After getting settled in at home with the new apprentice who was born in August, and working out a new baking schedule that was flexible for looking after said new born and a toddler, we decided to get stuck into working out the mill that we had recently acquired from Steve and Tan.
Rye and spelt were first up as we’d been buying these flours from Steve and Tan when they still had the mill and the quality was great, so we thought that’s a good place to start learning the ins and outs of our new Osttiroller (see the Osttiroller website for specs on the mill). Having the mill in the bakery means we can get the grain milling and do other prep jobs but still be able to pop back over to check the mill is still ticking along nicely and the flour is consistently at the fineness we are aiming for. For us it seemed like the perfect fit.
The spelt grain we were milling at the time was Steve and Tan’s pearled spelt / farro, which had been processed to remove the outer bran layer and the hull, so it had had a portion of the grain removed. The flour came off the mill relatively cool, under 45c, and fine like baby powder. The fineness was partly due to being a small, softer grain but also maybe because the grain had been pearled.
Wheat on the other hand was a little trickier. Out of the front spout of the mill, at 100% extraction, the flour was a bit coarse and slowing down the feed rate or closing the gap between the stones caused the flour to heat up too much. We decided instead that we’d try different levels of sifting. While not wanting to waste any part of the grain, we started with the coarsest screen we have (1120 micron) which resulted in a flour that came out at 96-97% extraction. The flour felt finer than before, less gritty or sandy, and it worked nicely with our existing formulas. The bran that had been sifted off we then used to dust our linen for proving loaves and dusting the peels for loading the oven. Previously we were buying in bran or semolina for this, which sometimes was twice the price of flour, so just one more thing we can produce for ourselves and a good use of a by product. Win win I’d say. Plus keep an eye out for some digestive biscuits one day!
Back on the ranch…. Harvest began at the end of November with constant small rain bands causing trouble and delaying harvest for Steve and Tan. After only receiving 155mm during the growing season, yields across the board were looking low along with failures in the spelt and lentils. “The seed was dry sown with no opportunity to get a prior tyne weed kill due to lack of moisture.” to quote Tan.
Steve managed to get the oats harvested and by December 10th he was on to the rye and the next day the Yecora red wheat. To quote Tan again, “A dream becomes a reality. It’s a relief to be harvesting Yecora wheat. We remember hand weeding the Yecora trial plots in 2020 and wondering if we would ever harvest a whole paddock.” It is hard to believe that those few little seed packets of less than 100g and the trial plots back in 2020 would become a paddock full of Yecora wheat. A true testament to Steve and Tan’s hard work.
The next day, the 12th of December, the Purple Straw harvest began. The Purple Straw has become a favorite of ours for it’s honey like sweetness and malty flavour. Being a softer wheat the texture it adds to breads and other goods is fantastic. The Hotscotch landrace was harvested next – both yielding poorly but worth the effort to increase seed stock.
The Yecora was a standout performer in the dry and was the highest yielding crop on the property. The Dark Purple variety struggled and was very disappointing – Steve only harvested as much as he sowed. Steve didn’t plant Scout Wheat because there was some stored from the previous year. Tan & Steve are aware of the risks of sowing into soil with no subsoil moisture. Quote Tan: “You got to work with mother nature – one less crop was a wise decision. 2024 harvest will be remembered for harvesting Yecora at quantities that can be stored in the Burrum Biodynamics automated aerated silo system and for the surprising amount of oats harvested.
Luckily harvest was finished in time for Steve to have a little break… however, a few days later on the 17th of December 2024, dry lightning ignited fires in the southern Grampians at Yarram Gap Road, which continued to burn for the next 21 days covering over 76,000 hectares.
We were keeping an eye on things while also trying to prepare for the Christmas holiday period which is typically some of the busiest weeks in the Grampians. Friday 20th December came and we could see the smoke cloud from our house. We were baking and preparing for our Christmas market on Sunday when afternoon reports and advice from CFA and Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) began to tell us to prepare to leave. With dough already bulking in tubs and trays of buns proving, Jackie, Nana and the boys headed out to family friends while I hung back to pack up and tried to fridge what I could in case things turned out to be ok and we could, fingers crossed, salvage something the next day.
Less than an hour later ash was falling and so I left as well. By 10pm that night there was a warning to ‘leave immediately’ for Pomonal, Halls Gap and many other areas surrounding the Grampians. With the fire still raging and recommendations being to stay away with a few extremely dangerous fire days predicted in the coming weeks, we headed to Melbourne so the boys could spend Christmas with the cousins and we could have some forced time off to see family.
With over 600 firefighting personnel heading to the Grampians, Lieutenant farmer Steve and the Marnoo CFA headed down on the 21st of December for a few days to help out. What a legend! We headed back home late December to try and get back to some normality. Due to the amazing work of the CFA and FFMV the fire was brought into containment, with the risk to our area being reduced. We settled in for a quiet holiday period though with the unpredictable conditions of a major bushfire that was still burning posing a real threat and tourism in the Grampians this season was understandably low. The dough in the fridge had a tangy vinegar flavour and had begun to eat itself, so we baked it off in slabs and donated it to some local piggies who were very happy with the late Christmas present.
Again in January there was more dry lightning which ignited yet another couple of fires. These eventually merged together into one large fire burning strong. Again, due to the inaccessible terrain and the scale of the fire it burned until mid February 2025 when the fire-ies were able to get it under control. The additional fires brought further devastation and hardship to our part of Victoria. We were lucky enough to not be directly affected by these fires as it was further in and towards the west of the national park than where Pomonal is situated. Many of our friends who work or own small businesses in the area suffered greatly though from the loss of tourism. The revenue made during Summer school holidays usually help the small businesses get by for the rest of the year. Particularly in being able to pay their employees so that they can still offer a service outside of school holidays. Fingers crossed for some rain in preparation for sowing and everything else will be crossed hoping that we’ll have a much better Summer in 2026.
Signing off for now,
Nick
Edits and harvest photos courtesy of Tan.
