Great Local Flour with Convenience Delivered
Janie's Mill — a regenerative grain pioneer — at your doorstep
There are indoor farmers markets providing access to locally and sustainably produced food throughout the cold-weather months. But they are a relative handful compared to the hundreds of farmers markets that are open across Illinois — and hundreds more in neighboring states — during the outdoor season.
Fortunately, there are excellent options for procuring local food from farms and outlets that either ship product to you or deliver it right to your doorstep. Local Food Forum is highlighting these winter food soldiers over the coming months.
And once you try their excellent products, chances are you’ll continue an ongoing relationship with these vendors even after the warm-weather markets return.
Today’s spotlight is on Janie’s Mill in Ashkum in east-central Illinois. The mill is an adjunct to Janie’s Farm, located just a few miles south in Danforth, where farmer Harold Wilken not only produces top-flight certified organic products from a variety of grains, but has played a generational leadership role in persuading many other regional farmers to transition to regenerative practices.
Harold is a longtime friend and rather a hero to me. He started out using conventional practices on the farm on which he was raised, but the use of agricultural chemicals became an increasing concern (he suffered health issues after he was accidentally sprayed with pesticide in 1990). He was a rare bird when he began to transition his farm to organic in 2005. In the years since, Harold has played a key role in the good grain movement, as an exemplar, an advocate, and a recruiter persuading other farmers to go organic.
He is also one of the nicest people I know.
I had the pleasure of visiting Janie’s Mill and Janie’s Farm in August as part of a field day organized by Marbleseed, the organic farming education non-profit based in Wisconsin. I bought some flour then, but I was too busy with work to make it a habit.
At the end of the year, though, I got the bread-baking urge again, and once I got re-started with baker Jim Lahey’s super-easy no knead method, I kicked myself for ever stopping.
So, knowing that Janie’s Mill ships all over, online I went.
I bought three 3-lb. bags of flour. The High-Protein bread flour is what I use for what would be considered white loaves, although Harold’s flours have a higher-than-average bran content, so the bread has more brown in its coloration.
Humans do not live by white bread alone, though, so I also bought some rye flour and some whole kernel flour that I used for a whole wheat loaf.
Jim Lahey’s whole wheat recipe actually contains much more white bread flour than whole wheat. But because Janie’s Mill high-protein flour has much more kernel in it than most commercial white flours, it produces a legit whole wheat loaf.
I’ll be showing off more of my baking creations in Local Food Forum. If you want to wow yourself/family/friends, click the link below to visit Janie’s Mill flours and place your order.
Thursday’s Trivia Answer
The king of comedy born in Waukegan, Illinois in 1894 was Jack Benny. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish immigrant parents with the given name Benjamin Kubelsky. He broke into show business with a vaudeville act that included his talent at playing the violin, ultimately emerging as a comic star during the Golden Age of Radio and the early years of television.
One of Benny’s running gags involved him squeaking and scratching on a violin, an act that belied his genuine talent with the instrument. He is memorialized in his hometown with a statue showing him holding a violin.
The trivia question was sparked by yesterday’s lead story about an important urban farm project in downtown Waukegan that is being developed by College of Lake County.
Bob’s World, and Welcome to It
A string of cloudy days is forecast with the possibility of some snow. Fortunately we snuck in a lovely sky show at sunrise this morning (January 5).