'Sizzling hot, then butter and maple syrup.' Brewster grist mill sells out of cornmeal

BREWSTER — As yellow leaves sifted down from the trees outside the Stony Brook Grist Mill on Saturday morning, yellow cornmeal sifted out from between antique granite millstones inside the restored 19th-century mill and slid down a small chute into a metal trough.

Sitting on a low wooden stool beside the container, head miller Doug Ericson paused in the midst of scooping newly ground meal into a linen bag, tilting his head to listen.

"It sounds like we're out of corn," he said, his practiced ears picking out a subtle change of sound in the low rumble coming from the grinding stones.

Volunteer assistant miller Scott Leonhardt peered into the hopper perched above the encased millstones and nodded.

"We are," he confirmed, quickly hefting a bag of yellow corn berries — dried kernels stripped from their cobs — and pouring in several pounds' worth.

Keeping the grind stones fed at Stony Brook Grist Mill in Brewster

It was a constant task as the two men worked nonstop to keep the grinding stones fed, and to keep up with the pace of customers filing in to buy cornmeal milled the old-fashioned way: between stones turned by the power of water.

Saturday saw the season's last turning of the grist mill's water wheel, fed by Stony Brook on its way down to Cape Cod Bay, as the millers ground the last of this year's corn to produce what has become an end-of-season tradition: holiday cornmeal. And it proved to be a particularly popular commodity this year.

"It's been crazy," said Ericson, who's been at the job of turning corn into meal at the mill for more than a decade.

Leonhardt agreed, noting they've seen some busy milling days in the two years he's been assisting, "but not like this."

Ericson said the line for the holiday cornmeal grinding began as early as 8:30 a.m., an hour and a half before their advertised opening time. Throughout the morning, the two men shifted back and forth between manning the antique cash register, filling cloth souvenir bags and paper sacks with cornmeal as it flowed out from the millstones, folding recipe flyers, and keeping the hopper fed with corn berries.

Over the summer? 'We ground 2,000 pounds'

They ground about 200 pounds of corn so they'd have a starting stock for the holiday sale, but by 11 a.m. they were already running out of that store and were rapidly emptying the remaining bags of corn berries. Much of the corn was sourced from the Lake Champlain region, but there were some bags of blue corn from Exeter, Rhode Island brought in to supplement the supplies shipped from New York at the start of the season.

"Over the summer we ground 2,000 pounds — over 10 days we did 200 pounds a day," said Ericson.

On Saturday, he estimated they churned out "easily 400 pounds" of additional cornmeal. And still there was not enough to keep the grinding going as long as they'd hoped. The millers ended up having to shut down nearly two hours early.

Among the customers who lined up out the doorway, up the stairs and onto the sidewalk were young families and older couples, long-time Brewster residents, and visitors from other parts of the Cape and out of state. As they waited, they were served cups of hot apple cider and muffins made from cornmeal ground at the mill.

Why visit an old grist mill in Brewster?

For some, the lure of the mill was to show their children an age-old production process in operation.

"People are really into how the mill operates," said Leonhardt, who gladly answered questions as he and Ericson worked.

For others, it was all about nostalgia, and about capturing the essence of simpler times in a bag of cornmeal made the way it was made along that same stretch of Stony Brook as far back as 1663.

Pam Barbey, of Hyannisport, was thrilled to be able to take home a couple of bags of water-turned, stone-ground cornmeal. She's lived on Cape for five years, she said, and only just discovered the Brewster gristmill this weekend.

"My friend is visiting from Pennsylvania and we got on Facebook yesterday to see what was going on," she said.

When her friend pointed out the holiday cornmeal sale in Brewster, Barbey recounted, "I said 'oh my gosh, we have to go!' You just can't find this around here."

She said she's been "passively looking for a place like this" ever since she moved to the Cape. Her great grandfather ran a mill like Brewster's in Tellico Plains, Tennessee, at the base of the Smoky Mountains, and as someone hailing from the South, Barbey said she's serious about her cornmeal.

She uses her grandmother's cornbread recipe, and makes it in the same cast iron pan her grandmother used.

"The key is a hot pan. The oil in the bottom has to bubble," Barbey revealed.

Emily Peters, from the Albany, New York area, was visiting a friend on Cape and was also thrilled to buy some old fashioned, stone-ground cornmeal from Brewster's millers. She, too, continues to use her mother's cornbread recipe and has fond memories of it.

"We had it on Sundays with butter and maple syrup. It was crispy on the edges," Peters said.

Her mother would also use a cast iron pan, which she got sizzling hot before pouring in the batter, she said. When the cornbread came out, it was served immediately with butter and maple syrup, which was warmed up first "so it wouldn't chill the cornbread."

"It's delicious," Peters said. "To me, that's comfort food."

The Stony Brook Gristmill and Museum are typically open Saturdays in July and August. Special events, such as the holiday cornmeal grinding and sale, may be scheduled at different times of the year. Follow the mill on Facebook at www.facebook.com/stonybrookgristmillbrewster

Heather McCarron writes about climate change, environment, energy, science and the natural world, in addition to news and features in Barnstable and Brewster. Reach her at hmccarron@capecodonline.com, or follow her on X @HMcCarron_CCT

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: End-of-season cornmeal sale draws a crowd to Brewster grist mill.