I love road trips. Mainly because I get to stop in places like this…read more
So while driving to the shore, my friend mentioned always passing by this Mill and wanting to go in, but her ex-boyfriend would never stop there. After hearing about this injustice, I immediately pulled into the lot.
I have to admit I'm not the biggest consumer of wheat/flour products and I can't bake to save my life, but it doesn't hurt learning about oldest working mill in Maryland (nearly continuous operation since 1682). We walked up and a friendly lady was outside sweeping, she invited us in, and from there it turned into a second grade elementary school field trip.
Basically, my friend, the mature adult, talked about the operations of the Mill (stuff like the mill produced flour that fed George Washington's Continental army during the American Revolutionary War), and they traded recipes for buckwheat pancakes. Meanwhile there was me, Princess ADD, who had already gone through every corner of the place and touched all the things. Our volunteer host gave me permission to use the equipment, mainly to distract me, and I went to town shifting and grinding white corn to make corn meal and grits. Basically, I looked like an organ grinder monkey hard at work.
So I am pretty sure I paid little or no attention to what our host was saying due to the sheer amount of shiny objects and things to play with around me but here is what I managed to gather about the mill:
-The Wye Grist Mill is open from mid-April to mid-November.10 a.m. - 4 p.m, Grinding Days
are the first and third Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m, when the millers use the big water wheel grinding thingie.
-There is a suggested $2 donation
-They sell freshly ground whole flour, cornmeal, buckwheat and grits at $5-$6 a bag (about the size of a coffee bean bag). The grits are fantastic and cut to the right coarseness for me. BUY THE GRITS, cause I may have grinded them. The products are stored in the freezer to kill off bugs.
So if you're in the Eastern Shore area and into history or using machinery, please pop right in. The staff is friendly, the museum is small but fun to look over, and it's a great place to pop in for an educational trip with the kids since the equipment is safe enough for me to use.