Chris Hergesheimer was hand-milling flour at Sechelt's Farmer's Market when he came up with a creative idea: build a bicycle-based mill. It would speed up the milling process and would give his arms and hands a well-deserved rest. His subsequent invention produced flour in a fraction of the time, and Hergesheimer, along with his brother Josh, saw the potential for the bicycle mill to help others half a world away. The Flour Peddlar (Caitlin Press, 2015) recounts the Hergesheimer brothers' journey as they take their pedal-powered milling technology from Roberts Creek, B.C., to a woman's cooperative in the South Sudanese village of Panlang. During their trek there are challenges and obstacles, from the outbreak of war, to broken down vehicles to wild animals. The Flour Peddlar is more than just a travelogue, offering insights into local food system trends and the benefits of alternative food movements.

Josh Hergesheimer is a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Georgia Straight, This Magazine, Al-Jazeera International, the Globe & Mail and the Vancouver Observer. He earned a Master of Arts at the University of Sussex, a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and studied journalism at Langara College. A proponent of multimedia, he likes incorporating photos, video, audio and text to tell stories and create conversations. Hergesheimer is a self-described world traveller and adventure motorcyclist and lives in Vancouver.

BOOKS:

Co-authored with Chris Hergesheimer:
The Flour Peddlar (Caitlin Press, 2015) $24.95 9781927575864

[BCBW 2015]