Golden Reef Milling is a small milling company situated on the Fourie family farm near Greyton in the Overberg, owned by Heinie and Tirsa Fourie. Heinie is a 4th generation farmer who farms with wheat, barley, canola and sheep. The mill was started in 1999 basically to add value to the family’s wheat farming, but Heinie had always had a dream to produce a more exclusive product; a natural and healthier flour. He started doing research on biological farming methods, because he realised that in order to produce a healthier flour, he had to start looking at his soil in order to produce a healthier wheat plant. This is how Bio-Wheat flour was born.

The beginning of the Bio-Wheat Flour Story

Heinie and Tirsa met at varsity in Stellenbosch, fell in love and got married 22 years ago. Tirsa was a city girl from Cape Town and in her own words “was not the most suitable choice for this “Boerseun”, but she fell in love with the farm and his way of life and today wouldn’t change it for the world. The farm is situated in the beautiful Overberg farming region and is surrounded by majestic mountains and colourful fields during winter time. Farming is Heinie’s passion.  Perfecting and marketing his flour is his hobby.

It’s all in the bag

When it came to packaging Bio-Wheat, the Fourie’s knew they wanted to show that this is a family business and wanted the packaging to feature the next generation of Fourie farmers, Kaylen and Christoff, the couples children.

“We believe strongly in farming for the future by caring for the soil today in order for our kids to be able to continue their father and grandfather’s legacy”. He tells us further, “I came across a quote by a 19th century environmentalist, Aldo Leopold, which inspired me…

‘The oldest task in human history is to live on a piece of land without spoiling it’”.

This quote is included on the packaging.

Growing from strength to strength

The dreams is for Bio-Wheat to become a household name, and in order to do this production is being stepped up in order to meet demand. Already a further 10 -12 jobs have been created and there are hopes to increase this number as the business grows. The aim will always remain though to keep the personal touch and to get the kids involved in the business. They are the reason Heinie and Tirsa started Bio-Wheat™ afterall, and the plan is for them to be able to carry on and expand the business successfully one day; always producing flour that bakes bread that is “a slice above the rest”.

Baking with Bio-Wheat

At Bio-Wheat the aim is to get people back to the basics of baking and to bake your own homemade bread in no time. What makes Bio-Wheat flour so much fun is the fact that each one of the products have a easy-bake recipe on the back; tried and tested by someone in the Fourie family.

Bio-Wheat™ flour is a strong four with an excellent rising quality and therefore suitable for all kinds of baking, but especially for bread baking,pizza bases, rotis, wraps and homemade pasta.  And the best “roosterkoek” and “stokbrood” is guaranteed! Heinie’s mom’s “Eezy Peezy Chocolate Cake” is a favourite of the Fourie kids and their friends.

What makes Bio-Wheat™ FLOUR special?

The wheat used to produce Bio-Wheat flour is grown, milled, packed on and distributed from the farm. The owner is the farmer, the miller, the marketer and the father of the kids on the packet, so it’s very important to be involved in every process of producing the product in order to market a product with integrity. Traceability is of the utmost importance to the integrity of the product.

Every packet of Bio-Wheat is hand packed and great care is taken to ensure that it lives up to the 5th generation quality guarantee. The wheat milled for Bio-Wheat flour is cultivated by means of biological farming. This means that a crop rotation method is applied to replenish the soil by recycling wheat crops with legume pastures.

After harvesting, more organic matter is left in the soil to break down into natural humus. This reduces the need for chemical fertiliser, and in addition less pesticides are administered: pests do not like a healthy crop. Bio-Wheat is stone ground;  a process in which the wheat is ground slowly between the stones without exposing it to excessive heat, thereby retaining the nutritional vitamins, enzymes, wheat germ and fibre. In essence, stone ground promises nothing added or removed.

Did you know?

So many people avoid bread because it makes them feel bloated and gives them bad digestion.  But at Bio-Wheat it is believed that bread milled from good flour should not be bad for you.  Keep in mind that stone ground flour, because of the cooler and slower milling process, manages to retain most of the wheat germ which contains all the nutritional vitamins, but more importantly the enzymes you need for the natural digestion of the protein in wheat.

Bio-Wheat flour is a natural product, containing no preservatives, additives or improvers often present in bread baked from commercially milled flour.

Bio-Wheat flour is a natural, healthy choice…  it’s a way of life.

Find out where to buy the Bio-Wheat range here.

Are you a lover of all things bread? Check out our favourite homemade bread recipes and get baking. 

goldenreef.co.za | Facebook