Mill Song Bakery bakes naturally leavened breads stone-milled on site with local grains from the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 80% of their grains come from Rockingham County, right where they bake their delicious bread. Stone-milled, naturally leavened bread was once a specially curated art that was passed down over generations and regionally adapted to the conditions of a certain place. People would quite literally wear their sourdough culture around their necks in jewelry in some places to protect their cultural inheritance of a staple food that was co-adapted to your people’s microbiome. Now, for bakeries, it is often considered a more labor-intensive alternative to baking with commercial yeasts and roller-milled flours. The problem with this is the commercial milling process separates out some of the most nutritious components-the wheat germ oil, for example-from the flour; and leavening the bread with commercial yeast speeds up the baking process, eliminating the fermentation element that makes the grain more digestible and probiotic.

Nico Melas apprenticed as a baker in the Community of the Ark of Lanza del Vasto, a spiritual commune in southern France dedicated to embodying the principles of Gandhian nonviolence by bringing the hands, the head, and the heart into closer communion with the land and the belly. Now, you can taste the spirit-infused respect for tradition and the slow process of stone-milling flour fresh, on-site, to make Mill Song's uniquely crafted, naturally leavened breads.

Subscribe to their Community Supported Bakery: the number one way you can support a small artisan business trying to make it in a world of sliced bread. When you sign up, you let them know which bread you’d like, and they have it ready for you every week for pick up at the bakery on Lincolnshire Rd, or at the farmer’s market. Some lucky neighborhoods even have drop off hubs, so if you are an organizer, get your neighbors together and make yours one of them! Call them up to start your CSB subscription (540)-434-1001, or you can always pick up a loaf at the Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market-where you’ll find Nico and his son Moises every Saturday from 8-1.

Find Mill Song: https://www.millsongbakery.com/