Milling Rosen Rye

Posted on by stollandwolfe

Thankful for the opportunity to briefly step back in time at Thompson-Neely Grist Mill for milling of this year’s Rosen Rye Harvest.

Thompson-Neely Grist Mill

Thank you to Laura Fields and the Delaware Valley Fields Foundation’s Seed Spark Project and Mark Antle at PSU for their dedication sourcing, growing, and harvesting Rosen Rye grain for 5+yrs, turning ozs of seed into acres.

Read more about the journey to revive Rosen Rye.
Read more about Dick Stoll’s Return to Distilling Rosen Rye.

Thank you to Glenn Blakely and the Team at Thompson-Neely Grist Mill along with The Friends of Washington Crossing Park for their continued passion in restoring and operating the historic mill.

More Info on the Historic Mill

The existing structure, built in 1875, is actually the third grist mill to be built on the property after two of its predecessors were shuttered. Several hundred years ago, the area occupied by the Thompson-Neely House and Farmstead and the nearby mill were inhabited by natives of the Lenni Lenape village of Winnehawcnunick. Around 1684, a runaway indentured servant named John Pidcock fled his master and took possession of the property, establishing a fur trading station there.

The property was then acquired in approximately 1740 by Englishman John Simpson, who likely built the property’s first mill downstream from where it currently stands. Simpson ran a grist and sawmill there for only six years before he died. Prior to his death in 1747, the mill served the Philadelphia market and farmers as far south as Bristol and as far north as Tinicum.

–WashingtonCrossingPark.org
Second Floor of Thompson-Neely Grist Mill. Grain Hoppers Feed Grain Onto Millstones Below.
Grain Hopper Filled with Rosen Rye Just Before Milling on the Millstones Below.
The Wooden Chute Above the Hopper Uses Gravity to Feed Grain from Third Story of the Mill.
The Mill Race Channels Water from the Holding Pond Into the Mill.
Overshot Water Wheel Powering the Thompson-Neely Grist Mill in Washington Crossing, PA.
Overshot Water Wheel Powering the Gears Turning the Millstones Above.
Rosen Rye is Milled from Grain into Flour for Distilling into Rye Whiskey.