Janie's Mill In The News
Want to learn more about Janie's Mill? Read these articles featuring our team, listen to the podcasts, and watch the videos below!
Featured Articles
The Journey of a Loaf of Bread from a Farm to Your Table
- WTTW Daniel Hautzinger, November 2023
Today, Janie’s Farm Organic, named after Janie Wilken, is a thriving, successful organic farm encompassing 3,300 acres and growing a range of organic crops in Danforth, Illinois. Another business, Janie’s Mill, mills crops such as wheat and corn into flour and sells them wholesale to bakers and distillers and retail to consumers.
“Beloved by bakers, Janie’s Mill produces and sells whole-grain, stone-ground flours, ranging from all-purpose and pastry flours to artisan bread flours and specialty heirloom flours like Turkey Red.”
- Illinois Farm Bureau Magazine, November 2020
"Harold Wilken, a miller from Ashkum, Illinois, has found himself on the frontline of the effort to put food on people’s tables during the coronavirus pandemic."
- BBC, April 2020
America's Test Kitchen - Stone-Ground Flour 101 - Stone milling is having a resurgence across the country. We tested stone-ground flours from small mills to learn how to shop for and bake with them.
- Sarah Sandler, America's Test Kitchen, November 2023
We're heading over to Ashkum, Illinois, to hear from Harold Wilken and Jill Brockman-Cummings about the origins of Janie's Mill and Farm, an organic flour powerhouse that has worked against the grain of the conventional farm and food system to bring a locally produced staple baking ingredient to restaurants, groceries and home pantries throughout Illinois.
- Tory Dahlhoff, WGLT, March 2022
Wilken is aiming to double Janie’s Mill production capacity and keep looking for markets that allow the farm to work directly with customers. As the demand for transparency increases and savvy consumers want to know more about the origins of the food they’re eating, he hopes that more farmers will join the organic movement.
- Feast and Field, September, 2021
Working closely with artisanal bakers in Chicago to ensure their flours were of the highest quality, the mill quickly became their primary business—attracting national and even international attention as they bridged the gap between commodity production and the local food movement.
- Peoria Magazine, April, 2021
My newly discovered gem, Janie’s Mill, produces grain and flour products that are locally sourced, organic, stone ground, and of exceptionally high quality.
- Vintage Americana Podcast, November, 2021
Central Illinois Living storyteller Erin Valle learns about the process of stone milling at Janie’s Mill.
- WCIA TV, September, 2021
Harold is the farmer, founder, and CEO, Jill is the Mill Manager and Head Miller. At Janie’s Farm, they grow organic grains like wheat and rye. They also grow corn and soybeans, but they’re food-for-people. Not for ethanol or livestock feed.
- Earth Eats, Indiana Public Media, October, 2020
“COVID gave us the opportunity to see what we could be in five years. It happened in three weeks,” said Wilken.
- Illinois Farmer Today, October, 2020
When you truly come to know your flour—the name of the wheat, the town in which it was grown, and the name of the person who milled it—you realize it is so much more than a starchy white powder.
- Life & Thyme, July, 2020
Janie’s Mill is set up to not only benefit Janie’s Farm, but also to reintroduce the idea of a mill as a regional economic engine.
BAKE! Zingerman's Bakehouse, April, 2020
“Farming, like lots of things, is a balance of theory and reality."
- The Organic Broadcaster, August, 2019
"Unlike a bag of white all-purpose flour you buy at the grocery store, The Mill’s flours vary in color, from grayish-blue rye and rosy Turkey Red to light brown Glenn bread flour."
- Quote from Liz Miller’s feature article in Feast Magazine, St. Louis October 2018
"There was a co-op that would buy our wheat and ship it out to New York for animal feed,” Wilken recalls. “One day I had a come to Jesus moment, and I thought, really, my grain has to go 700 miles to feed a chicken, when there’s all these millions of people in my foodshed who eat bread?"
- Quote from Liz Carlisle’s feature article in YES! magazine, Winter 2020
"Greg [Wade of Publican Quality Bread] has collaborated with Harold Wilken (the farmer) and Jill Cummings (the miller) to create this memorable bread, which boasts a crisp crust and light, fluffy, supple crumb."
- BAKE Magazine, May 2019
"Spelt, einkorn and emmer were some of the earliest varieties of grain humans farmed in the ancient Fertile Crescent … Harold Wilken and Jill Brockman Cummings … are bringing ancient grains like these back into rotation."
- Quote from WBEZ radio’s Monica Eng on World View, March 2019
"I think the time is right for the mill and for these stone-ground flours, because people are increasingly concerned about what goes into their bodies,” says mill manager Jill Brockman-Cummings."
- Quote from Austin Keating’s article in Prairie Farmer, December 2018
"We need to somehow address with universities and high schools that this is a viable way to go, that this is a way that a young person can actually start [farming], Wilken said."
- Quote from Tom Doran’s article in AgriNews, October 2017
"The flavor is noticeably different. The crumb is so delicate. We all love to bake with it," [Ellen King of Hewn Bakery] said, noting that the Warthog is fantastic in scones, brioche and biscotti and the Glenn is “phenomenal” in bread.
- Quote from Clare Howard’s article in The Community Word, July 2017
"Janie’s Farm, an organic island in a sea of corn and soy, is opening a large mill that will allow [Ellen King of Hewn Bakery] to locally source 2000 pounds of flour a week."
- Quote from Amy Halloran’s article in The New Food Economy, June 2017
"Coming from a conventional background, I have found a new and profound excitement in being an organic farmer," Wilken said.
- Quote from Bill Davison’s article in the MOSES Organic Broadcaster, Jan/Feb 2017
"Today Harold Wilken continues to dream up new ways to expand the farm. Sandy Wilken calls him the “make-it-happen man” of the farm."
- Quote from Alison Martin’s article in the Medill News Service, March 2016
"One of the things I'm proud of on my farm is that we're feeding people. My goal is that everything we raise goes to human consumption."
- Quote from Robert Themer’s article in the Kankakee Daily Journal, January 2016
Videos
WCIA Ag in the Classroom ►
Meteorologist Jacob Dickey heads to Janie's Mill for a behind the scenes tour.
Earth Day Video ►
We had a wonderful time showing Reshaunda Thornton, the dietician against diets, around Janie’s Farm and Janie’s Mill.
Organic Production ►
Harold Wilken talks about his transition to organic production.
