What does as average day look like running Woodstock Flour?
We mill five days a week, sometimes more depending on the time of year and what orders we have. A day typically involves answering emails, collating orders and setting up the mills to start producing flour! We produce about 400kg of wholegrain flour a day, with the mills running from 8am-4pm. Packaging flour and preparing for orders for shipment takes up the bulk of the day, along with invoicing and paying bills.

In terms of the farm, we move our sheep every 3 days which means setting up a new electric fence enclosure and ensuring they have water and minerals. We have 40 merino ewes who we’re expecting will start lambing in November. Crop management this time of year is pretty simple. We monitor soils every couple months to check how things are tracking (looking mostly at pH, infiltration and root development of plants) and we recently took some plant tissue samples to test for nutritional deficiencies. Once things aren’t so muddy we’ll be getting out in the paddock to spray on an organic fertiliser and vermicast solution to help boost our crops along.

Did you both grow up rurally? What made you want to take on this venture?
Ian grew up on the family farm ‘Woodstock’ in Berrigan, NSW where we started our business and where most of our grain is still grown. Courtney grew up in Pambula on the far south coast of NSW where her Dad was an oyster farmer. We met in Melbourne where we were studying environments at uni. We were both interested in farming but it took us a while to see the potential in food systems for large-scale environmental and social change. We started out working in conservation but soon decided we wanted to get involved in regenerative/agroecological farming as a more meaningful way to look after land and contribute to our community. We also really love good food! We saw an opportunity to value add the beautiful grain Ian’s parents were growing and we found ourselves involved in the emerging local grains space which has been really exciting.

What are some values that underpin the work you do?
Environment, community, quality and honesty. All of our decisions come back to a consideration of the land first- how we can work with it, nurture it and protect it. Building and supporting our local community and the grains community at large is also really important to us. And then, of course, quality and honesty is integral to the way we run our business- there’s no point doing this unless we’re making a top notch product, and we want to be transparent so people can see what’s involved in the whole process from seed to flour.

What is one change to people’s ideas about flour that you’d like to see?
We’d love more people to see the value in wholegrains. Freshly milled wholegrain flour is quite literally full of life- one grain or seed of wheat contains all the energy and nutrients it needs to produce a wheat plant. And our wholegrain flour contains this life because nothing is sifted out. Wholegrain stoneground flour is like ground coffee- fresh is best! It’s full of fibre, nutritional value and flavour. The flavour can vary so much between grain varieties and where and how it is grown which we find really exciting. Flour is not plain- it’s the main ingredient :)

What’s your favourite flour to cook with?
We love our rosella wholewheat flour. It’s a really versatile flour which is a perfect substitute for plain flour. It has a gorgeous honey and buttery flavour and provides a really soft and fluffy crumb to our baking. We use it in cakes (including sponges!), biscuits and pancakes all the time.

How can market shoppers get their hands on your flour? You can order through our online shop and select free pick up from Alphington Community Food Hub! We deliver to the Melbourne Farmers Markets Depot once a fortnight. We have Spitfire wheat (high protein which is great for breads, pizza and pasta), Rosella wheat, rye, spelt and triticale available as grain or flour.