#069 Communities Were Built Around This
The return of the Miller & Baker, with Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor is a miller and baker at the Miller + Baker store, recently opened in North Perth. It is a spectacular American Stone Mill (the first of its kind in Western Australia), and an amazing bakery, but that’s not the half of it. You might remember in my conversation with pioneering regenerative farmers Dianne and Ian Haggerty, for episode 68, that they mentioned some of their ‘natural intelligence’ grains go to this local miller and baker. Well, I’ve followed the grain’s trail to hear more of this brilliant story.
Rachel & Mark Taylor (pic supplied). (See more photos below)
“If you look back at why people moved away from this model, and what used to happen in the old days - in the old days, communities were built around farmers and milling. Then suddenly we’ve gone to this mono-culture, just grow the same wheat everywhere, fields and fields and fields of it, going off to a roller mill nowhere near the community. And people, I think, are moving back. ”
Mark had barely even run a mill before embarking on this adventure. But with wife Rachel, they found an increasing passion for it, and a growing base of support, and opened late last year. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, and partly because it, business has taken off. They find themselves open every day of the week now, with rapidly growing volumes of regeneratively grown grains coming in from the wheat belt, and out via the mill. And their vision has only just begun.
Mark was kind enough to show me around this pretty special venture – the sort of local processor and store that seems so central to what is needed now – for healthier food and communities, secure and joyful supply chains, and no less than a functional living world as a whole.
L-R below: Mark on the job, the plate on the mill (both pics supplied, along with the last pic of Mark below), & the sequence demonstrated during the podcast, with the grains picked up from the Haggerty’s farm a few days prior (pics: Anthony James). Click on the photos for full view.
Get more:
Hear more about where the grains come from, in this conversation with Dianne & Ian Haggerty on location in the wheat belt: Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health & community.
Music:
Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.