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**News from MaryJanesFarm:  Here at the farm  |
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ruralfarmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
4309 Posts
Rene'
Prosser
WA
USA
4309 Posts |
 Posted - May 12 2009 : 06:54:10 AM
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We continue to keep ourselves busy with the planning of our 2009 Farm Fair, and the plans are coming together. For all of us that have read about the Ole Mill that MaryJane purchased from Joe Barron in Oakesdale, you wont want to miss July 4th in Oakesdale WA. As the farm will be offering "guided tours" of the mill. Since the mill isn’t open on a regular basis, this is a special historical “treat”.
I am enclosing the link to the mill: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/About/our-historic-flour-mill.asp
Outside on the Mill's lawn we will also have live music, food, family games, and lots and lots of vendors and the community of Oakesdale have additional fun things planned around their community.
Of course Oakesdale and the Mill is just one thing in a long line of events you won’t want to miss... So mark your calendars and come on down to the Palouse...
Here is the farm fair link for more information on our 2009 farm fair
http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/FarmFair2009/ can’t wait to see you!
Rene~Prosser Farmgirl #185
http://www.maryjanesfarm.com/RFBlog/
www.twitter.com/RuralFarmgirl
Circumstances made us FRIENDS; MaryJane's has made us SISTERS :) |
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Rebekka Mae
True Blue Farmgirl
965 Posts
Rebekka
Moscow
ID
USA
965 Posts |
Posted - May 12 2009 : 11:50:41 AM
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I just read an article in the Moscow Food Co-op newsletter about the Mill and I am intrigued. What a great story, I always enjoy driving by the Mill but now I have to go in! We are so lucky to have buildings like this still standing and being cared for- little windows into our past on the Palouse.
Rebekka
www.bebebella.etsy.com
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ruralfarmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
4309 Posts
Rene'
Prosser
WA
USA
4309 Posts |
Posted - May 15 2009 : 2:37:30 PM
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CONTACT:
Rene Groom, Farm Fair coordinator -- 509.786.2887 (office) or 509.778.1494 (cell phone) or rene@maryjanesfarm.org
Edwin Garretson – 509.336.3901
Free tours of Oakesdale Flour Mill highlight MaryJane’s Farm Fair
NOTE-- high resolution photos of the exterior and interior of the mill are available for publication at no charge at http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/download/oldmill/.
For the first time since 2002, the historic flour mill in Oakesdale, Washington, will be available for free public tours on the 4th of July, as part of MaryJane's Farm Fair sponsored by MaryJane Butters. The mill, owned by the Joseph Barron family for almost a century and listed now on the National Historic Register, is the only remaining flour mill on the Palouse, complete with all machinery in working order.
Guided group tours of the mill will be offered at no charge from 10 am until 4 pm on July 4, approximately every half-hour. For safety reasons, no children below age 12 will be permitted on the tours. Those wishing to join a tour should expect to walk up stairs and on uneven surfaces.
“Nineteen towns in Whitman County had flour mills built between 1870 and 1910,” explained Edwin Garretson, retired history professor from Washington State University and a recognized expert on Whitman County history. “Now only the Oakesdale mill remains – it is the best preserved flour mill in eastern Washington.”
The Oakesdale mill was built in 1890, and Joseph Barron, Sr. bought it in 1907. He improved and maintained the intricate machinery, built of hardwood and steel, that cut, ground, separated, and bagged a selection of flours and animal feeds.
In 1909, Joseph Barron, Jr. was born, and at age 18, started working full-time at the mill. He took over the family business in 1955 upon the death of his father. But Barron’s Mill could not compete with the huge centralized flour factories coming onto the scene and closed forever in 1960.
However, Joseph Barron, Jr. could not forget the mill or the milling. He explained that he had “flour in his blood.” He set up a small electric specialty mill in his garage and prepared organic flours and cereals for the new natural foods market. And he refused to demolish the original mill or sell the machinery.
Before his death in 2000, Barron found the person to maintain his legacy. He sold both his new electric mill in his garage and the original four-story mill building to MaryJane Butters of Moscow, Idaho. She now uses the new mill to grind cereals and flours for sale in her MaryJanesFarm products. And as she promised Joseph Barron, Jr., she is committed to preserving his original mill.
Even today, that 19th-century milling equipment is in working order. (Although it would never pass modern-day OSHA requirements.) Starting the motor in the basement would spin the wide leather belts that power the individual machines. Wheat would auger upward to the top floor and then cascade through the rolling machines, the separators, the sifters, and finally to the baggers. A visit to MaryJane's Historic Flour Mill is an excursion into the world of turn-of-the-century flour-making, when up to 40 workers filled the mill, tended the machines, and hefted the bags.
MaryJane's Historic Flour Mill is more than a slice of local history. This mill is a monument to the workers who settled the Palouse, coaxed wheat from its soil, and built the farming communities that remain today. The building itself, constructed on huge timbers and pegged with wooden dowels, looks more like a massive sculpture than a functional structure.
“In addition to the guided tours, July 4 Farm Fair festivities at MaryJane's Historic Flour Mill in Oakesdale, Washington, will include live music, lawn games, food, as well as vendor booths offering antiques, farm collectibles, and farmers' products,” said Rene Groom, event coordinator.
MaryJane's Farm Fair includes events on July 3 and 5 as well. Also on July 4, Farm Fair includes activities in seven additional small eastern Washington communities. More information is available at www.maryjanesfarm.org/FarmFair2009.
MaryJane Butters writes a nationally-syndicated newspaper column and edits a bimonthly magazine, MaryJanesFarm. She opened her first retail store, at the Plaza Shops of the Coeur d'Alene Resort in August of 2008, and her second store in downtown Moscow in May of 2009. Following the publication by Random House of her third book, MaryJane's Outpost: Unleashing your Inner Wild, she is now working on three other books. The books focus on quilt making, bread baking, and diet makeovers.
Rene~Prosser Farmgirl #185
http://www.maryjanesfarm.com/RFBlog/
www.twitter.com/RuralFarmgirl
Circumstances made us FRIENDS; MaryJane's has made us SISTERS :) |
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ruralfarmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
4309 Posts
Rene'
Prosser
WA
USA
4309 Posts |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts |
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graciegreeneyes
True Blue Farmgirl
3107 Posts
Amy Grace
Rosalia
WA
USA
3107 Posts |
Posted - May 17 2009 : 08:15:00 AM
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Me either - years ago I worked at a very little workers co-op organic food store in Spokane and we carried Joseph Barron's flour - he would call us when his neighbor was coming in to Spokane to see if we needed anything that she could drop off. I loved his flours, got to meet him once briefly and have wanted to see inside the mill ever since, especially since I live so close. When my husband and I were looking at houses to buy we found one just blocks from the mill, unfortunately it was not in our price range, I would have loved to live within sight distance of that beautiful building
Amy Grace
Farmgirl #224
"use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts |
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ruralfarmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
4309 Posts
Rene'
Prosser
WA
USA
4309 Posts |
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**News from MaryJanesFarm: Here at the farm |
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Here at the farm
