• Q: Can I order and pick up flour from the mill? Do you sell online?

    A: We do not accept direct orders, and do not sell online. Please see our retail map, to find the nearest store that carries our flour. Most retailers do not carry all our flours and/or may be out of stock, so be sure to call ahead. If you are looking to order above 1000lbs at a time, scroll past the map and view our list of wholesale distributors.

  • Q: I'm a restaurant, retailer, or bakery. Does Farmer Ground sell direct?

    A: No, we try to connect businesses to our Distributors. If you are interested in whole pallet amounts (2000lbs) of the same product, please contact us.

  • Q: How can I buy a 25lb bag of flour?

    A: Ask your local food co-op to special order it for you.

  • Q: My local store listed on your website didn’t have the flour I wanted.

    A: If you’re looking for a particular flour and planning a special trip to buy it, we would always suggest calling ahead to the store you plan to visit. While we do our best to keep it current, our list of retailers is always subject to change. What’s more, very few retailers carry all of our products, and what they do carry may be out of stock on a given day. If you need something in particular many co-op type stores can special order a 25lb bag for you. You can always let your local store know that you would appreciate it if they started carrying a particular flour, or kept it stocked more frequently!

    Demand brings supply.

  • Q: What are your flour protein percentages?

    A: Half White / High extraction Bread Flour: 12%

    All-Purpose Flour: 10%

    Pastry Flour: 8%

    Products like Rye, Spelt, and Einkorn are “ancient grains”. Their gluten-protein is less evolved, so it does not act the same in baking, and is thus less important information for the baker.

    Q: What is your “high extraction” flour (or “half white” or “white bread flour”)?

    A: Short answer: these are all names for our sifted bread flour.

    A: Long answer: We use the terms “high extraction” and “half white” interchangeably for our sifted bread flour. It is a flour milled from a carefully mixed selection of hard wheat varieties, and then sifted to remove large pieces of bran to improve baking characteristics.

    We don’t call our flour “white” (although be aware that several retailers do label it that way on the shelf!) because it is produced very differently than commercial white flour. Modern commercial mills use roller milling to remove 100% of the bran and germ (the healthiest parts) from the endosperm (the starch) before milling the endosperm into that paper white flour (they also often bleach it make it even whiter) that will last on the shelf indefinitely because it has little nutritional value. After removal of the bran and germ, this process yields about 70lb of flour from 100lb of grain, so it is also called 70% extraction.

    Our process of just sifting out the large pieces of bran yields about 85lb of flour from 100lb of grain, aka 85% extraction. This is why it is called “high” extraction (as opposed to 70%). The name “half white” comes from the flour being about half way between commercial white flour and whole wheat flour (which is 100% extraction). Our process leaves most of the germ in the flour, as well as some small particles of bran, adding considerable nutritional value. It also means that our flour will not have the “paper white” appearance of commercial white flour, will not last for years on the shelf, but will have considerably more flavor and nutrition.

  • Q: What is the difference between “high extraction/half white” and “whole wheat bread” flours?

    A: They are actually milled the exact same way, from the same grain (see “What is your “high extraction” flour?” above for more details on that), but then we just skip the sifting. So 100lb of grain yields 100lb of flour, aka 100% extraction. So all the nutritional value of the grain is transferred into the flour, but there will also be larger flakes of bran in the final product.