The fried oysters with cheese-sausage grits at Nick Ryan’s (157 Jefferson St., Lexington; 859-233-7900; nickryans.com) were real eye-openers, since both the batter on the bivalves and the grits had striking corn flavor. Then we tried the shrimp and grits at Coles (735 Main St., Lexington, 859-266-9000; coles735main.com), and had the same epiphany. There was really something special about the grits these Lexington, Kentucky chefs were using.

Few restaurants have the luxury of using freshly ground, locally grown grains with the germ intact, which gives a much more profound flavor than nationally distributed products where the germ is removed to make them more shelf-stable. The difference is comparable to fresh sweet corn as opposed to corn picked a week earlier and shipped across the country. We were so intrigued that we decided to go to the source.

Weisenberger Mill (2545 Weisenberger Mill Rd., Midway; 859-254-5282; weisenberger.com) is just a little over 11 miles northwest of downtown Lexington. We admit to taking our time to get there, as there was too much handsome horse country to ogle along the way on Route 421. But when we turned a corner and began twisting downhill to South Elkhorn Creek, we could hear the falls even before we spotted the mill.

The Weisenberger family has been grinding corn since 1865, has been at this location since 1870, and built the current mill in 1913. It’s a towering presence beside the mill dam—a big limestone building standing three stories above the creek bank and another extending below the bank to house part of the mill machinery. Safety concerns prohibit mill tours, but the 1913 equipment is still grinding away. Some of the grains go through roller mills, but the cornmeal, grits, and whole wheat are all milled on stones, not unlike the one that Mac Weisenberger is posing with above.

Mac’s son Philip is titular head of the business now—the sixth generation of the family—but Mac is in no hurry to escape his daily grind. “I’ve been here every day since 1973,” he admits, “and off and on since I was a kid.” Mac is proud that Weisenberger Mill buys all its grains from a 100-mile radius. “We put the county where it was grown and the name of the farm on every package,” he says.

Grits are the biggest seller for Weisenberger, with white grits outselling yellow three to one. Mac likes his prepared very simply, just boiled with salt and water and topped with a knob of sweet creamery butter. Cornmeal is another popular item, again with white leading yellow. “When I was a kid,” Mac says, “no one even ate yellow corn.” He notes, however, that white corn is not as white as it used to be either, so cornbread “has a kind of yellow tinge.”

Restaurants and other institutions represent the biggest part of the business for Weisenberger Mill, but the products are available in Central Kentucky at Kroger’s grocery stores and at many small independent grocers as well as on a rack in the mill’s office. In addition to cornmeal and whole wheat flour in larger sacks, Weisenberger also makes a number of packaged mixes, including fish batter, hushpuppy, spoonbread, pancake, and biscuit blends. All the products can be ordered through the web site www.weisenberger.com. We can especially endorse the white grits, which we used to make grits with black truffles and poached egg.