The Tennessean: Embracing Southern grains, one miller’s devotion to homegrown wheat

Russian scalded rye from the cookbook "Southern Ground" by Jennifer Lapidus. (Courtesy Ten Speed)

RINNE ALLEN

Embracing Southern grains, one miller’s devotion to homegrown wheat

TODD A. PRICE | The American South

Jennifer Lapidus uses a stone mill to grind wheat and rye that grows not far from her Carolina Ground in Asheville, North Carolina. The difference between fresh, stone-ground flour and the bag from the grocery store Lapidus writes in “Southern Ground” (Ten Speed) “is the difference between an original piece of artwork and a print.” Lapidus began as a baker. In the lyrical “Southern Ground” cookbook, she recounts her transformation into a miller. She also shares the stories of bakers across the South committed to locally sourced grains and offers recipes for everything from sourdough loaves to cardamom tea cakes.

The American South: How similar are the skills and the temperament needed for baking and milling?

Jennifer Lapidus: Both bakers and millers are maybe not the most laid-back people. You've got to be attentive to details. In the bakery, it's about time and temperature and scent. But in the mill room, sound is important. When we're in the mill room and some sound changes, we’re all like, what's going on?

Jennifer Lapidus runs Carolina Ground mill in Asheville, North Carolina. (Courtesy Ten Speed)

RINNE ALLEN

TAS: Where do you find the creativity in milling?

JL: It's what we're sifting out. It is the rotation of the stones’ speed. The distance of your stones. It's a skill, but it's also a craft. Yes, you can just weigh it and go completely scientific with it, but I engage in a more tactile, nuanced way.

TAS: Why is it important to use regionally grown grain?

JL: There was a big compromise when we shifted how we processed our food. Bringing back regional production allows for the opportunity to bring back stone-ground milling, which also brings back flavor and nutrients. There's so much lost when you're sifting out everything. They have to enrich the flour.

TAS: My impression was the bakers were easy to get on board with regionally grown wheats. It took more work, though, to convince the farmers to grow this wheat.

"Southern Ground" by Jennifer Lapidus

TEN SPEED

JL: There's a lot of mistrust among farmers, because they've been burned. And I wanted the grower, who has the infrastructure already, to shift from the variety of grain they're growing, which is half the price and produces twice the yield, to what I want. Now growers call me. It's just them needing to know that it's a solid market.

TAS: Using local products has become the norm for many restaurants. Why has it taken longer to embrace local grains?

JL: If you turn it around, grain was probably the first thing that wasn't local, because it was so easy to export. We built this industrialized system with vertical integration and centralized production of bread wheats. It was a lot easier, also, to say let's have a local tomato again. All we have to do is pick it and serve it. Growing grain is way more machine heavy. Planting it is the easiest thing. It's really getting it out of the field and the post-harvest production that is the real challenge.

Note: The interview was edited for length and clarity.

A jam tart from "Southern Ground" by Jennifer Lapidus. (Courtesy Ten Speed)

RINNE ALLEN