Small But Mighty: The Little Mill That Can
A Tale of Community Based Multi-Capitalism in Two Parts
By: Carol E. Hays, The Strategic Collaboration Group; Sean Esbjorn-Hargens and Claudia Meglin, MetaIntegral; Erin Meyer, Basil’s Harvest
Introduction
This is a 2-part series about a small upstart stone-ground mill and its emergence as a leader in local grain and flour production in the Chicago regional foodshed. Using the multi-capital approach of MetaIntegral’s MetaImpact Framework, the series describes the development and growth of local supply chains that the Mill increasingly connects across the Chicago foodshed region. MetaImpact’s multi-capital approach recognizes and values 10 distinct types of capital — Human, Health, Manufactured, Financial, Natural, Cultural, Social, Knowledge, Psychology, and Spirituality. Financial Capital, while typically thought of as the key to catalyzing new enterprise, is just one of many forms of value that contribute to the emergence of a system and its ability to thrive, such as in a local food value chain.
Here is a brief definition for each capital to keep in mind as you read the blog posts in this two-part series:
Cultural Capital: The internal and external processes of shared meaning-making of a community, i.e., community coherence
Financial Capital: Any economic resource measured in terms of money used to make products and provide services, i.e., money
Health Capital: The total expression of physical health and wellness for an individual, i.e., physical well-being
Human Capital: The total experience, “know-how,” and capacity to perform specific skill-sets of individuals, i.e., skills and capacity
Knowledge Capital: The amount of information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom found in individuals and how that is transformed into something useful for others, i.e., understanding
Manufactured Capital: The total expression of assets and infrastructure of an organization, i.e., infrastructure and inventory
Natural Capital: The stocks of natural resources or environmental assets that provide a flow of useful goods or services, now and in the future, i.e., natural resources
Psychological Capital: The capacity of individuals to think, reflect, and have access to internal psychological resources, i.e., psychological well-being
Social Capital: The range and variety of social connections with others, i.e., valued relationships
Spiritual Capital: The capacity of individuals and collectives to seek, find, and access sources of existential meaning and purpose, i.e., the ultimate meaning
Why A MultiCapital Approach?
One of the values of using a multi-capital approach is that it makes the intangible assets and values in a system — such as social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual capitals — visible alongside the more commonly appreciated tangible assets — such as financial, manufactured, human and natural capitals. This, in turn, allows leaders to better recognize, acknowledge, connect, coordinate, and amplify both the intangible and tangible assets in the organization or system. It is very important for whole systems regeneration to have a way of seeing and including the intangible assets equally alongside the tangible ones. A system such as a local organic flour mill includes both in a dynamic, reinforcing process of interconnection. In fact, often, it is among the intangible assets (e.g., social relations, a sense of hope and resilience, long term vision, a connection to the land) where most of the action is at. In other words, it is these intangible elements of a system that are often the drivers of transformation across the whole system.
As we collaborate with various actors working to build and expand regeneratively rooted food system supply chains in the American heartland, we are observing that all 10 forms of capital are not only at work but are essential in the development of the emergent value chains that one small Mill is connecting across the region. In this recount of the story of the central Illinois mill enterprise, we identify the different forms of capital at play in order to highlight key places where these capitals are not only involved but crucial in building the enterprise. As we have discovered, all 10 capitals are present and contribute in essential ways to catalyzing and advancing the regional system that connects the Mill to area farms and to new markets crucial to its growth and continued success.
In 2015, central Illinois organic grain farmer Harold Wilken loaded a semi with his prized organic turkey red wheat and watched it set off 722 miles to feed chickens (Manufactured Capital). Scratching his head, this seemed crazy to him as he thought, “We’ve got an entire foodshed here that we could be feeding humans with this grain!” (Health Capital). At that time, he and son Ross were also assessing their Farm’s potential — it was growing in acreage and beginning to diversify from the organic corn and soybean crops they had transitioned from conventional to organic production practices ten years before (Natural Capital). They thought a way to bring greater value to their operation would be through processing the diverse grains they were growing.
Janie’s Farm, where Harold and Ross farm together as the fourth and fifth generations, is named for Harold’s daughter, Janie, who he and wife Sandy lost in 2001. Harold draws inventiveness about the Farm from his deep spiritual connection to his faith, his community, his Farm, and to Janie, his guardian angel. Attuned to his intuitive guidance, Harold often finds he is presented with new opportunities with cosmically synchronistic timing that continue to lead him to the next choice on his business journey (Psychological & Spiritual Capital).
Within weeks of beginning to consider adding processing to their farming business, seemingly out of the blue, Harold was contacted by a flour broker in New York who was looking for someone to mill fresh flour for his growing regional business. Suddenly, the Wilkens’ fuzzy milling dream seemed feasible. By early 2016 Harold and his small team of mill dreamers were visiting mills in the Pacific Northwest where the resurgence of stone-ground milling had already been taking root (Cultural Capital). Harold decided that yes, with hungry Chicago just up the road, they could do this in rural Illinois (Social Capital).
