Why Stoneground?

Benefits of Stone Grinding for Nut and Seed Butters (and Flours, too!)

Wonderfully Smooth Taste, Texture and Preservation of Nutritional Value

At Blue Mountain Organics ™, we remain dedicated to bringing you the best, pure, raw, organic nutrition that we can find. The result is uncompromised quality. No additives ever.

For some time, we have been less than satisfied with the grinding process for our seed and nut butters. Some butters, when the seed contained less oil, were too dry for our liking, and we questioned the available processes by which butters were conventionally produced.

We carefully sprout and stone grind all our flours to deliver improved nutrition and quality. Stone grinding is well recognized as being the method best able to deliver consistently high quality nutrition in unadulterated flour, so we began researching options to bring that same nutrition, quality and consistency to our butters.

For centuries peoples have used pestle and mortar or stone wheels to gently grind grains, seeds, spices and nuts to bring out the best flavors while retaining essential vitamins. Industrialization and mechanization has resulted in substitute processes using high-speed steel mills and processors where speed and utility are held in higher regard than quality and nutrition.

  • Stone grinding, while slow in comparison to steel grinding, has a number of proven benefits. 
  • The slow, massaging process completely breaks down the particles and cell walls at low temperatures, revealing the complete nutrition of the product as it is consumed.
  • The higher temperatures usually found in steel mills can not only destroy sensitive vitamins, but can also result in oxidation and rancidity which reduces quality and product life.
  • Stone grinding produces an end product which retains the natural, original proportions of the seeds and grains being ground.
  • Stone grinding releases the natural oils and distributes them uniformly throughout the product creating a wonderfully smooth and creamy product.
  • To compensate for the lack of this creamy finish, many butters are made using added oils or roasting to release the natural oil.
  • Is this stone ground form, raw butters can now be used not only as spreads but also as dips and ingredients in such food as smoothies without any ‘grittiness’.

Some months ago, in search of such a process and product, we began experimenting with stone grinding for our seeds and nuts for butters. And now, after months of testing, we have received our new purpose built stone grinders--a wonderful blend of the ancient and modern--incorporating granite stones that slowly massage the seeds at low temperature into a delightful creamy paste—smoother than anything we have been able to produce before.