Green Mountain Flour Looking To Bring Back 'The Story Of Bread'

WINDSOR, VT. - Launched a little over a year ago, Green Mountain Flour is a mill, bakery and pizza caterer created by Zach Stremlau and based in Windsor. Originally from Maine, Zach honed his baking and bread-making skills while working in San Francisco and Kentucky, before landing a job at King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont.

---

Photos courtesy of Green Mountain Flour

---

Although started from his home kitchen, Stremlau is currently converting a two-room garage next to his house into his new mill and bakery space, complete with refrigeration units and a home made, wood-fired oven. "We started the project a few years ago and should be completed in May," Daniella Malin said in a recent interview.Malin works closely with Stremlau.

"We built an oven surrounded by a fire-proof box, and filled it with insulation as to keep all the heat in the thermal mass that is the oven. We also put a wall through the middle of the building so that half of the space is now our flour mill, with the other half housing our bakery.

"We are also building a cold room, and all of these spaces are insulated from each other. We've also installed a three-bay sink and other kitchen equipment, upgraded the electricity to run the mills and sifter and are now putting the finishing touches in place - such as sealing all the washable surfaces."

Created from wheat that he buys locally from a Windsor farm - just six mikes down the road, in fact - Zach creates a variety of stone-ground flours and grain products. He sells his old-fashioned flour by the bag, and also uses it in his hand-crafted breads and pizzas.

Flour and grain products that are milled in a natural grist mill contain micro nutrients and dietary fiber that is missing from larger, industrially-produced flour. Green Mountain Flour also uses natural granite stone mills to create their flours and grain products and do not enrich their flours.

Green Mountain's hand-crafted breads - sourdoughs or yeasted - follow a slow, fermentation process which enhances nutritional value, while also creating the complex flavors of a fresh-milled, locally produced flours. Their bread menu changes with the season and includes traditional sourdough, whole wheat with honey, maple walnut rye, raisin, pumpernickel, polenta and challah.

Some of the homemade products offered by Green Mountain Flour includes whole grain and old-fashioned wheat flour, cracked wheat, bran cereal, wheat bran, multi-grain cereal, spelt flour and porridge, pumpernickel flour and cracked rye, barley flour, corn meal and pancake and cornbread mixes.

"We have been accepted and are currently in the process of making our products available at a few locations, including the Lebanon and Hanover food co-ops and Mac's in Woodstock," Malin said. "Also, our flour is currently available at Claremont Spice and Dry Goods and soon, at the Woodstock Farmer's Market."

They also offer a unique, mobile oven catering service in which they bring their copper clad, wood-fired oven to the customer, offering a variety of on-site, home made pizzas and sauces. Great for private parties, customers can enjoy a pizza bar in which guests can pick their own sauces and toppings from a menu, or a "chef's choice" in which a variety of pizzas are available to all.

"We are really excited about offering products that simply are not currently available in stores...stone-ground, local grain products that aren't industrially processed," Malin concluded. It's not just a great idea, the products are also delicious! We want to bring back the 'story of bread' from field, through miller, from baker to you... as a living story that sustains us and our community."

To learn more about Green Mountain Flour and the artisan-quality products they offer, as well as their mobile-oven pizza catering service, visit their web site at www.greenmountainflour.com.