After a back of the napkin feasibility study, Harold ordered two stone ground mills from Denmark and established the Mill at Janie’s Farm in an empty warehouse building in tiny Ashkum, Illinois just up the road from his Farm and about ninety minutes south of Chicago (Financial & Manufactured Capital). Harold purchased hard spring wheat from Thor Oechsner of Oechsner Farm and Farmer Ground Flour and with family-friend and miller- in-the-making Jill Brockman-Cummings, set about learning the art and science of stone milling fresh whole wheat (Knowledge Capital). But it was the mentoring from millers on both coasts — Farmer Ground Flour in Trumansburg, NY and Camas Country Mill, which is actively reviving stone milling techniques in Oregon’s Willamette Valley after 70 years — that were crucial to the early success at the Mill at Janie’s Farm (Human and Social Capital). As Harold likes to say, “Never put something in a bag you can’t stand behind.”
Luckily for Harold’s foodshed, that New York opportunity wasn’t ever realized. Instead, Harold’s certified organic artisan wheat and corn varieties that he and a network of farmers across the Midwest were rediscovering were also of great interest and growing demand among the flourishing community of innovative artisan bakers in Chicago (Social Capital).
Harold’s Dream Takes Form
With Chicago baker Ellen King of Hewn Bread and home baker Lauren Bushnell leading the way, a new found love of artisan bread and baked goods was exploding across the Midwest along with the east and west’s coastal cities (Cultural Capital). And with it came an exciting new market opportunity for Harold and other Midwest organic grain growers and the small handful of remaining mills that still operate around the region, mostly from a love of the craft. Harold jumped at the emerging nearby market opportunity (Financial Capital). Harold worked closely with bakers Ellen King and Lauren Bushnell to develop flour blends that worked well in their bread and pastry products, giving them unique textures and rich, complex flavor (Manufactured Capital). Harold’s dream of feeding people in his own foodshed was starting to take form.
Back at the Mill, Harold and company were busy developing their system of wholesale marketing a variety of grains to the growing Chicago region grainshed — unprocessed, whole grains like wheat and rye berries prized for their nutty flavor in salads and soups, whole grain stone-ground wheat flours with names like Red Fife and Einkorn for baking, wheat bran, and cornmeal varieties like Bloody Butcher, which makes up the most flavorful cornbread around! (Health Capital)
Business was good, and Harold was riding the rising tide of The New Breadbasket that writer Amy Holloran was already documenting on the coasts, except this tide was rising on the third coast — with Chicago’s explosion of artisan bakers and a growing community of trendy Midwestern maltsters and brewers seeking to brew with locally sourced grains (Cultural Capital). Harold’s creative energy always has him scanning the horizon for the next opportunity, but more often than not, that opportunity finds him (Spiritual Capital).
Mindful of the emerging artisan grains supply chain and finding adequate nearby markets, Harold found no need to compete with other mills across the Upper Midwest (Financial Capital). The Mill at Janie’s Farm chooses to focus their marketing closer to home. To further ensure the growth of regional grainsheds and sustainability of small mills across the region, Harold’s mill collaborates rather than competes with a network of farmers and millers so that each small mill can meet the needs of their local and regional markets, (Social and Cultural Capital).
Harold’s new market opportunities also meant his growing business could hire more people (Financial Capital). Soon alongside Lead Miller Jill Brockman-Cummings, a small team (Human Capital) was working to meet the growing wholesale demand and growing interest from home bakers seeking fresh, whole grain organic products (Social Capital). The Mill’s communications coordinator, Terra Brockman, developed the first website and an online ordering system and newsletter that kept the flour fans up to date with the little Mill’s expanding enterprise and to respond to the many inquiries from the regional and local foods aficionados telling and retelling the story of Harold and his little Mill (Knowledge and Cultural Capital).
Harold was also beginning to think about the other ways the Mill could process grains and other grains he could grow to process (Manufactured and Natural Capital). Harold thought of oats. Once grown on Harold’s family farm and nearly every other Farm in his area, oats are now largely absent from the Midwest farmscape. Organic oats, in increasing demand for oat beverages, beer, and energy bars, could be a good addition, he thought.
