Watermilling
By Alison Park, 28 January 2011 –
At the Watermill, Little Salkeld, yesterday, a few of us from Low Sizergh Barn learned about grains, blends of flour and the pleasure of bread baking.
We met the miller, dusty with flour, listened to the huge stones grinding the biodynamic grains that come from English farms, and marvelled at old machinery. It was technology that has been improvised, fettled, and modified, repeatedly, over decades. I asked Nick if he was mechanically oriented, if, when he and Ana came to the mill in the 1970s and began its restoration, he relished making it all work. He replied that no, the mill was a means to an end and every piece was as important as the next: farming organically, stonegrinding using clean self-renewing water power, making bread slowly. The Watermill is at the hub of a whole chain of human endeavour and interaction, all directed at connecting people, land, agriculture and food. Fantastic!