Atkinson Mill

This was a trip I was really excited about. I had come across one of the few remaining water powered grist mills. Atkinson Mill in Selma, NC was high on my list of things to see. When we got out of the car the first thing we noticed was the SMELL! OMG it smelled like the yummiest place on Earth. It was the smell of cooking Hush Puppies and I was pretty sure The Boy was going to take off running to find them.

I wasn't sure what to expect when we got there but it was a lot smaller then I thought. I guess I was thinking they were a big factory but it isn't. The original mill was built in 1757 but burned down in the 50's and they rebuilt it. We waited in the front office for a but while we waited for our tour guide.

As we walked down to the mill we got a brief history of the place and talked for a bit. When we got to the mill we were able to look over into the water and see where the original water wheel was to draw up the water to runt he mill. Of course now they pull the water in electronically but they still have the wheel there to show people how it works. He turned it on for us and it started to run backwards. So he turned it off and said we would try it again in a bit. It was REALLY loud when it was on.

We went into the mill and everything was covered in a fine powder of ground up corn. He showed us where the corn comes in and where the stones grind it.


Right next to the grinders you could see the water outside and it too was covered in a yellow corn power.

From the grinders the ground corn is brought down the the next level where you could see some workers filling bags of corn meal. They make a lot of mixes there and everything is mixed right there where we were standing. It was really cool being able to see everything so up close. When we went down to where the guys were bagging up stuff we were shown what is leftover from the ground corm. We now know where corn flakes come from, yep it is all the stuff that isn't fine enough for the corn meal.
We went back outside and he started up the wheel again. This time it went the right way and it was MUCH quieter. It was really cool seeing it in action and the kids asked a lot of questions. We watched it for a few minutes and headed back to the front office. While walking back we stopped to look at the little well where they still get water if they need a drink. It was the same one they used to use when the mill opened.

We found out the hush puppies they were making were for a local restaurant in the area. They smelled delish so we knew we would be buying some of the mix. Back at the office we went over to the shelves of stuff for sale and picked up about 8 bags of stuff. The Hush Puppy mix was amazing. Especially the one with onion. I got a buttermilk biscuit mix that was not very good when I mad it. I will try it again but it was missing some sort of fat. The seafood breading was really good as well. We used it on some fish. We have yet to try all the mixes but I have hope for them. Cat Boy can not wait to try the Funnel Cake mix.