By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER

GREENVILLE, Ohio — Given the popularity of locally grown foods, The Farmer, Miller, Baker brand line of food products grown, processed and produced within a 30-mile radius in west central Ohio was assured of being a winner.

E.A.T. Food for Life Farm in Yorkshire, Bear’s Mill in Greenville, and Bakehouse Bread and Cookie Co. in Troy are small businesses dedicated to the preservation of heirloom, artisan practices.

Dan Kremer and his family produce 27 acres of non-GMO and chemical-free spelt every year. This whole grain is more robust, taller than and a little sweeter than wheat, Kremer said. When ground, it is not as fluffy as wheat. Spelt is said to be more digestible than wheat.

Kremer takes the spelt to a farmer in Decatur, Ind., for dehulling right before having it ground. He had been shipping the spelt to Texas to be ground until he found Bear’s Mill. Now, he produces about 3,000 pounds a year for the collaboration.

"I was seeking to move more spelt locally," Kremer said. "Bear’s Mill was already grinding some for me for my own personal use. They made the connection between me and the baker, Margaret, at the Bakehouse. It met our goal of moving more spelt locally.

"The more we can keep monies in our community, the better the prosperity of the community," Kremer said. "I had been shipping product to Arrowhead in Texas, and they’re doing a good thing, but those monies are leaving our community. To be able to keep more people engaged and employed in our local community builds prosperity in the community."

For information, visit www.eatfoodfor life.com

Built in 1849, Bear’s Mill, on the National Register of Historic Places, is one of the few water-powered mills still in operation in Ohio. Each week there, Terry Clark, miller, grinds about 200 pounds of spelt into flour on French buhr millstones imported from France in 1848.

"There was only one quarry in the world in France that had these stones," Clark said. "They were sought after by millers because they kept cool in the grinding process."

That old-world milling technique uses a slow, cool grinding process which retains the nutrients of the grain, Clark said. The spelt flour is said to be rich in protein, vitamin B2, manganese, niacin, thiamin and copper and more easily digested by those with wheat allergies.

"The farmer brings the grain to us – he used to ship his grain all the way to Texas … it was a 1,500-mile trip," Clark said. "He heard about us, and to cut down on the carbon footprint, he brought his grain here, mostly spelt. We would take it to Bakehouse bread, and they would bake bread."

Last October, former owners Terry and Julie Clark sold Bear’s Mill to the Friends of Bear’s Mill, a nonprofit that now supports and maintains it. Clark is still the miller.

Bear’s Mill is open to the public. For information, visit www.bearsmill.com

Margaret Begg is the founder and master baker at Bakehouse Bread and Cookie Co. Her search was to find the most natural, original way of making bread. She studied artisan bread making at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and apprenticed under a French master baker at the National Baking Institute in Minnesota.

"The goal has always been for my life, and our philosophy, is to keep it simple, keep it basic, keep it pure," Begg said.

She met Dan Kremer about 10 years ago at a food coop. He wanted a buyer for his spelt, and Begg could provide him with an end product.

"So we started right then and there," Begg said. "Then we went to Bear’s Mill to have them grind the spelt for us into the flour. Spelt doesn’t have much gluten or strength to it. Our process is of making an old dough, like 48 hours old. That goes into the finished product and that is where we get our strength from, that’s how we avoid preservatives and additives."

In the past, many farm kitchens had a dough table where they put a piece of dough aside, and then brought it back into the fresh flour and water the next day, Begg said.

For information, visit www.bakehouse bread.com