We are so proud of our miller, Filippo Drago. His business, Molini del Ponte was featured in Il Sole 24 Ore aka, the Wall Street Journal of Italy.
He was featured for ALL the right reasons. He is an example of someone running a successful business with good food. Doing things the right way.
Why should a customer prefer ancient grains to industrial products? Filippo says that, “yes, many industrial grains, which are used by some well-known pasta and flour brands, are excellent in their category… but they are industrial… due to the treatments these wheats have to endure, they are practically lifeless.”
On the other hand, Drago says “ancient grains don’t need herbicides nor fertilizers.” In fact, Filippo Drago specializes in the recovering and milling of ancient grains. For example he mills Tumminia, an organic ancient grain 100% made in Sicily, with high protein value and a well known basic ingredient for the Slow Food presidium Pane Nero of Castelvetrano. In addition to flour for Pane Nero, he makes products like Tumminia Busiate Pasta and many Michelin-starred chefs buy his products, such as the wonderful Pino Cuttaia.
Although Il Sole 24 Ore points out that Fillippo is very successful, his milling operation is seriously small-scale. Il Sole 24 Ore says, “do not think of Molini del Ponte as a luxurious/fancy facility: production is concentrated in a street in Castelvetrano, in 200 square meters at ground floor with a micro-store where the pasta can be bought and a back area dedicated to the modern cylinder mills, managed with computers just next to the 19th century natural stone mills. That’s all.”