Mill, cakes draw crowd
WEST SUNBURY — People visiting Zanella Milling this weekend had a chance to try pancakes made from buckwheat flour that was grown, harvested, milled and cooked in Butler County.
Zanella Milling was one of 11 locations in northern Butler County featured on this year's Butler County Farm Tour, which ran Saturday and Sunday.
The farm tour is a free event that offers people a chance to learn about farms, agriculture and small businesses in the county. This year's stops included several farms as well as The Glass Blowing Center in Hilliards, Playthings Etc. in Clay Township and North Country Canning Co. in Slippery Rock Township.
The owners of Zanella Milling estimated that more than 600 people visited their stop on the tour.
Buckwheat has been grown and milled into flour in Butler County since the 19th century.
“Butler County used to be named Buckwheat County,” Matthew Zanella said.
A mill located in West Sunbury burned down in 1895 and was rebuilt in 1897 by the Phoenix Milling Co., Zanella said.
Matthew and his brother, Mark, are second generation owners, having taken over from their parents, John and Anita. The structure built in 1897 remains unchanged and many of the original parts of the mill are still in use.
They try to buy as much buckwheat as they can from local farmers. Some local farmers, who had stopped growing buckwheat for a while, have resumed growing it because federal subsidies for corn have ended, Zanella said.
Buckwheat is a tough, small grain that grows from July to October.
It is run through the mill twice to get ground into buckwheat flour.
“It's hard and it's jagged. Put some in your shoe and by the end of the day, you'll learn everything you need to know about buckwheat,” John Zanella said during a tour Sunday.
The milling process removes the buckwheat hull, the tough outer seed, and the groat, the inner kernel.The flour, which does not contain gluten, is packaged and sold to local grocery stores and a few local bakeries and restaurants.One popular use of the flour is for pancakes, which Zanella cooked and sold during the farm tour.The mill also processes corn and other grains into animal feed and birdseed mix.Connie McElhaney of Fenelton toured the mill with her family.“It's nice they can hang in there as a small business,” she said about Zanella.The Henne family of Lyndora toured the mill and tried some pancakes after visiting several other stops on the farm tour Sunday.Walking around inside the mill, which still uses old-fashioned wooden gears and augers and leather drive belts, was like going back in time, they said.“It was fun seeing the 100-year-old equipment still going,” John Henne said.
