One of my first jobs, after I graduated from University, was as a Food Inspector for Health and Welfare Canada and, from time to time, I found myself inspecting some pretty old flour mills so seeing this one was pretty interesting.
 
The Bellamy Mill had three operational stones when in full production. Each set of stones would consist of a stationary stone and a runner stone. As grain is fed into the center of the stones from a hopper atop the stone, the system of grooves (furrows) and lands of the opposing surfaces of the two stones work in scissors fashion to shear the grain and move it continually toward the outer edges of the mill stones. The two opposing surfaces of the two stones do not touch but the fineness of the resultant flour is determined by how close together the miller decides to have the stones. A skilled miller will adjust the closeness by sound and feel and the fineness of the resultant product – part art, part science – knowing that consistency from bag to bag of end product is very important for happy customers and repeat business.
The initial product straight from the stones might pass as stone-ground whole wheat flour as it would contain white flour as well as midlings and bran whereas the fine white flour would require further processing. In the 1860’s, they would not be adding preservatives to the flour and the flour would not be bleached so it would still have some color compared to the much whiter flour of today.
The miller at Upper Canada Village was certainly getting plenty of questions while we were there and seemed to be enjoying discussion of the process will all of the visitors. Meanwhile, I had headed to the floor above where I found a piece of equipment with an interesting name,”The Eureka Separating and Scouring Machine”. Â A tour of the basement was a bit less interesting, with the primary point of interest being the various belts driving the equipment above.
 
As I was leaving the area of the two mills, I was approached by a musician who provided me with a FREE ticket to a FREE show. How could I resist such an offer?
With FREE ticket in hand and unable to locate the other members of our party, I headed over to the Tavern to enjoy the show and passed by another entertainer along the way. 
I wasn’t there very long before I was able to see that it wasn’t the sign that was crooked. It was the bricks that were crooked! 🙂
I never really understood the story line but there was a bit of singing, a bit of dancing, a bit of sleep walking and a couple of assistants from the audience. Over all, a fun time was happening on stage and the audience seemed to enjoy it and added the appropriate numbers of OOHs!, AAHs! and WOWs on cue.
 
