JANIE'S MILL TEAM
Everyone on the Janie’s Mill team is from our rural East-Central Illinois community, passionate about what we do, and ready to serve you!
Management Team
Harold Wilken
FARMER and CO-OWNER
Harold is the man behind the mill, and deeply involved in all aspects of running it. He is a relationship-builder, and much of his time is spent communicating with and delivering to bakeries and distilleries. Harold is a lifelong farmer who transitioned to organic production in the early 2000s. Harold has been married for 38 years to newly retired teacher, Sandy. In their free time, Harold and Sandy love to travel to Miami to visit with their granddaughter Elise and her parents, Emily and Fer.
Ross Wilken
FARMER and CO-OWNER
Ross is co-owner and CFO of Janie’s Mill. He’s great at trouble-shooting problems and dealing with all things mechanical. Ross installed our first two milling systems, and will soon be installing two more. He is also in charge of day-to-day work at Janie’s Farm Organics, including the labor, management, and field operations.
Jill Brockman-Cummings
MANAGER OF JANIE'S MILL
Together with Harold and Ross, Jill was involved in the research and planning for Janie’s Mill, and has worked on the mill floor from Day One. She oversees all of the Mill’s day-to-day operations — from monitoring quality of grains and milled products, to developing new products, to working with bakers and wholesale customers.
Tatum Evans
MARKETING & RELATIONSHIP MANAGER
Tatum brings decades of experience building and cultivating partnerships, and doing marketing and education around local and organic food. Among her many roles at Janie's Mill are providing social media content--especially documenting Harold and Ross in the field--as well as accompanying Harold on wholesale deliveries to form partnerships with our professional bakers. Whenever you see Tatum, you'll likely to also see her beloved dog, Milo!
Milling Team
Bre Mathy
HEAD MILLER
Bre directs and manages her fellow millers, maintains production quality, and keeps the mill flow running smoothly. She also conducts floor inventory and organizes the wholesale orders each day. When Bre isn’t running the mills, she enjoys spending time with her family and being outdoors camping, hiking, and boating.
Heather Pierce
MILLER
Heather started working at Janie's Mill in the fall of 2022. She sets the mills, bags flour, and fulfills orders. When Heather’s not at the Mill, she loves spending time with her husband, her two daughters, and grandson. She loves camping, boating, and being outdoors.
Sergio Carmona
MILLER
Sergio has worked at the mill since the fall of 2018. Among his many talents are repairing torn mill screens and other equipment, and winning the Janie’s Mill 2019 Chili Cook-Off. In his spare time, he loves to watch Westerns and make homemade flour tortillas with Janie’s Mill Sifted Artisan Flour. Sergio lives in Onarga with his wife Rubi, and their three children.
Clare Peters
MILLER & RETAIL PACKING ASSISTANT
Clare is one of our experienced millers, having worked for us during most of 2020 and 2021. She then took a few months off to give birth and look after her new baby girl. Clare also works on the Retail side as needed. We're happy to have her back on the Janie's Mill Team!
Kirstie Fieleke
NIGHT MILLER
Kirstie is part of our milling team who keep the mills running. She also bags the flour, grits, and grains to make sure we have enough freshly-milled flour for all our customers. Kirstie enjoys having adventures with her three children. She also is a Certified Firefighter with the Otto Township.
Jeff Glenn
GRAIN RUNNER
Jeff brings the grains needed for milling from storage at ProHarvest just down the road over to the mill. Jeff married his high-school sweetheart Marcia 41 years ago, and has lived and worked in Ashkum most of his life, where he is the chief of the volunteer fire department.
Matt Bowers
MILLER
Matt started working at Janie's Mill in early 2022. He mills grain, bags flour, and has taken on many other responsibilities. Matt is a military occupation specialist with the Army National Guard. In his free time, he enjoys kayaking.
Retail Team
Heidi Snapp
SENIOR SHIPPING ASSOCIATE
Heidi arrives very early each morning to begin packing online orders. She takes pride in precisely fitting whatever you ordered into the shipping boxes so there’s no wasted space, and so your packages arrive looking beautiful. Heidi loves holidays and Midwest summers when she can grill and sit outside around a campfire with friends.
Tracy Heideman
RETAIL PACKING ASSOCIATE
Tracy manages the hand-bagging of grits and grains, maintaining a full inventory for the retail team. She’s also the retail team’s quality control person. In addition, she boxes up 50-lb bag orders to be shipped to our wholesale customers across the country. Tracy is famous for the brownies she makes with our Dark Rye flour!
Dawn Schoolman
RETAIL PACKING ASSOCIATE
Dawn “goes shopping” each morning for 50-lb bags of all the different freshly-milled flour that the Retail Team needs to put into retail packages. Dawn lifts the 50-lb bags up into the semi-automatic bagging machine to create 1.5-, 3-, and 10-pound bags. In her free time, Dawn loves to hunt, mow, and take care of her flower garden.
Anna Hickman
RETAIL PACKING ASSOCIATE
Anna has been with Janie’s Mill since the summer of 2019, and quickly learned to do nearly every task. Most mornings, you’ll find her packing flour into retail bags, but she does other packing room tasks and helps out on the mill floor as needed. In the afternoons, Anna furthers her studies in English Literature.
Antoinette (Toni) Potts
RETAIL SHIPPING ASSISTANT AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Toni comes into work early each day to pack online orders and get them on their way. She is also our main customer support person and answers many questions each day. Toni is pictured here with semolina because she enjoys making pasta. She loves spending time with her husband, children, and grandchildren. Her hobbies include reading, baking, camping and going to craft shows.
Vickie Mann
RECEPTIONIST AND RETAIL STORE ASSOCIATE
Vickie and her husband Erik enjoy spending time together and transforming their house into their dream home. She is a nature lover and enjoys gardening, and hummingbird watching. Vickie felt compelled to inquire about a job at Janie's Mill when she learned that she and the owner had something in common: They both lost their first daughter. “This fact gives my job purpose! I’m here to give of my talents and do what I can to help a great cause.”
Office Team
Andra Adams
OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR
Andra is the Mill’s record-keeper and paper-chaser. Among her many other duties is keeping our OCIA Organic and CRC Kosher certifications up to date. Andra was a Business Instructor at Central High School and now works part-time at the Bourbonnais Park District and at Janie’s Mill.
Renee Behrends
BOOKKEEPER
Renee has been the Mill’s bookkeeper since June 2018. When she isn’t busy with our books, Renee loves long walks and spending time with her husband of 36 years, her four children, and three grandchildren.
Lynne Olson
ACCOUNTS & LOGISTICS MANAGER
Among her many duties, Lynne communicates daily with our wholesale customers regarding orders, inquiries, and new accounts, and arranges shipping for pallet-sized wholesale orders. In her free time, Lynne enjoys spending time with her husband, Mark, and their son, daughter, and new son-in-law.
Jean Sparenberg
ASSISTANT TO MILL MANAGER
Jean takes care of emails, special projects, and many other things. She enjoys baking desserts, which is why there are more than six kinds of sugar in the cupboard! She likes adding more flavor and nutrition to her baking with Janie's Mill stone-milled flours. Jean and her husband are active in Gideons International.