mill book
92rpmThe speed of the runner stone. Above about 110 the flour comes off warm and the germ oil starts to go.
1,4tonnes a weekAll seven grains together. A mid-sized roller mill does that before its first coffee break.
10days to your doorThe longest a wholegrain sack is allowed to exist before someone bakes with it.
1874the houseTimber gearing, stone walls a metre thick, a roof we have paid for twice.

Four fields, named

We buy standing crops, not grain off a market. That means we agree the variety in February, watch it through the summer, and take whatever the season gives — including the year the emmer came in at 9,4% and we told everyone to use it for pasta instead.

Stora Bjurum18 kmDala and Öland landrace wheat, svedje rye
Kleva9 kmEmmer, pearled barley
Vinberg31 kmHalland spelt, dehulled on site
Åsle backe6 kmThe trial strip — six varieties, most of which fail
Ripe wheat heads in shallow focus, the field falling away behind them01 · Field — Stora Bjurum
A single ear of wheat lying on a plain pale ground03 · Sack — Åsle trial, 4

Two people, no third

A woman in a felt hat and striped shirt standing at the edge of a field at dusk01 · Field — Åsle backe, half past eight

Ingela Berg

Miller · took the lease in 2009

Trained as a structural engineer, which is how the roof got fixed and why the gearing is documented to the millimetre. Runs the stones Tuesday and Thursday and is the one who says no to a bakery that wants forty more sacks.

A man leaning on a bakery counter with a row of finished loaves in front of him05 · Crumb — the counter, end of Saturday

Tobias Hjelm

Bakes Thursday to Saturday · here since 2016

Came for a two-week trial from a bakery in Göteborg and stayed. Bakes every batch we sell before it goes on the list, which is why the notes on the flour pages read like complaints.

A ruined stone mill with a rusted wheel standing among trees

The mill is open on Saturdays

No tour, no talk, no ticket. The door to the stone floor is open from nine and someone will answer whatever you ask, unless the hoist is running, in which case shout.

How to find us
What comes off the stones