Travel Back in Time at Woodson's Mill in Roseland, VA

If you travel south from Afton down along Route 151 in Nelson County, you just might find yourself traveling back in time too. It’s there in Roseland, just east of the Piney River,  where you’ll find Woodson’s Mill, an 18th century flour and meal mill that looks like it stepped right off the pages of a history book. A few days ago we had the chance to meet the mill’s owner, Will Brockenbrough, who kindly gave us a tour of this magnificent old building. 

Now, there are many impressive things about this mill, such as the following:

• It was built in 1794 and is still proudly standing today.  And we thought our house (1848) was old! 
• Thanks to the hard work of Will, his late father, and others, the mill has been restored into working order.
• It operates completely by water power from the Piney River. They’re not just old school; they’re old schoolhouse.

We first met Will at the Nelson Farmer’s Market. Since we strive to use “fresh and local” whenever we can, we were happy to try out some of the Woodson’s Mill line of products, including whole wheat flour, three-grain pancake mix, and all-natural grits. Will’s philosophy, which we enthusiastically support, is to process only local and organic grains and corn. In fact, he has held off producing white (all purpose) flour until he finds a local producer who meets his standards. And when he does, we’ll be first in line to buy some!

You can find Woodson’s Mill products in some of the better restaurants in the greater Charlottesville area. And of course we are very happy to include them in our line of locally-sourced products, including eggs, sausage, honey, bread and coffee (roasted in Nelson County). We are completely convinced, mostly because our guests keep telling us, that local products simply taste better.

We are happy to support Will, his wife Sarah, and their Miller, Steve as they continue to create quality products in a centuries-old tradition.  Our guests will be the happy recipients of the great work being done at Woodson’s Mill. They can also visit the mill on Saturday afternoons to see the actual production process for themselves.

Woodson’s Mill, 3211 Lowesville Road, Roseland, Virginia 22967

Photo by Ntcoy. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.