A Trip to Bob's Red Mill

(Thanks to Kara who shared all of the mill pictures! She was the only one of us who brought a camera... )

We took a trip to a local factory today that was really interesting! 

I have been wanting to go for a long time. We went with some friends to learn about their operations. They showed us a video about how it got started, then we toured the facility, 

 learned about the equipment, 

were able to feel all kinds of different grains with our hands, and were allowed to sample a few things as well! 

 

Christine, the tour lady, was very informative and sweet with the kids and gave a coin to anyone (adults including) who asked or answered questions. The coins could then be exchanged for a cookie over at the store. 

 

These people are genius!! The tour time is also set up to be right before lunch time, so you head over to get your cookie and then you can buy a yummy lunch! Cliff and I both agreed the sales pitch was very convincing. The grains looked great, the health benefits are many, and the facility was spotless. On top of all of that, we got to meet Bob, who appears to be a Christian. 

 

He talked for quite a while to our tour about his time before the mill in seminary in Portland and how he and his wife started the company. 

His story is quite inspirational. He and his wife were on a walk one evening and noticed an old mill that wasn't being used. They decided to buy it and built a small store and milled all their own grains. They had a very successful business going when they had a fire and lost everything... except the mill stone (because some material had fallen on top of it.) They had to start completely over, but it turns out that was a blessing in disguise because the next building they purchased was big enough to expand into the setup they have now. It's so large they even have a whole (large) room dedicated to gluten-free products.

I particularly loved seeing the large millstones (from France)

 and the threshing demonstration. They gave the kids a head of Blackbeard wheat and told them to thresh it. 

 

The instructor described the way the farmers used to cut the wheat with a scythe 

and then dig the pitchforks into the stuff on the ground and throw it up in the air to get the wind to blow away the chaff. A sobering picture of what the Bible says will happen to us all in the judgment.

 As the kids pounded away and then sifted out the wheat kernels I thought of Psalm 1: 

Blessed is the man

who does not walk in the counsel

of the wicked

or stand in the way of sinners

or sit in the seat of mockers.

But his delight is in the law of the 

LORD, 

and on his law he meditates day

and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers. 

Not so the wicked! 

They are like chaff

that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in

the judgment,

nor sinners in the assembly of the

righteous. 

For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, 

but the way of the wicked will

perish.

OK, I'm off to bake some yummy bread and figure out how to add some more Bob's Red Mill products into our lives. I think I'll start with some Teff, and Flax and Chia seeds...