LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - OCTOBER 9, 2022 by Lynne Belluscio As mentioned in last week’s article about wheat, the early settlers planted summer wheat. It has a low gluten content and isn’t very good for yeast bread, but it was all they had except corn meal. It was ground into flour between mill stones. In this part of New York, because of the open fields, a lot of wheat was grown and it became famous. Rochester, which had abundant water power and was situated on the Erie Canal, became known as the flour city. But all of that changed when disease hit the wheat. Wheat production moved west to the great plains. And so here is the rest of the story. There was a type of wheat grown in Europe - - in the Ukraine. It was winter wheat and was planted in the fall. It needed freezing weather to grow. It was high in gluten and made great bread. In the 1870s, Russian immigrants from the Ukraine brought winter wheat seeds with them to the farmlands of Kansas. It was a variety known as Turkey Red. It grew very tall and created lots of straw. It also wasn’t easy to grind with mill stones. So, with the importation of hard winter wheat to the Midwest, a lot of changes had to be made. The most significant was the introduction of “roller mills.” The hard winter wheat could be ground between porcelain rollers. In fact, if you look carefully at the photograph of the LeRoy mill on Mill Street, you will notice that it is the LeRoy Roller Mill. Interestingly, in LeRoy, there was a man who was interested in breeding new varieties of winter wheat. He was the father of famous LeRoy artist, Frank Eastman Jones. A.N. Jones came to LeRoy from nearby Newark, N.Y. He acquired what was known as the “Railroad Mill” which was located north of town along the Oatka Creek. Jacob LeRoy had built the mill and had connected it to the mill in town with a “canal” which was a mill race. It is not known why Jones decided to experiment with cross breeding wheat varieties, but he developed 15 varieties. In 1889, he released Red Clawson which is a cross between Clawson and Golden Cross. Surprisingly, Red Clawson is still available commercially. He was one of the first to practice composite crossing. Early Genesee Giant, is the result of 8 successful crosses and was a variety distributed in 1893. Jones Fife and Red Wave are still grown today. Milling winter wheat with roller mills increased production of flour. Mechanization both in the fields and in the mills was necessary. Wheat was no longer sown by hand. It was planted in rows, and then the young plants had to be cultivated. The wheat had to be harvested in the summer. It was no longer winnowed by hand, and huge steam powered harvesters separated the wheat from the straw and the chaff. Massive mills were built along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. The Pillsbury Company was founded in 1869 by Charles and John Pillsbury. GoldMedal Flour Companywas named for the Gold Medals that were won in 1880 by Washburn Crosby at the first International Millers’ Exhibition in Cincinnati. Earlier in 1866, Cadwaller Washburn began what was to become General Mills. His mill, was the largest mill west of the Mississippi and west of Buffalo. James Ford Bell became president of the Washburn Crosby Company in 1925. General Mills was created on June 20, 1928. Fast forward to 2007, when I was at the annual meeting of the A s s o c i a t i o n of American Museums in Chicago. I was getting on a tour bus hosted by James Ford Bell’s grandson. “Well Mr. Bell, if you are ever in LeRoy, I hope you stop by the Jell-O Museum.” Eight years later he stopped by to say hi. By the way, if you are ever in Minneapolis make sure to visit the “Flour Tower.” It’s a great museum experience and you’ll learn about the huge explosion that destroyed the Washburn Mill on the night of May 2, 1878. It also has a great test kitchen and a huge gift shop. So, what is the story about Queen Victoria and LeRoy flour? Mr. Prentice who owned the LeRoy Roller Flour Mill shipped flour to England to Queen Victoria. In the archives of the Historical Society is a framed paper bag of Mr. Prentice’s flour. Whether Queen Victoria ever said anything about the flour is up for discussion. Other flour facts: March is National Flour Month. There are 21 different kinds of flour. Enriched floor was begun in the 1930s. When you buy “all purpose” flour, it is a mixture of soft and hard wheat. Bread flour is hard wheat with high gluten content. Cake flour is soft wheat, fine texture, with little gluten. Bleached flour is created by using a bleaching agent which creates a whiter, finer grained, softer flour. It is best used for cookies, pie crusts, quick breads, and pancakes. Whole wheat four is made from the entire wheat kernel and is made from hard wheat. Pasta flour is also called semolina flour and traditionally Italian pasta is made from durum wheat and has little gluten. And, if you are reading labels, if it says stone ground – it means that it was not ground in porcelain rollers. Wheat - Part 2
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