Meet the Producer - Mungoswells
Mungoswells is an arable farm, north of Haddington in what’s known as the “bread basket” county of East Lothian. It was bought in 1920 by McDowall family from Hopetoun Estates and moved from Galloway in 1924. Today the family farms cereals, beans and clover on their 550-acre farm from which 160 acres is entirely organic. Their products are made from crops grown, harvested, milled and packaged all within 5 miles, resulting in quality local produce with unrivalled traceability.
The history of Mungoswells starts as early as the 1800s when Patrick Shirreff attempted to select and breed new varieties of wheat and was mentioned by Charles Darwin even before the first publication of his work “On the origin of species”. These days a few of the earlier varieties are still being grown at the farm, but some of the new, modern strains are also used to produce flour. Mungoswells’ plan is to have enough of the early varieties of strains to store and mill them but for now, they are focused on multiplying the seed.
Buy Mungoswells Flour in our webshop here
The Maltings and Mill
A few years ago, in 2008, Mungoswells decided to start building a small maltings to take their own barley and wheat grown on the farm and convert it to malt. Ready for brewers and distillers to use in the production of beer and whisky. Since most micro-brewers don’t have their own crushing facility a small mill was bought and they now pack malt in 25kg bags.
Having their own mill has enabled Mungoswells to crush wheat to produce flour. They are now able to produce a wide range of flours such as Malted Wheat Flour and the more common flours such as Bread or Plain Flour. Most of the flour produced by them can be bought in two varieties – organic or non-organic, with 14 different types packed in either 1,5kg or 16kg bags.
Their flour
Flour produced on the farms of Mungoswells is made entirely from wheat grown in East Lothian. Since they grow different types of wheat you can choose from a variety of flours which are suitable for preparing different things. Some of them are hard varieties like Paragon or Mulika which are used for strong bread flour while soft wheats like Consort or Tuxedo are used to produce plain or self-raising flour for cakes and biscuits.
In comparison to commercially produced white flour, Mungoswells’ flour has small darker flecks in it, which are particles of bran, the outer skin of the grain. These tiny flecks enrich flour in protein, fibre and additional nutrients. They also make it taste much better! If you choose wholemeal flour, it has nothing taken from it – you can see the flakes of bran yourself. From Mungoswells’ flours you can prepare anything you want from breads and pizzas to cakes, scones and biscuits. Choose your favourite wheat and exactly how you like it – plain or self-raising.