I had heard about Bob's Red Mill, and of course I had seen (and used) their products before, but I never knew what an amazing place their whole grain store and restaurant was until Matthew and I went there earlier this year. I have been wanting to go back ever since, but its pretty far from our house and I hadn't found a good excuse to head out that way. I was talking to our old family friend Jeanne the other day (who has stepped into the role of pseudo mom for me) and mentioned that they offered tours of the mill and she wanted to head out there with us to catch a tour and have lunch.
We got to the mill just in time to sit down and watch the introductory video. When it was over the tour guide came out and said she would be spending the next hour with us, showing us around the mill and telling us all sorts of interesting things about the company. Pretty quickly we realized that she was more of a talker than a doer. We hung in there, certain that the tour would really get started any minute, but after 35 minutes of talking had passed and we had only walked 20 feet...we all sort of lost our enthusiasm. We decided to head back to the restaurant for lunch, and on our way out, who should we run into but Bob himself! We chatted with him for a minute about his mill and products, and he graciously agreed to pose for a picture with the kids:
We ate lunch and then it was straight to shopping! There is such an amazing variety of stuff there, much more than you can find in the grocery stores. Visions of muffins, pastries, pies and scones danced in my head, and it was hard not to buy one of everything they had to offer. Especially with the floor to ceiling bulk bins! A baker could find everything they ever wanted, and a whole bunch of things that they never knew they needed here.
We checked out and headed outside to take a few pictures. Killian with a grinding stone:
And Jeanne and the kids by the water wheel:
It was windy and rainy, and the kids were anxious to get back to the car and head home. I was disappointed that we didn't get a chance to actually see the mill on the tour, but maybe we will try again sometime and hope for a less chatty tour guide. At least it would give me a good excuse to head out that way again!
We got to the mill just in time to sit down and watch the introductory video. When it was over the tour guide came out and said she would be spending the next hour with us, showing us around the mill and telling us all sorts of interesting things about the company. Pretty quickly we realized that she was more of a talker than a doer. We hung in there, certain that the tour would really get started any minute, but after 35 minutes of talking had passed and we had only walked 20 feet...we all sort of lost our enthusiasm. We decided to head back to the restaurant for lunch, and on our way out, who should we run into but Bob himself! We chatted with him for a minute about his mill and products, and he graciously agreed to pose for a picture with the kids:
We ate lunch and then it was straight to shopping! There is such an amazing variety of stuff there, much more than you can find in the grocery stores. Visions of muffins, pastries, pies and scones danced in my head, and it was hard not to buy one of everything they had to offer. Especially with the floor to ceiling bulk bins! A baker could find everything they ever wanted, and a whole bunch of things that they never knew they needed here.
We checked out and headed outside to take a few pictures. Killian with a grinding stone:
And Jeanne and the kids by the water wheel:
It was windy and rainy, and the kids were anxious to get back to the car and head home. I was disappointed that we didn't get a chance to actually see the mill on the tour, but maybe we will try again sometime and hope for a less chatty tour guide. At least it would give me a good excuse to head out that way again!