Building A Local Market for Local Grain

In 2015, Harold Wilken had a problem - he was farming 700 acres of organic grains, but was trucking it hundreds of miles from his eastern Illinois operation for use as animal feed.

Harold Wilken, Janie’s Mill: “I was loading out a semi load of wheat to go to Lackawanna, New York for chicken feed, and I thought, you know, that's really kind of stupid. There's 10 million people in the Chicago food shed, and I know some of them eat bread. So then I started thinking about milling flour.” 

Wilken had been working in the organic space for 10 years selling the output from his Janie’s Farm. He knew there were no local mills to process his grain.

Harold Wilken, Janie’s Mill: “Well, so I went to my banker, and he had seen, he had seen that organic was working. And you go, you know, we could go closer to the, you know, the consumer and, you know, he said, well, what kind of a market you got? Well, not much.” 

In 2017, Wilken opened Janie’s Mill and began looking for customers. The mill, like the farm operation, was named in honor of his daughter Janie who lost her life in a car accident in 2001.

Their first flour buyer was Ellen King, who was located two hours to the north in Evanston, Illinois. King, who’d opened her bakery Hewn in 2013, had been  sourcing flour from other Midwestern producers but needed a higher volume of flour.

Ellen King, owner, Hewn:  “And so when Harold came in, I said, you produce it, you grow it, mill it, and we'll buy as much as you can produce for us. And so it was kind of a year collaborative work of going back and forth with him to,” 

The relationship went beyond just buyer and seller. As Wilken tuned the mill, King tested different grinds for suitability in breads and pastries. 

Ellen King, Hewn: “Once we kind of perfected a flour that worked for our bread that maybe was like 95 percent whole kernel flour with 5 percent of the bran and germ sifted out of it. So it was really almost 100 percent whole wheat.“

Eighty percent of the flour used at Hewn is sourced from Midwestern growers, and is primarily baked into loaves of bread.

After mixing, dough spends hours rising and then is kneaded by hand. The baking qualities of stone milled flour change through the year;  moisture content drops, and protein levels shift slightly. 

Ellen King, Hewn: “We actually rely on the skills of our bakers. So it takes about a year for a baker to come and work at the bakery to really understand what we're looking for.”

Milling grain using stone millstones rather than steel rollers leaves most of the germ and bran in the finished flour, producing a stronger flavor. Spinning at 300 rpm, the millstones tear the grain into a powder. A series of screens separates a percentage of the bran and germ out to create the desired texture of flour. The mill runs seven days a week and has added an overnight shift to keep up with demand. 

Traceability of the product is important to Wilken’s customers. Janie’s Mill can track a bag of flour to the batch when it was milled, to the bin where it was stored, and to the field where it was grown.

Wilken began transitioning the farm to organic in 2005, and today works 3,000 acres. The specialization shields the farm from the swings of the conventional grain markets. But organic farming has its own challenges.

Ross Wilken, Janie’s Mill: “The biggest hurdle in organics is just figuring out how to, - basically rethinking everything you've done and figuring out how to control weeds mechanically and working with the soil to adapt and, and, do things the natural way.

Harold Wilken, Janie’s Mill: “But yeah, that was quite a time, you know, kind of thing. But, but fortunately, you know, the consumer wants clean grain, clean flour, you know, and once it's stone milled. And so we're offering a product that not very many people do.”

Wheat is grown on only 3 percent of Illinois’ 22 million acres of farm ground, and organic wheat is only an estimated 7,000 acres across the state. According to data from the Artisan Grain Collaborative, many of the members of the Collaborative struggle to source all of the bushels of food-grade wheat, rye and barley they wish to buy.

Ross Wilken, Janie’s Mill:  “Dad's always been the big picture guy. Loves, loves, loves chatting with people and loves doing the mill side of things with with going out and meet new customers. And I've always been kind of nitty gritty in the background. And so I've, I've absolutely loved being the, the, the business side on the back side. And so we, we work really well together. And so I've been blessed, find a perfect business partner in that, in that regard.”

The mail order operation at Janie’s Mill mail saw a large bump in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet sales have continued to grow since lockdowns have been lifted. Part of that growth comes from one-on-one interactions with customers. Harold makes deliveries to many of the mill’s commercial clients himself. 

Harold Wilkin, Janie’s Mill: ”Well, so it started out that when we started the mill, I wanted to deliver myself so I could get the feedback from the customers. But now it is become. They're my friends. You know, they appreciate what we're doing. They come visit us at the mill. You know? Everyone smile. There's a loaf of bread. Gets stuck in my hand when I leave a bakery. (edit) And they really love the idea that I come to their back door, bring them the flour from the grain I raise, and sometimes I don't have time. We send out other people, but it really is a relationship. This is all about how you treat people and how you take care of one another. It’s a relationship.”

For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs.

Contact: Peter.Tubbs@iowapbs.org