Soda bread may be considered part of the staple diet in Ireland, but it doesn’t tantalize the tastebuds of all our European neighbours.

“I think it’s the word ‘soda’ that frightens everyone off – because in other parts of the world they use soda for cleaning the floor in the bathroom,” says Rob Mosse.

For Rob, the bleach-bread imagery is of particular concern, as he and his dad Bill run The Little Mill in Bennetsbridge, Co Kilkenny.

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They make wholemeal flour, and recently diversified into baking mixes, such as brown bread mix.

The Germans have a particular aversion to soda bread, apparently: “I’ve found any Germans who have tasted it here thought we were trying to poison them!” laughs Rob.

He may have given up on the German market, but he’s found that in other parts of the world, such as in the UK, “You dress it up and put some cheese and onions into it, then call it a ‘brown bread scone’ or ‘brown bread’ and they love it.”

Sounds almost like sneaking vegetables into a child’s dinner, but the Mosses’ flour is very popular. In fact, everyone reading this article has probably tasted it at least once, given The Little Mill supplies traditional stoneground plain wholemeal flour, wholemeal spelt flour and strong seeded wholemeal flour to bakeries all over the country.

The company has recently diversified into convenience mixes too, for brownies, brown bread, scones and sponge cakes.

Grinding away

The Mosses have been milling in Bennetsbridge for seven generations but the foundations of The Little Mill have been there since 1501. It employs 35 people altogether, and it’s very much a family affair.

Bill’s brother Simon is a shareholder and renowned potter Nicholas Mosse, who is Bill’s cousin, is a director.

“I think what’s really good about Nick is he’s a craftsman,” explains Rob, “and he loves the process of doing things. He loves taking something from nothing and making it. Sometimes you get caught up in the finances, but Nick always stays kind of true to the fundamentals. It’s very grounding.”

The Mosses use very traditional methods in their mill.

“When we produce our wholemeal it goes into two stones, running one on top of the other.

“The whole grain goes in and it gets crushed – broken down into a meal, hence wholemeal – but we take nothing away and we add nothing. So what comes out of the bag is exactly what came from the field,” explains Rob.

“The wheatgerm itself contains lots of essential oils so when we crush that together those essential oils come out and at the same time we also create a bit of heat so that heat develops fantastic flavour along with essential oils so we think our stoneground wholemeals are packed full of flavour.”

New product

The Mosses are launching a new flour in January – a stoneground white flour, for which they “do exactly the same thing but then sieve out a large proportion of the bran and the wheatgerm at the end”.

“But in that crushing process, those same flavours are developed so we think that our stoneground white flour is far more flavoursome than your average white flour,” he explains.

Rob says this will be the only stoneground white flour being produced in Ireland – other white flour producers use roller mills, which are made of steel and more efficient.

Family business

Given that father and son work so closely together in this operation, is it all happy families or is working with relatives difficult?

Rob explains the key to managing, and maintaining both their business and personal relationship is “the ability to have an argument and then not hold a grudge afterwards.

“We keep on working to the same goal, which is always to try make things better and improve the business. We both enjoy it and we both get frustrated with it, but we have a pretty good, close, working relationship.”

This contrasts with when Rob first started working for the business 12 years ago at the age of 23, when he still lived at home. “That was a bad idea. Work was breakfast, lunch, supper the whole works – work, work, work. That was really frustrating, so I moved out and got my own place and we then had a friendship outside of work.”

The biggest change Rob says he has seen in the 12 years he’s been in the business was during the recession. “We lost a huge amount of our turnover and we had to really think about what we are about. We had to focus on our core products and then go into survival mode, like everybody else, and try to come back out the other side.”

Savour Kilkenny

The Little Mill is hosting the junior baking competition in the Savour Kilkenny Festival of Food, which takes place from 28 to 31 October. The Mosses are asking young people to create recipes for the “ultimate wholemeal cake” using The Little Mill wholemeal flour and whatever they like – for example, chia or chocolate or carrot or cardamom.

There are under-18 and under-12 categories. “You’ve got to come up with a cake using only our stoneground wholemeal. You can use white flour as well, but you must incorporate stoneground wholemeal as the main ingredient,” says Rob.

“We’re trying to encourage kids to get into baking and also use wholemeal in more than just soda breads. I think there’s kind of this thought process that you only use wholemeal in soda bread, so we’re trying to get people engaged in that.

“We were totally bowled over and flabbergasted by the standard of the entries last year, they were incredible,” says Rob.

Baking may be their livelihood, but Rob has a genuine love for the craft.

“The satisfaction you get from doing some home baking is huge. No matter what age you are, it’s a simple pleasure and it doesn’t cost a whole lot. You can spend a Sunday morning with your kids or by yourself baking and get a real sense of satisfaction out of it,” he encourages. CL

Find out more

The Little Mill is involved in the SuperValu Food Academy programme and their convenience packs are available in SuperValus across Kilkenny and all over Munster, as well as in Avoca stores. For more details on the competition visit www.savourkilkenny.com/clash-of-the-cakes-the-little-mill-junior-baking-competition