Janie’s flour shipped to all 50 states

ASHKUM, Ill. — After years of research and planning, Janie’s Mill began milling certified organic grain grown on Harold Wilken’s farm in 2017.

Jill Brockman-Cummings, Janie’s Mill manager, was the only employee at the beginning, developing the first six flours from grain put through the stone-grinding process. A second miller was later hired to help her out.

Pre-pandemic, Janie’s Mill was grinding 1,000 to 2,000 pounds per day, primarily selling wholesale. The facility is owned by Harold Wilken and his son, Ross.

“Then the pandemic hit and our wholesale account pretty much disappeared, and then all those retail sales began. We went from milling just 1,000 to 2,000 pounds a day to like 7,500 pounds a day that were all going out in small retail packages,” Brockman-Cummings said.

“That’s when we had 40 employees and around-the-clock shifts. That was a high point from 2020 until things started getting back to normal.

“At that point we were at full capacity, but then as things opened up and people started going back to work, we kind of went down quite a bit. We had those 40 employees and we went back to like 10 and one shift because those retail sales came way down, but then our wholesale went back up.”

The online retail and wholesale business are now nearly even.

“Now our milling volume is back up to where we were in the pandemic. It’s just that it’s not all going out retail. It’s a nice balance and we’re at capacity and that’s why we’re looking to expand the shifts until we get the new mills installed.

“I would say from 2023 until now we’ve seen a lot of growth, especially in wholesale.”

The facility currently averages milling about 7,000 to 8,000 pounds per day through its two stone mills.

That’s not counting the two or three days a week when they’re milling flaked oats, flaked wheat and flaked barley and that’s another few 1,000 pounds daily.

That production goes into approximately 40 different products in bags from 1 pound to 50 pounds.

On an average week, Janie’s sells 2,000 to 4,000 pounds in smaller retail packages, and the wholesale accounts have been growing quite a bit year-over-year.

“We mill about 15 to 16 different grains, ranging from Bloody Butcher corn to buckwheat, rye, different varieties of wheat, other ancients like Black Emmer, spelt and durum. The ancient wheats don’t do well in the Midwest climate. It’s too moist and humid and are grown elsewhere,” Brockman-Cummings said.

“Our online orders go to all 50 states and even some of the territories, but as far as deliveries, Harold primarily does the Midwest deliveries to wholesale customers. He goes from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri.

“But, that being said, we do have wholesale customers that we ship either LTL, (or less than a truckload), or UPS. We have customers in California and on the East Coast, Florida, everywhere.”

Farm Expansion

As the demand for flour has grown over the years, so has Janie’s Farm.

Wilken began farming his 700 acres organically in 2001 and grew as other landowners wanted to make the move into organic production beginning with Herman Brockman who owned acreage nearby.

The operation now includes over 3,000 acres of certified organic land and will expand to about 4,000 acres next year.

Short Supply Chain

“I think our flours are the most delicious and nutritious that you can find,” Brockman-Cummings said.

“What I really admire about what Harold has done is he has created this very short supply chain from Janie’s Farm to the mill to our consumers.

“During the pandemic when people didn’t have flour it was because the supply chain had broken. At that time we were only milling Janie’s Farm products. We hadn’t started working with other farmers yet. So, just kept calling the farm saying, ‘I need more grain, I need more grain.’ They had hundreds of bushels of grain stored in their bins just down the road and so we could just keep going.

“After the pandemic, a lot of people started thinking about what happened, not just with flour, but a lot of other materials. It’s because we don’t have that short supply chain anymore, but here at Janie’s Mill and Janie’s Farm we do.”