Quick Bite: Getting Gritty

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March 2013
Quick Bite: Getting Gritty
Written By: Kinsey Gidick
Photography By: Ruta Elvikyte
Today Johnsman and his wife, Betsy, make some of the most raved about grits
and cornmeal in South Carolina (just ask Peninsula Grill chef Graham Dailey), all
on a 1945 grist mill at their farm on Edisto Island.
“When all my
friends were out
drinking in high
school, I was
hanging with 90­
year­old farmers
learning how to
mill,” says
Geechie Boy Mill
owner Greg
Johnsman. Little
did he know,
those years of
tinkering would
pay off.
The Truck
Stops Here
Today Johnsman and his wife, Betsy, make some of the most raved about grits
and cornmeal in South Carolina (just ask Peninsula Grill chef Graham Dailey), all
on a 1945 grist mill at their farm on Edisto Island. “There were 600 of these
wood grit separators, five total in the state, and I have three of them. I’m kind of
a hoarder,” says Johnsman, whose love of grinding corn is almost as strong as
his obsession with purchasing, restoring, and preserving vintage farm equipment.
Case in point: for their honeymoon, he surprised Betsy with a trip to John
Deere’s headquarters.
So overwhelming is the Upstater­turned­Lowcountry­boy’s love for retro stone
mills, corn cleaners, and motors, he recently overhauled a 1946 Chevrolet truck
that he intends to use as a mobile milling unit for one of his treasures. “We’ll put
a 12­inch mill—rarest of the rare, from Tennessee—on the back of the truck,” he
says. “Then pull up in front of, say, Husk restaurant, and mill on site.” While the
truck only leaves the farm for the couple’s weekly trip to church right now, he
says you can expect to see his grit­maker­on­wheels rolling to a restaurant or
farmers market near you this summer. But there are other projects, too. Inside his climate­controlled warehouse,
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Johnsman has recently fixed up a 1902 miller corn cleaner. “We’re going to clean
about six tons of Hoppin’ John with it for a few chef buddies of mine,” he says
nonchalantly, as if harvesting and cleaning peas on a turn­of­the­century
machine were as normal as ordering a pizza for dinner. In addition, Johnsman’s
fine­tuning his own 1934 flour mill. “We’ll start with an heirloom abruzzi rye,” he
says. The ultimate goal is to produce a high­quality flour for EVO Bakery to use
in their own signature loaf. And while some may wonder how the tedium of
using ancient, fragile machinery to produce small batches of product could be
worth it, Johnsman says the answer is simple: “The antique equipment is the
most important piece of the equation because modern equipment turns 10 times
faster, and the heat generated cooks out the flavor.” So by spinning his Geechie
Boy Mill, Johnsman is essentially taking the eater back in time to the original
taste. “Even though I can never generate enough to keep everyone happy, I can
always make a better product,” he says. And with orders coming in from across
the nation, it’s obvious there’s nothing run­of­the­mill about this old­school
operation. —Kinsey Gidick
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TAGS
Restaurant Review
restaurants
Flour Mill
EVO Bakery
Greg Johnsman
Geechie
Kinsey Gidick
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