I’ve always wondered what it must have sounded like to be inside an ancient grist mill with its heavy machinery and grist stones fully engaged. Family pal Wynne Wert and I had the rare chance of experiencing it two weeks ago as guests of Mark and Fran Fischer. They own the only working grist mill within 400 miles of Bucks County. Three generations of their immediate family reside on their Castle Valley Mill property and work the fully-operational mill in Doylestown Township.
Mark led us through all three floors where grains, grits and flour were being processed in a mill built in 1730. Bucks had so many back then it was the milling capital of the world.
In our visit, various machines rumbled, shaking centuries-old planked flooring underfoot. Gears turned 200-year-old millstones grinding grain and sending it through chutes to sifting screens. I wondered aloud how deafening it must be when the entire mill is powered up. Would there be clouds of dust? “Not really,” replied Mark. “Let me show you.”
As Wynne and I stood by, Mark flipped a master electrical switch triggering bells. He then reached for a long wooden lever to engage pulleys working flat belts in all three floors. The thrumming increased but it wasn’t deafening. “See,” beamed Mark. “And the air is clear.”
His keen ear deciphers anything working improperly. “I compare myself to a symphony conductor. When the woodwind section is out of sync, the conductor knows exactly where and who it is.”
For two hours we observed every aspect of milling including feeling the texture of freshly ground products en route to a packing room sealed off from the rest of the mill. From on high, we enjoyed spectacular views of a dam built across the Neshaminy to funnel water into the building’s ground level millrace.
The family’s passion is contagious, derived from Mark’s grandpa.
Henry Fischer in the 1940s was an émigré from Bavaria where he was a miller, an occupation long gone in Bucks. To make a living after arriving in Doylestown, he founded the Fischer Moving Company in town and soon noticed a dilapidated mill for sale just off Lower State Road. He bought Castle Valley Mill to restore it and slowly acquired all necessary equipment from other mills being torn down or gutted.
Mark remembers tagging along with his grandfather into the dim recesses of the mill, stuffed with machinery, carpets, furniture, schoolbooks and other items.
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Gramps didn’t live long enough to realize his dream. But the idea of restoring the mill stuck with Mark, an electrical engineer who founded an aviation business. After moving his family to the miller’s house next door, he set to work clearing the mill of everything but its machinery parts. Not knowing how to assemble them, he looked up the patents. That gave him enough info to figure out how everything came together. It took three years. Meanwhile, he and son Curran, 12 at the time, attended training sessions in Tennessee to become certified millers.
Grist mills preserve natural vitamins, nutrients and flavor in grain. Roller mills do just the opposite. As Mark puts it, industrial mills “heat, bromate, electrocute and bleach flour,” leaving a “chalky endosperm.” Synthetic vitamins and preservatives are added back in. “It’s up to you to add a topping to give it flavor,” explained Mark.
Castle Valley became operational in 2010 with grain trucked in from Bucks, Lancaster, Lycoming and Halifax farms. Before long, mill products were being sold at select distributors and regional farm markets, attracting the attention of chefs at prominent restaurants in Philadelphia and New York.
The growing appetite for milled gains came home to the Fischers in a big way after the pandemic closed restaurants they supplied. The family curtailed production and furloughed employees. Then everything changed. The New York Times published a list of working grist mills including Castle Valley. “Suddenly, we were inundated with online orders. My husband, daughter and l were the only ones available to run the mill,” said Fran. Supply barely kept up with demand, forcing long hours in the mill. It didn’t let up. Orders came in from all over the country, especially from health conscious California. “We were totally exhausted at the end of every day,” said Fran.
Today a work crew of a half dozen maintain a sense of normalcy amid steady online sales. Due to daily work demands, public tours aren’t offered. An occasional open house or special event will be advertised on the mill’s website and Facebook.
After our tour, we savored the experience. “That was no ordinary lazy summer day in the country,” Wynne smiled. “An on-going American story. Can this idyllic place, family, business and history be as good as it seemed to a simple old soul as myself? I hope so.”
Sources include “Meet the PA Maker: Castle Valley Mill” by Emily Kovach on the PA Eats website at www.paeats.org/feature/castle-valley-mill-doylestown, plus voluminous information on Castle Valley Mill’s website: www.castlevalleymill.com. Call them at 215-340-3609. The site lists local retailers of Castle Valley Mill food products.
Carl LaVO, who enjoys Castle Valley Mill pancakes and grits, can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com.