Biodynamic flour becoming popular in Christchurch

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 14

Biodynamic flour becoming popular in Christchurch

A novel kind of flour Is becoming increasingly popular in Christchurch. Several health food shops are now stocking biodynamic flour which comes from a Scargill farm owned by Mr lan Henderson.

According to Ana Little, of the Piko Healthfoods Co-operative, the flour is in demand. Piko has several customers who place regular orders and at times there are waiting lists.

It sells for about $1.58 a kilogram, and comes in Ikg, 3kg and bigger packs. Ms Little says the flour

is used mostly for making bread. But it is also fine enough to be used for baking sponges, an unusual quality for wholemeal flour.

The flour is made from rongatea wheat grown on Mr Henderson’s farm.

The farming practices there are based on the teaching of Rudolf Steiner. There are no artificial fertilisers,herbicides, or pesticides. Mr Henderson says traditional problems such as rust and fungal diseases are overcome through selective breeding and herbal sprays.

This summer a total of 20 acres of the wheat will be harvested. It is milled on the farm using a Zentrofan mill. This mills the grain using

air and is different to normal stone mills. It aims to preserve the

goodness of the grain. Mr Henderson also tries to get fresh flour to the consumer. “Flour is best fresh. We deliver fortnightly to Christchurch. It has been milled in the previous few days so by the time it gets into the shops it is only days old.