July - Wk 4 - Jordans mill & the Bedford river festival

We went to Bedford Festival which was brilliant. There was a fun fair with dodgem cars and Freya bumped into the edges a lot.

Here you got a free smoothie but first you had to cycle for it .Basically there was a bike attached to a smoothie maker,a man put the ingredients into the machine and you had to peddle to keep it on to make your smoothie. It took a lot of time but was worth it.

This part of the festival was all things crafts people have made and are selling. It was all very pretty with all the colours and pretty jewellery. 

.

At the end as a lucky treat we got candyfloss.YUM!

Jordan's Mill

Hi guys today I'm here to tell you about my wonderful adventure at Jordan's mill.

First we headed of to the gardens.Time to talk about Rye.Rye is a close relative to wheat and barley but can tolerate colder conditions.Acidic soils and also survive droughts due to it's roots system.

Oat's have a much humbler background then any other type of the main grains like wheat, spelt  or rye . Oats were one of last grains to be Cultivated and started only about 3,000 years ago.

Spelt is an ancient variety  of wheat first cultivated over 9,000 years ago and became an important staple from the bronze age to medieval times. It has now found a new market as a health food.                          

 In early august the harvest begins but that's in the UK.Wheat is a very easy crop to harves.

There were around about 40 different types of fruit and veg in this garden.Cabbages, carrots, sweetcorn, strawberries and more.

Next we got to see the  mill in action.The mill was owned by the Jordans for over 150 years.Milling was one of the major industries in Bedfordshire  with over 400 mills across the country. Originally they used stone mills but there was a fire so the owner decided to use metal rollers instead which increased production.

This is my sister and I grinding oats, then sieving them. This is a very long and complicated process in the mill and the oats or its products travel 3 floors during the process. Here are 2 of the floors in detail.

We all made bread with Jordan's flour after our tour. 

Here is how they make different flours for different uses:-