Oats Make A Comeback
In the fall of 2018, Basil’s Harvest, a Chicago area non-profit, brought forward an idea of connecting the local supply chain that Harold was developing with regional institutions, including hospitals, colleges, universities, and schools. Around the same time, Erin Meyer, Executive Director of Basil’s Harvest had initiated a partnership with Health Care Without Harm to bring its national Regenerative Farm to Hospital Pilot to central Illinois through her collaborative work with ReGenerate Illinois, an Illinois based network collaborating to advance regenerative agriculture (Natural and Health Capitals) Erin saw the opportunity to connect her friend, Harold and her long-time colleague, Golda Ewalt, Director of Food and Nutrition at OSF HealthCare, Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, about the possibility of bringing locally milled grains into OSF food service (Social and Financial Capital). Golda thought that rolled oats would be a perfect grain for patient dining since they are healing, nutritious, shelf-stable, and can be used in a variety of menu items. (Health Capital) Basil’s Harvest sought a grant to support the initial trial, and Harold purchased an oat flaker from South Africa that uses a heat process to stabilize the oats (Financial Capital). The flaking machine can also be used to flake other grains as well. The plan would be to supply oats to the hospital in Spring 2020. Harold also began to explore other opportunities to sell his flour and milled grains to nearby colleges and universities (Manufactured Capital).
As the little Mill was readying for the new age of oats and the return of other small grains to the Midwest landscape, farmers around Harold were coming together around the idea of expanding their rotations of corn, soybean, and rye cover crops to include oats and other small grains. Several area farms had transitioned to organic farming practices, and some were now embarking on integrating regenerative practices that would further protect the soil through no-till farming. (Natural Capital) Not only would the little Mill have a steady supply of wheat, corn, and rye but also oats. With the interest expressed for his oats from bakers, brewers, and institutions, Harold knew already that he would soon need a second oat flaker. Harold’s vision, inspired by his daughter, had landed the tiny village of Ashkum, IL squarely on the foodshed map. (Spiritual and Social Capital)
In the three short years since the little Mill blossomed in farmer Harold Wilken’s heart from the seed planted by the memory of his daughter, the idea has become a thriving business, with Harold’s fine flours sought by bakers within a 450-mile radius. Importantly, it didn’t just take the traditional financial and manufactured capital to bring the Mill to reality. Underlying the hard investments in the Mill are hefty doses of all the other capitals, especially social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual, with the health of the land, people, and community an important centerpiece value. Without these additional values and forms of capital woven together in a supportive fashion to drive and support Harold, the Mill may have remained just a possibility — a nice idea. All of this goes to highlight the importance of a multi-capital approach that allows us to see the value flows of all ten types of capital and better understand each of their roles in creating regenerative systems and cultures.
The Great Pivot
By 2019 the online retail side of the Mill was up and running, providing small packaged flours through online orders and in retail outlets in Chicago and central Illinois grocery and specialty stores (Manufactured and Financial Capital). The Mill added a retail sales manager and improved the e-commerce website and its social media presence to reach more customers (Social Capital). At the close of 2019, the team changed the name of the Mill, launching a new brand: Janie’s Mill, featuring better retail packaging and an easier online ordering platform (Financial Capital and Manufactured Capital).
In March 2020, like an unexpected tsunami, a global pandemic began to consume the world, threatening to take the little Mill with it. The synchronicity of the Mill’s shift toward e-commerce in late 2019 would prove to be crucial for the next phase of the little Mill’s story.
Overnight on March 20, 2020, the City of Chicago shut down to contain the spread of COVID-19 (Social and Health Capital). And with the shutdown, Harold’s wholesale artisan flour business ground to a halt (Financial Capital). Chicago area warehouses were stocked with flour and had no distribution system or destination food business markets (Manufactured Capital). Throughout the city and beyond, restaurants shuttered, and the ovens of the bakeries that feature the delicious artisan bread and baked goods made from Janie’s Mill freshly ground flours dramatically reduced their production, selling only limited orders to take out customers (Social Capital, Human Capital).
At the same time, panicked shoppers, anticipating an uncertain future without household necessities, quickly cleaned the shelves of staples, including flour of all types (Manufactured Capital, Social Capital). Even as the regional warehouse in Chicago stood paralyzed with its collection of flours, grocery stores everywhere reported that they couldn’t access flour from their regular supply chains (Manufactured Capital). A system of long global just-in-time supply chains, designed for a population that eats 50% of its food in restaurants, was suddenly breaking at every point (Manufactured Capital).
While this could have spelled the close of the little Mill just south of Chicago (Financial Capital) instead, the Mill became the focus of an instant renaissance of at-home baking (Social Capital, Cultural Capital).
Prior to the pandemic, Janie’s Mill was already planning to phase in infrastructure in Spring 2020 to begin to grow their local direct to the consumer market but had not started to market this new business addition to consumers (Manufactured Capital). In fall 2019, the Mill had installed a new bagging machine to fill the smaller bags preferred by home bakers it planned to reach through direct orders and retail outlets (Manufactured Capital).
In mid-March 2020, the new online ordering technology became the piece of infrastructure that allowed the Mill agility to pivot overnight in order to handle the growing number of online flour orders (Manufactured Capital). Mill manager, Jill Cummings, saw online orders grow from 10 per week to 100, 200, and up to 500 orders per day in April, one month into the pandemic. As flour sales skyrocketed, so did the Mill’s need for more equipment and staff.
