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Made in ■
i Americajj
Milling a
Dream
Bob Moore is easily recognized.
As founder erf Bob's Red Mill, his face appears on the
packaging of each whole grain food his company
produces in Milwaukie, Ore. (pop. 20,490).
In person, Moore looks just like the picture, with
his trademark beard, square glasses, ivy cap and
friendly expression. But what the image can't depict
is the excitement that the 76-year-old entrepreneur
exudes when he talks about his business.
“Isn’t this great?” asks Moore, smiling while fresh
wheat flour fills his hand from one of eight stone
grinding mills located in his company's milling com
plex. “Oh, I love this,” he adds.
Moore was introduced to milling in the late
1960 s when he read John Goffe’s Mill , a 1948 book
about a young man who restores his family's ok!
grist mill. “It was a milestone," he says. “It gave me
a definite connection and a focus that this is what I
need to be doing.”
At the time, Moore managed an auto service
center in Redding, Calif., and his only link to whole
grain foods came from his wife, Charlee. who loved to
SSMrifjteV:
A weß-wom millstone decorates the company store's exterior.
cook with them. He soon set out to learn more about
the centuries-old milling process, in which a 2-ton
circular stone crushes grain by turning slowly against
a stationary bottom stone. Unlike modem methods,
the process allows all of the nutrients to remain in the
resulting flour.
In 1973, Moore, with his wife’s support, com
mitted himself to his dream. He purchased a set
of 19th-century millstones from a defunct North
by POLLY CAMPBELL
Photos hy Dave Gogan / I
Bob's Red Mi# touts its time-honored traditions and products at its Whole Grain Store and Visitors Center in Milwaukie, Ore.
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MHI HI M inr-
The familiar face of founder Bob Moore and wife Charlee
Carolina mill, and within a year he and Charlee
opened Moores' Flour Mill in Redding. The business
prospered, and four years later the couple decided to
retire. They subsequently sold the mill to one of their
three sons and moved to Portland, Ore.
But Bob Moore wasn’t quite ready to retire.
Shortly after moving, he came upon an old vacant
flour mill near Oregon City (pop. 25,754), and his
passion was rekindled. “I guess we had worked so
hard to build that first mill that I wasn't ready to be
done with it yet," he says. The Moores bought the
mill and started a new whole grain business, naming
it Bob's Red Mill.
After 10 years of growing the small company,
tragedy struck when an arson fire destroyed the mill.
But Moore was determined to keep the business
alive and rebuilt in nearby Milwaukie. “That was a
hard time for us,” he says. “But we pulled together.
We worked around the clock, and we never com
pletely shut down. We were fully operating within
six months."
Today, business is booming at Bob's Red Mill,
where products are milled with a combination of
century-old stones as well as new stones imported
from Denmark. The company employs 115 people
on a 6.5-acre campus composed of a packaging and
labeling department, a distribution center, a restau-
Bags of bread mix assure buyers of “stone ground goodness.”
rant, and a visitors center that sells more than 300
products, including buckwheat pancake mix, cereal,
whole wheat flour and flaxseed meal. Products also
are sold in health food stores and grocery stores across
the United States and Canada, with sales increas
ing steadily since 2000. Moore expeas the trend to
continue as more people learn the health benefits
of whole grain foods. He’s quick to point out that
research suggests that a whole grain diet can lower
cholesterol and prevent heart disease.
“He wants people to be healthier," says Marilyn
Ames, a 15-year mill employee who works in the
orders and transportation departments. Weekly staff
meetings don't start until everyone is served a bowl of
hot cereal, and employees are invited to participate in
a cardiovascular health seminar taught onsite.
"He cares so much about the people who work
here,” Ames says. “He wants us all to be healthier. He
wants us to feel better and live a long life, and he talks
about it every chance he gas.”
Polly Campbell is a freelance writer in Beaverton. Ore.
To learn more about Bob’s Red Mill, log
on to www.bobsredmill.com or call (800)
349-2173.
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