This weekend was kind of a loss for computer/geek/rc airplane/ham radio, but it was off the charts fun for me and the missus. We did an unplanned day trip up to the Napa valley on Saturday, and then when I realized that I had left my lucky hat at restaurant, returned on Sunday to retrieve it, and ended up having a great brunch at Brix (yum) and then took a tour of the Bale Grist Mill.

The Bale Grist Mill is a fully restored, water-powered grist mill that grinds grain. We saw the sign on Saturday, and googled it that night, and decided to return on Sunday and see what the tour was all about. It was great: the miller was there leading tours, and spent about an hour talking about the history of the mill, and then allowing us to view all the intricate mechanisms inside that serve to grind grist (the seeds of either wheat or corn) into flour or meal. For a small donation, you can even cart away some of the resulting flour for yourself. Since I’ve been baking bread a bit, I decided to come away with some bread flour, buckwheat, spelt, and some polenta. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

The most interesting thing to me about the mill was how refined the design is. Our guide said that many of the elements for the mill would have been taken from the design published in The Young Mill-wright and Miller’s Guide, first published in 1795 (and available for download at the link!). Its author was Oliver Evans, who received an early (the third, apparently) U.S. patent for an automatic flour mill. It uses the power of water to move grist and grain around through a series of bucket elevators and conveyors. The mechanisms visible at the Bale mill seem rather antiquated to us today, but if one considers the times, they would have been positively cutting edge. The miller, working by himself (perhaps with some “dusties”, or apprentices), could have processed as much as a ton of grain per day. And since lanterns and the like were not allowed because of the risk of explosion, that was just as long as daylight lasted.

It was a lot of fun. If you are in Napa, consider stopping by (and donating money, they don’t receive any state funds anymore). I had a blast.