On-Farm Flour Mill Grows Its Own Grain

On-Farm Flour Mill Grows Its Own Grain CROPS Miscellaneous Less than 10 years after selling their 200 dairy cows Shawn and Sara Gingue have successfully transitioned from milking to milling The space that was once their milk room office now houses a New American stone mill and a hopper that holds 300 lbs of grain The flour they grind with the mill ends up in their 750-sq ft on-farm store or at bakeries restaurants and stores within a 60-mile radius Making flour wasn’t on the Vermont couple’s radar when they sold their cows in 2015 and planned to raise heifers for other dairies But after attending a 2018 Northern Grain Growers conference Shawn was inspired to grow grain and Sara enthusiastically supported the plan “We had 100 acres of good tillable land available in addition to land needed for growing forage for the heifers We started with a crop of barley and then in 2019 wheat for malting ” Gingue says Because they didn’t own equipment they hired harvesters and truckers to haul the grain to an elevator “In 2020 we saw the vision to invest in harvest and storage equipment to hold the grain and work with other buyers ” Gingue says to give them more control and options Their customers included Andrew Heyn and his wife Blair Marvin who own a bakery and also milled wheat and make granite stone mills The Gingues had them grind their wheat into flour then packaged it to sell to others and at their farm store where they also sell beef Buying local became very popular during the Covid lockdown and the Gingues regularly made 2-hr round trips to have wheat ground into between six and ten 50-lb bags of flour “Having our own mill really started to make sense ” Gingue says so they ordered one from their bakery customers The 40-in New American granite stone mill was installed in May 2023 and is capable of milling 100 lbs of flour an hour “The stone isn’t running fast so it keeps the grains cool so it keeps the nutrition and oils in the flour ” he says adding they make two kinds of flour Some customers prefer whole wheat But most of the flour is sifted through a fine screen to remove the bran and middlings It’s more suitable for most bakery products Gingue noted that his wife takes detailed notes about moisture and grain density to provide consistent milling The Gingues have had good success with Warthog hard red winter wheat This year they’re adding a rye variety They doubled the acreage to 200 acres to grow grain and non-GMO soybeans for crop rotation and have an additional 150 acres available for future growth “Now we do our own deliveries up to about an hour away and we have shipped some We’re in the process of getting a distributor in Vermont and New England in the future ” Gingue says “We certainly work about as much as we did as dairy farmers but it’s a different schedule and we deal with customers who enjoy creations they make with our flour ” he concludes NEK Grains refers to their area in Northeast Kingdom Vermont sells flour in 2 lb bags for $6 and 5 lb bags for $12 50 They also sell pancake mix and products from other local producers Check out their website and social media pages for more information Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Gingue Family Farm 1800 Higgins Hill Rd Waterford Vt 05819 ph 802-535-4914; ginguefamilyfarm@gmail com; www ginguefamilyfarm com

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