Flour, Farming and Food

The flour mill in the photo is a reconstruction from the 1930's built on the site of the first flour mill in Texas, which was constructed by the Spaniards at Mission San Jose around 1794, located in what is now San Antonio.  A small acequia, or canal, brought water from the San Antonio River into a chamber below the one you see here which houses the mill.  The flowing water turned a wheel which drove the mill.  This photo was taken a few years ago when we toured the mission.

This small mill provided flour to the communities which grew around the mission.  It was a part of Spanish efforts to "tame" the Indians by converting them from the use of maize (corn) to wheat for making bread.  It is interesting to me how the influence, to some extent, went the other way.  Today, corn tortillas (a primary form of bread) are preferred by many of the descendants of the Spaniards.

There is archaeological evidence that man has been milling wheat since almost 7,000 B.C.  The earliest mills were simple and the feat was accomplished by rubbing the grain kernels between two stones, or by pounding it with one stone against another.  The Romans are believed to be the first to utilize water power to mill flour around 100 B.C.  The industrial advances of the 19th Century caused rapid changes in milling because of the harnessing of better power sources. The early mill stones could be turned at faster rates and the friction generated too much heat.  Roller mills were adopted in the late 1870's.

The reason for milling grains is the the hard bran, or outer layer, which must be broken in order to access the endosperm which is the part of the kernel that provides the most easily digestible nutrients.  Purified flour has had the bran particles removed by a sifting process that leaves only the endosperm.

Flour milling is one of the greatest time-freeing inventions of mankind.  On a trip to Niger in 2009, I observed the women grinding millet into flour with a wooden mortar and pestle.  They spent a large part of their day just grinding enough flour to make bread for their family.  That bread was cooked in outdoor ovens made of mud bricks.  They spent the entire day working to feed their families with very primitive methods.

Today, we hear many people bashing modern agricultural practices and the way we turn those products into food.  Few of them realize that without those methods, they would be spending their days undergoing backbreaking labor just to eat.  The next time you go into a grocery store, take a few minutes in the bread aisle to view the huge variety of breads that are available to purchase.  As you do so, realize that the labor used to produce them wasn't your own.

I will readily admit that I prefer homemade bread.  I am thankful my wife loves to bake and enjoys bread making.  I am also thankful that we don't have to grow, harvest, thresh and mill the wheat in order to have flour to make that bread.  I appreciate the farmers and food technology that has freed us from those difficult tasks.