Red Fife Blueberry Galette

Blueberry galette with Red Fife pastry

This month’s topic for the Canadian Food Experience Project is to introduce our readers to a local food hero in each blogger’s particular region.

I’m sure we all have a list as long as our arm of people who have done much to advance local food growers and producers in our regions. I know I do.

That said, it was an easy choice for me to hone in on the staff at Speerville Flour Mill and the Mill’s current general manager, Todd Grant.

The staff and Speerville Flour Mill

Speerville Flour Mill is a New Brunswick gristmill that grinds Maritime-grown grains into high quality, stone ground flours and a variety of other grain products. They’re the farm-to-fork connection for Maritime farmers who would otherwise have no reason to grow milling-quality grains and they provide Maritimers with something few Canadians have access to – locally-grown and stone-milled flours.  A luxury for lovers of true artisan breads.

A bit about stone ground flour:

This is a fact: Commercial white flour is the “Wonder Bread” of the flour world. It is made almost entirely on steel roller mills that extract 72% of the wheat kernel, sifting out much of the fibre, flavour and nutrition (including the bran & wheat germ.) And it includes additives.

Stone ground grains, on the other hand, retain the full nutrition of the whole grain. Stone-ground whole wheat flour is exactly that – the entire wheat kernel, ground into flour. Stone ground whole white flour (sometimes called white whole wheat) contains 85% of the grain, including the tasty and nutritious germ.

Stone-ground flour is high in protein, fibre and other nutrients and it has a flavour that can’t be matched.

Sure it’s slightly heavier than conventional flour but it is my flour of choice for all of my baking – from seven-egg hazelnut cakes to biscuits, pastry, breads and muffins.

Pastry made with Ref Fife flour is a particular favourite. Paired with fresh, local blueberries in a galette is a wholesome taste of summer.

The Canadian Food Experience Project was started by Edmonton-based food blogger Valerie Lugonja, She has called on food bloggers from across the country to share our regional food experiences with a goal to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity.