Old Stone Mill, Delta, Ontario

Grinding the Grain at the Old Stone Mill

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We're grinding grain in the Old Stone Mill
The grain hopper and the wooden vat that encloses the operating millstones. Expert miller Roland Tetrault at the helm.
Three volunteer millers (l to r): Moel Benoit, Art Shaw and Chris Wooding receive their miller certficates at the 2011 AGM (trained by miller Roland Tetrault).
The grain - in this case heritage Red Fyfe Wheat


The grain is put into the hopper
The grain in the hopper
Miller Art Shaw adjusts the stones as they grind the grain
The grain is fed from the hopper to the centre of the stones


The flour is moved by elevator to the bolter on the second floor. The bolter sorts the flour into grades (from superfine/fine, middlings, shorts and bran)
Flour from the bolter is bagged by hand. In the original mill this process was automatic, the flour from the bolter going down into bags on the lower floor.
A flour bag is loaded with superfine (breadmaking) flour
Millie (aka Natalie Wood, Museum Manager and Associate Curator) holds up the final retail product


The public can buy our stone ground heritage flour
Happy customers with their bags of flour
Wheat berries (in the middle, the darkest in colour), bran\n(at the back, next darkest), fine flour (white) and middlings (in-between colour).
In addition to flour, we also have loaves of fresh bread made from our flour


Our flour is especially good for bread making - any size or shape of loaf
The millstones were installed in time for the mill's 200th anniversary in 2010. Here we see the husk (the foundation for the stones) prior to the stones being installed
One of the stones is ready for installation
The hopper and the vat that will cover the stones


Dressing (sharpening) the bedstone
The runner stone is lowered on top of the bedstone
Our curator, Paul George, stands behind the stones that are in place prior to being covered by the vat
A view showing the waterwheel, the husk and the millstones


The hopper and vat are on top of the stones - the mill is ready to grind
We thank Roland Tetrault for his great help in showing us to to properly grind grain with our 200 year old equipment.
In addition to flour making, we sometimes offer special courses on bread making
Learning proper kneading techiques


The loaves are prepared for the oven
The mill also shows how grain used to be ground - in this case a stump and pestle
A hand quern is like a mini set of millstones - operated by hand.
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