All Souls on Deck

Some City Market staff members recently took a trip to Warren, Vermont, to meet with the owners and staff of All Souls Tortilleria as well as to get a behind the scenes look into their daily operations. All Souls was started by Joe Bossen of Vermont Bean Crafters, Sam Fuller, and Hubert d’Autremont, and together they’re bringing customers a truly local corn tortilla that's certified organic, which you’re able to find at City Market!

Their operation is broken into two different buildings, where first the corn gets sifted in a beautiful old red barn. Once the initial stages of sorting the kernels is complete, the cooking and tortilla development happens in another smaller building located close by.

We were first taken into the barn to look at the fanning belt, which is the first step in the process of developing the delicious tortillas. Here they add 50 pound bags of regionally produced corn (sourced from Vermont and New York), which gets sifted and sorted by the machine. The average 50 pound bag yields about 43 pounds of usable corn kernels. The 7 lbs of unusable kernels gets composted and fed to pigs on the farm. In total, between 400-600 pounds of corn go into each cooking batch which makes around 300-400 pounds of masa.

Once the corn has been run through the fanning belt, it gets placed on the picking table, where it runs on an electric belt and is hand sifted and sorted one final time as they look for any kernel sized rocks or unusable kernels that may have not been caught initially. Upgrading to the new fanning belt has made it much easier for them to pick out rocks and unusable kernels.

After the corn has been sifted, it then gets mixed with water and limestone. The combination of time and temperature creates traditional nixtamal (the process for the preparation of corn, in which the grain is soaked and cooked), which is then ground by machine with hand carved volcanic stones into fresh masa. Once the masa is completed and ready, it’s then placed into ovens and comals (a smooth, flat griddle that is used to cook tortillas), where fire and heat transform the masa into delicious tortillas! 

All of the machines and grinders where custom built by Campbell Machines, located in Santa Fe Springs, California. Owned by Guillermo Campbell, Campbell Machines has been making tortilla ovens, cooking tanks, corn grinders, masa feeders and cooling conveyors since 1976. Guillermo works directly and personally with his customers so he can design and build machines that fit each individual company’s needs.

All Souls is currently operating with everything being made to order. Right now, they’re producing around 1 ton (2000 lbs) of masa every 4 to 5 weeks and are expecting to double that by 2017.

For a deeper look inside All Souls Tortilleria, be sure to check out their producer profile!