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Michigan flour mill increases capacity as demand for stone-ground organic grains grows

A flour mill in the Thumb is expanding to meet growing demand for locally sourced specialty grains.

Stony Croft Farms owner Doug Hodge tells Brownfield he grows, grinds, and directly sells organic flours produced on his 110 acres in Lapeer.

“We are not going to be able to grow everything, we’re going to have to be able to produce as we continue the expansion,” he shares. “The expansion will probably more than quadruple our production capacity.”

Hodge got out of dairy farming in the 1980s. After a career as a rural appraiser, he says he wanted a second attempt to farm with intention.

“We did our research, we found a spot in the market that we felt was not being met, and that was with the stone ground flour,” he says. “In my professional career, I’ve done a lot of flour mills, so it’s always been kind of an interest.”

Hodge says all sales are made to order and picked up on the farm.

The farm produces buckwheat, red wheat, white wheat, all-purpose and spelt flour, as well as cornmeal products, and mills them into 15 different baking blends.

With the support of a Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Underserved, Value Added and Regional Food System Grant, a subscription service is being considered to regularly move product along with the addition of barley flour, rye, einkorn, and oats.

Brownfield interviewed Hodge during the recent Michigan Agriculture Advancement’s Underground Innovations event in Frankenmuth.