By Lynn Lofton
The Oxford Enterprise

The Original Grit Girl, Georgeanne Ross, is back, providing stone-ground corn products for her customers.

Ross couldn’t stay away from her love of operating a mill that produces the unenhanced, old-fashioned cornmeal, grits, corn flour (masa) and polenta that health-conscious chefs appreciate.

Ross and her husband, Freddie, got into the milling business a few years ago when he found some old equipment on their farm near Scott in the Delta. After the couple moved to Oxford, they began milling corn in earnest. They built quite a following and Georgeanne was the delivery person.

“The nickname started when I made deliveries because someone would holler ‘that grit girl is here’ because they couldn’t remember my name. It stuck, and I became known as the Grit Girl,” she recalls. “It’s grit and not grits because they’re referring to the grit cornmeal.”

Ross sold that business, along with the antique equipment and customer list, to care for her ill mother. The mother and daughter discussed Ross’ love of the grist milling operation and the possibility of returning to it. After her mother’s death, Ross followed her passion.

“I missed it and wanted to get back in it,” she says. “Some of the chefs wanted me to get back in it too. I have competition from my old company, but my customers are coming back. It’s steady and growing.”

Ross delivers her products in Oxford and Clarksdale and ships to Memphis and other parts of the country. Local customers include all of restaurateur John Currence’s restaurants along with Vince’s in Leland, Mrs. Dale’s General Store in Clarksdale and Walnut Circle Grill in Hattiesburg. The Austin Country Club in Texas and the Yellow Dog Café in New Mexico are among her out-of-state customers. A Michigan restaurant may soon join the ranks as a chef there is currently trying the products.

“We started using her grits several years ago at City Grocery,” says restaurateur Jason Nicholas. “Then, when we hatched the idea of opening Big Bad Breakfast, it was logical to use a local product. Grits are a staple of a Southern breakfast, and we knew we couldn’t open without them on the menu.”

Nicholas and partner Kirk Lovejoy go through a lot of grits at their eatery. Serving stone-ground grits is compatible with the bacon and sausage they smoke and make themselves.

“We’re real happy with Georgeanne’s grits,” Nicholas says. “We’ve tried others but like these fresh ground grits.”

Ross has such a love for what she’s doing that she’s been working a part-time job to pay for new equipment. She takes orders for her products during the week, buys corn from the Batesville Coop on Saturday and, with help from her husband, mills the corn on Sunday. Freddie is now a realtor and available to assist with the milling on Sundays.

“I call all the chefs to see what they want, and we stay fresh with our orders,” Ross says. “I like knowing people are eating healthier. It’s pure cracked corn.”

Ross uses a stone mill rather than the more commercial steel mill. In her operation, the corn falls between two big stones and is pounded out. She adjusts the stones to suit the grind of cornmeal, grits and polenta. Unlike a steel mill, the stones do not get hot, producing a pure product. That’s why dishes cooked with stone ground products take a little longer to cook. As steel wheels get hot, they precook the corn products.

A sifter with different size screens tumbles and separates the different products.
The Rosses are now milling about 650 pounds of corn a month and working to get back up to the 1,400 pounds they were milling before they sold their first operation.
“It’s surprising, but grits is the most popular of the four corn products. You would think it would be cornmeal,” she relates. “Grits are being served at dinner now. They’re high in starch like a baked potato, and chefs can do a lot with them.”

Polenta is like grits but a smaller, finer grind. Ross was asked to mill it as an Italian specialty. The masa or corn flour is a byproduct of the milling that Ross was at first discarding and feeding to deer.

“On a delivery trip to Memphis I took it to a chef and asked if it was good for anything,” she recalls. “His eyes got real big, and he told me it was pure corn flour. It’s good for coating fish, oysters, and green tomatoes because the breading stays on. It’s so fresh it adheres better and gives a light golden color and crispy crunch.”
Ross’ products have no preservatives and therefore a short shelf life. They can be refrigerated and frozen, however, to extend their use.

A Memphis native, Ross at first thought cornmeal would be all she would get from milling corn. “I thought if it didn’t come from Kroger, you couldn’t get it,” she admits. “As I got into milling, I thought it might catch on because I knew chefs were becoming more health-conscious. My brother encouraged me to take our products to some restaurants and ask chefs to try them.”

The 51-year-old Grit Girl has a bookkeeping/budgeting background. She refers to Freddie as the master miller and herself as CEO of the milling operation. With a goal of selling the products in the North as well as the South, she hopes to hire two employees by the end of the summer.

“It’s basically a hobby, but I really enjoy getting out and meeting people in the restaurant business,” she says. “I know at this time restaurants are on serious budgets, and I will work with them on shipping costs. I will also help new restaurants.”

TRUE GRITS: Georgeanne Ross, the Original Grit Girl,

displays a bag of her stone-ground grits produced at her local mill.

Elli Williams/The Oxford Enterprise