A year ago we wrote about Stonemill Bakehouse’s plans to “go local,” purchasing farmland in Prince Edward County (PEC) with the intention of growing all its grains locally by the year 2018, combining the harvests of over 2000 acres of PEC farmland, a collaboration between local farmers and Stonehouse’s own farm.
Stonemill Bakehouse is a 4th generation family owned business with 100 years of artisan baking history. Gustav Boehringer, master baker & founder of Stonemill Bakehouse, took over the family artisan bakery business in Germany in the 1960’s. Gustav was a pioneer in baking breads with organic flour, years before health benefits of organic foods entered main-stream consciousness. In 1982, Gustav emigrated to Canada with his family and opened Stonemill Bakehouse. In the mid-late 1980’s, Gustav’s son, Gottfried, had the vision to start selling their all natural, artisan breads to grocery retailers for in-store bakeries. By the mid 1990’s, Stonemill had also launched a line of sliced, packaged healthy artisan breads and kaiser buns sold in the commercial bread aisles of grocery retailers. These healthy breads were unique to the Canadian market and helped pioneer the all natural, healthy bread category.
We thought we’d give you an update on how that initiative is working out. Known for its healthy artisan breads, Stonemill Bakehouse announced recently that its quest to grow local is progressing well, ahead of schedule in fact, welcome news for Stonemill, for area farmers and for conscientious consumers at Fiesta Farms and throughout Ontario.
Last spring Stonemill announced its goal to produce 100 tons of locally-grown rye in PEC. That goal was surpassed during the 2013 summer harvest, with a yield of 120 tons!
“We are very pleased with this progress and we are dedicated to continuing the process of growing and sourcing local ingredients for our breads,” says Gottfried Boehringer, President of The Stonemill Bakehouse.
The rye that was harvested from PEC in 2013 is now being used in all Stonemill artisan breads including Prince Edward County Rye bread, California Walnut, 9 Grain, Cranberry Pumpkin, Flax and Honey, Spelt Sunflower, Swiss Raisin Muesli and Organic Baguette.
“We are aware and conscious of the environmental changes and challenges we are facing today and it is important to us to do what we can to produce healthy breads in a healthy environment for our consumers,” says Boehringer.
All we have to do to keep business models like this going strong is to buy these amazing and delicious breads. I, for one, am happy to do my part. Pass the butter please!