Denver Windmill

Sluice Road

Denver

Downham Market

Norfolk.

PE38 0EG

01366 384009

enquiries@denvermill.plus.com

Good food, good drink, good service, good company.

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We have tried to make our flour pricing as simple as possible.

The difference in cost between the wheats and cereals we have grown is not great - except for Spelt - so creating a standard pricing structure makes sense.

 The process of collection, cleaning, milling and packing is the same - although the bigger the bag the less the relative cost.

There is a big difference with the Dressed flour because the process leaves us with sometimes less than 60% of the wholemeal, so the cost is considerably more.

Our policy is to establish absolute transparency in the sourcing and preparation of all our products, so that both you and we can be sure of both the quality and the provenance of everything we sell.

Although our main farming partner at Poplar Farm is Organically registered, we are aware that if we were to also become an organic site it would compromise our current focus on local sourcing, and limit our development and experimentation with different varieties and types of cereal.

All our Flours are Milled on site in either the Windmill or our Barron Dreadnought vertical stone Mill from grain grown in site of the Windmill at Poplar Farm or next door at Hill Farm in Stow Bridge.

The Bread Mixes use our own flour, and other ingredients which we cannot produce ourselves (such as malted cereals) are sourced as locally as possible.

The growing range of products from 'The Baker’s Pantry’ are the tried and tested ingredients we use in the Bakery and Teashop, many of which are not normally available ‘over the counter’.  We are very careful about what we do use so you can be sure that the products in this range will live up to the highest standards of quality and performance.

We are always looking to extend the range of products in all departments - don’t hesitate to share any thoughts and ideas.

We also continue to collect for the Denver Upper Crust recipe book - based around the products we make and bake.   Credit will be given to the authorship of all contributions included, so your favourite recipe will not be stolen if you share it with us!

Recipe Pages

We are now negotiated with UK Mail for next day delivery up to 20 Kg of goods for £10 (including vat) within the normal post code areas (you know if you are outside them!).

We are very pleased to have got this down to such a good price for this standard weight which has proved to be the most economic for mail order.

Orders are not limited to this weight but for anything else we have to get back to you with a price after we have checked with UK Mail.

We are working on negotiating other popular weights - watch this space!

To order simply ring 01366 384009 and we can take your payment over the phone.

We are now building partner style relationships with commercial kitchens and bakeries to whom we can supply at bulk trade rates.  If you are interested in discussing a trade relationship either e-mail or ring 01366 384009 to see in what ways we may be able to work together.

So what is all this ‘Dressed Flour’ business then?

When you Stone grind cereals the whole seed or berry is passed between the stones, so the Wholemeal flour produced is a complete product with nothing added and nothing taken away.  The three main parts in the berry - the bran, the wheat germ and the endosperm - are all ground and mixed up together.

Roller mills (which produce nearly all our flour today) don’t grind the berry but  instead ‘crack’ it, ‘reducing’ it to its constituent parts.  Each part is then processed, the endosperm  being milled into white flour.

So the reason we don’t have white flour is simply because we do not produce it!

What we do instead is put our Wholemeal flour through a Wire Machine or Flour Dresser - basically a sophisticated sieve which separates the smaller finer particles  from the courser ones.  Whilst this was originally designed as a means of separating human and animal feed, the finer and more delicately flavoured ‘Dressed’ flour we produce at Denver makes a bread that is just as distinctive as Wholemeal but not quite so powerful in flavour, whilst the semolina and bran are used elsewhere in baking and other cookery.

You can find out a lot more about the art, science and technology of flour production at the Mill

Wheat & Flour prices

As many of you will be aware, the price of wheat has dramatically increased during the past year.

The Home Grown Cereals Association (www.hgca.com) who keeps track of the conventionally grown wheat market, show prices from the farm have risen from £110 a tonne a year ago to £233 a tonne this February – and that is before it is cleaned or transported.

Conventionally grown wheat is fed with nitrates to boost the crop resulting in a much greater yield per acre than that organically grown, and this is why the cost of organic produce must be higher – apparently even organic farmers need to earn a living!

Organic prices have not increased as much as conventional with milling wheat currently around 50% more than the HGCA price, although Spelt seems to be pushing £1000 a tonne.

The partnership with Andrew at Poplar Farm means we are getting really good value with our cereals, with everything from growing, harvesting, cleaning, transporting, milling, baking and bagging being now carried out either at the farm or the mill.

We have managed to absorb these increases up to this point but are now beginning to actually loose money on some flours and so unfortunately the time has come when prices must go up.  The increases have been kept as small as possible and Denver Mill / Poplar Farm’s unique cereal products still offer excellent quality and value.