Clinton Morrill picked up his Massachusetts ancestors' profession as a hobby, much to the delight of lovers of the corn-based treat.
By LETITIA STEIN
Published May 28, 2004
PLANT CITY - Clinton Morrill eats his grits fresh. Real fresh.
He starts from scratch, just like his ancestors in Massachusetts in the mid 1600s. First, he pours corn kernels into the red mill in his back yard.
Clackity-clack. Clackity-clack. The mill, sitting on a trailer, starts to shake.
An engine spins a belt, which sorts corn kernels through a grater. Inside the mill, stones harder than any variety found in the United States chip at the kernels, dumping flecks into a tray called a shaker.
A fine powder sifts out first: corn meal. Hard bits fly out next: grits.
Morrill lets the grits run through his fingers. In an hour, he can grind a 50-pound bag of corn into 40 pounds of grits and corn meal. He bags the speckled bits with a Kiss My Grits label to sell in a few specialty groceries, mostly at Whaley's Market in South Tampa.
A 24-ounce bag of Morrill Grist Mill's freshest sells for $3.
"The hobby's got to pay its way," said Morrill, who drills wells for a living.
He got into the business as much to play with machines as to eat grits, which grace his dinner table about once a week. (Morrill leaves the preparation to his wife, who smothers his grits in cheese. Sometimes she adds shrimp.)
The fascination with grits began when Morrill learned that his ancestors in Massachusetts ground grits. Only later did they became a Southern staple.
Long interested in antique engines, Morrill began to look into the mill market. He found his 1918 mill at a dealership in Kentucky. It cost $2,000, with the green engine adding about $1,000. Morrill has spent much more money and time building a traveling trailer that he uses to show his mill at local events, including the Ruskin Tomato Festival and the Strawberry Festival in Plant City.
The only catch: Antique grist mills don't come with directions. The dealer who sold him the mill gave him a trade magazine from 1895 that had an advertisement for a quarry in France which produced suitable green stones. He met a few other people who steered him to Britain for stones harder than marble to mash the corn.
"It's difficult to grind grits," said Morrill, a man of few words. "They don't have any stones in America hard enough to do it."
Unlike the mass-produced white powder commonly sold at grocery stores, Morrill's grits come out in flecks of gold, straw and brown. They take up to 45 minutes to cook and retain a chewy freshness that no amount of butter, salt and cheese can drown out.
"They're just natural, right from the corn," Morrill said. "They taste fresh."