The Little Mill Grows Overnight
What had been a crew of 6–7 working a regular workday at the Mill, quickly grew to 23, including a second miller to ensure milling went on three shifts per day (Human Capital). Harold’s son Ross, quickly shifted from his role managing nearby Janie’s Farm to deftly managing the growing Mill team, working nights, weekends, and holidays to ensure the Mill team met every challenge with grace, exuberance, and an overall can-do spirit (Psychological and Social Capital). With many college students in the surrounding community home from their closed campuses, Harold quickly put them to work helping the Mill meet the interests of its eager new market (Social Capital and Human Capital). The Mill’s Packaging and Food Safety Officer Cecilia shepherded the shift from bulk packaging to packaging and shipping orders to home consumers (Human Capital and Knowledge Capital). To focus their energy, Mill staff streamlined their products to focus on bread flours, which they milled continuously to meet growing orders. A customer emailed asking the Mill if they could find other baking supplies, such as yeast, that was in short supply in retail grocery stores (Social Capital). In late April, the Mill added a yeast product to its offerings (Manufactured Capital).
While many communities were facing job losses as a result of the pandemic’s sudden onset, Janie’s Mill was quickly creating jobs in an area that was already struggling economically (Financial Capital and Human Capital). One of the core values the Mill emphasizes is strengthening the local, nutritious whole foods culture through its short, locally grown grain supply chain connecting the local food system from local organic farms to local plates (Cultural Capital, Health Capital). Because of this short-chain emphasis, Harold can proudly point to the local jobs he’s creating, which are, in turn, increasing the resilience of his rural community (Psychological Capital, Natural Capital, Health Capital, Human Capital and Social Capital). As Harold reflects, “I’m proud of this Mill because we are generating income for our community.” (Financial Capital and Psychological Capital)
📷 Golda Ewalt
For many home bakers, they are using skills and ingredients they may not have used since their childhood baking alongside their mother or grandmother (Cultural Capital, Knowledge Capital, Social Capital). The Mill began receiving a lot of emails and phone calls asking how to use the product. To help those who are using whole grain, stone-ground flours for the first time in their home baking, Janie’s Mill staff created a series of social media posts and live videos, newsletter stories and videos featuring baking experts explaining their techniques and recipes, offered step by step advice and problem-solving to customers through emails and created a resource list for their website (Social Capital, Knowledge Capital, Psychological Capital).
What’s Next?
The question Harold and the staff of Janie’s Mill are now pivoting to: “What’s next?” Having quickly repositioned themselves to meet shifting consumer demand, how will they keep the new baking enthusiasts who have found comfort in the Mill’s array of locally milled flours during this most challenging of times? They are looking to the community of farming and local food system partners that support and promote the Mill as a key connection point in further localizing the regional foodshed (Social Capital). His large grain supply means Harold can also support other regional mills with locally grown grains, expanding the reach of Janie’s Mill, to ensure they have adequate flour supplies to meet their expanding demand, creating further ripples of food system resilience (Natural Capital and Social Capital).
Harold knows that every pound of grain he grows is going to feed people in his area, and every dollar spent through the Mill is supporting the livelihood of his community in substantial ways (Psychological Capital). He and his Mill team now see this as an opportunity for new home-baking enthusiasts to also learn that their food dollars make a real difference in the lives of people in their community (Psychological Capital, Social Capital, Cultural Capital).
As cities and towns slowly begin to re-open, Janie’s Mill is once again hearing from their wholesale customers renewing their supplies for their bakery customers (Financial Capital). And Harold is now pivoting once again. The Mill has diversified its product lines back to its full array of products. And the new oat flaking machine is being assembled and tested in an updated space in the Mill warehouse where spring oats will be heat flaked for oatmeal, muffins, granola, and beer (Manufactured Capital).
Initially, locally grown regenerative organic flaked oats will appear first on the menu in Peoria’s OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in fall 2020 (Health Capital). Hospital dietitians and chefs are busy preparing recipes, taste-testing, and educating medical staff about the new healthy, locally grown addition to the menu and developing strategies to ensure none of the oats become food waste (Knowledge and Natural Capital). We’ll update the continuing story of the little Mill as it adeptly meets every new challenge in these very challenging times (Psychological and Cultural Capitals).
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Basil’s Harvest, in partnership with Health Care Without Harm’s (HCWH) national Regenerate Land and Health initiative, is leading HCWH’s Midwest regenerative farm to hospital pilot project. The goal of the project is to demonstrate a successful procurement relationship between a hospital and farms practicing regenerative agriculture, telling the story of its multiple system benefits, and elevating regenerative agriculture as an effective vehicle for achieving climate and health goals.
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