THE GROWERS
Jason Cotter and Emma Hicks grow and stone-mill heritage, ancient and modern grains such as red wheat, white wheat, spelt, maize and kamut all on their 60 hectare farm in Tuerong.
Rather than focus on mass industrial yield, Jason and Emma cultivate grains with sustainability and crop rotation mindset producing great flavour and nutrition, to reclaim what grains are supposed to be, a healthy nutritious food to consume daily.
The high extraction stone-milled flour is supplied at a consistent 170micron fineness (very fine) and milled to demand. It is fresh, full of flavour and nutrition, and a true expression of a single variety and the land in which it was grown. Unless otherwise requested, the variety they are currently milling is Mustang.
Jason’s tip for bread making: Start at 80% hydration and work up or down from there, depending on flour type and your baking style. Our Winter White is generally thirstier than commercial white flour.
THE BAKER
Tom Edwards, chef turned baker, has a long time interest in provenance and the passage of food from farm to fork. Until early 2020, he was the head baker Mirabelle Bakery in Copenhagen after a long stint at Ralae. Before Denmark, Tom was a chef Brae Restaurant and Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld, and was the original head chef The Summertown Aristologist. Most recently Tom was the head baker All Are Welcome Bakery in Northcote.
Tom is currently baking with three different varieties of wheat:
Barber – a Hard Red winter wheat named for Dan Barber, the renowned chef from the restaurant Blue Hills at Stone Barns in New York. Developed at Bread Lab at Washington State University, Barber, was imported through quarantine by Tuerong Farm several years ago. From a thimble full of seed, the 2021/22 harvest saw tonnes of this specialist variety come off the paddock – hard red wheats are bread wheats in the northern hemisphere but are only grown in Australia by a handful of non-commodity farmers.
Rouge de Bordeaux – an early French soft red dating back to the early 1800s, Bordeaux is still renowned among the artisan bakers and paysanne boulanger (farmer-miller-bakers) of France, where it is still grown and baked. It also has a strong following in North America for its flavour and digestion profile.
Hellfire – As an Australian hard white spring wheat, Hellfire is typically grown further north, though this parcel of grain was sown in Moorooduc. Despite storm impacts, the grain is producing a high performance with a high flavour… sometimes wheat with a longer season and slower finish exhibits better flavour characteristics.
