To know where our food comes from, we are encouraged to know the farmer who grew our food. Nicolas "Nico" Melas of Mill Song Bakery approaches his craft as a farmer-miller-baker in the tradition of the artisans he apprenticed to in France. Nico emphasizes that you should know your local baker to fully understand and appreciate the quality of wheat and other grains. Nico reflects on how the growing, sourcing, processing, milling, fermenting, and mixing of grain and flour all play a role in the artisanal baking process. For Nico, flavor and health go together; and bread needs to smell and taste like freshly milled grain. 

Mill Song Bakery's inspiring story, values, and bread-baking techniques can be accessed at https://www.millsongbakery.com/about-us. The video Jeff referenced Against the Grain, Beyond the Grind outlines farm-to-table connections from local soils and farms to a local stone-ground mill and local bakery.

Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman is available online or can be ordered from a local bookstore.  

To learn about the Virginia Soil Health Coalition and join the Coalition's quarterly meetings, please visit https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/. To access the 4 The Soil blog and the more than seventy episodes of the 4 The Soil: A Conversation podcast, please visit https://www.4thesoil.org/. We would love to hear your experience and perspective on how flavor and health go together, particularly as we learn more about meaningful connections related to nutrition and human health from the soil up.  

4 the Soil: A Conversation is made possible with funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Agua Fund. Other partners include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Virginia Cooperative Extension; Virginia State University; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; and partners of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition.

Disclaimer: Views expressed on this podcast are those of each individual guest.

To download a copy of this, or any other show, visit the website 4thesoil.org. Music used during today’s program is courtesy of the Flip Charts. All rights reserved. 4 the Soil: A Conversation is produced by On the Farm Radio in collaboration with Virginia Tech. The host and co-hosts are Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt.