JANIE'S MILL TEAM

Every member of the Janie’s Mill team is skilled, passionate, and ready to serve you!

Management Team

portrait photo of Harold

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 grandchildren and their parents, Emily and Fer.

Ross in an orange jacket

Ross Wilken

FARMER and CO-OWNER
Ross leads Janie’s Farm Organics.  As a fifth generation farmer, he has loved farming since childhood. He is also co-owner and CFO of Janie’s Mill. He installed our five milling systems and is excellent at troubleshooting Janie’s Mill challenges when they arise. Ross met his wife, Daniele Milazzo, at the University of Illinois. Daniele is a veterinarian and started Animal Medical Center of Gilman in 2018. Ross and Daniele have a daughter, Emma. Their family enjoys visiting with relatives, traveling, and hanging with their many pets.

Janie's Mill Manager, Jill, in front of pallet racking

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.

Terra at a Farmers' Market with people in the background

Terra Brockman

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Terra, along with her sister Jill who is the Mill Manager, got in on the ground floor when the Wilken family first began thinking about starting a flour mill. Terra is a writer and editor, having worked for publishers in New York City and elsewhere. She also published her own book about family farming, The Seasons on Henry's Farm, and has been a local food and farming advocate for a very long time. She loves green tea, dark chocolate, and baking with Janie's Mill flours, especially Spelt!

Janie's Mill Marketing Manager, Tatum, wearing a gray sweatshirt, standing in a field of wheat

Tatum Evans

MARKETING AND 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 also see her beloved dog, Milo!

Milling Team

Janie's Mill Team member, Kirstie, in front of totes of grain

Kirstie Fieleke

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.

Janie's Mill Team member, Jeff, adjust a tote of grain

Jeff Glenn

MAINTENANCE
Jeff helps maintain the mill facility inside and out. Jeff married his high-school sweetheart Marcia 42 years ago, and has lived and worked in Ashkum most of his life, where he is the chief of the volunteer fire department.

Retail Team

Janie's Mill Team member, Heidi, packing a box to ship

Heidi Snapp

RETAIL 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.

Janie's Mill Team member, Tracy, in the retail store

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!

Janie's Team Member, Dawn, bagging product

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.

Janie's Mill team member Meredith

Meredith Nietfeldt

STORE KEEPER
Meredith is one of the smiling faces that greet you at the door of our Retail Shop. She loves working at Janie's Mill because it feels like working with family and close friends. In her free time, Meredith enjoys woodworking, and making and selling handcrafted soaps. She also loves being in nature and collecting things that make her happy!

Janie's Mill Team member, Toni, with packages of Semolina Flour in the Fulfillment Room with stacks of boxes on pallet racking in the background

Antoinette (Toni) Potts

RETAIL LEAD AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Toni comes into work early each day to pack online orders and get them on their way. She is our main customer support person and answers many questions. Toni is pictured with semolina because she enjoys making pasta. She loves spending time with family. Her hobbies include reading, baking, camping and going to craft shows.

Janie's Mill Team member, Anna, in front of a shelf of labels

Anna Hightower

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.

Wholesale Team

Janie's Mill Team member, Lynne, in front of packages of product on the Mill floor

Lynne Olson

WHOLESALE 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 son-in-law.

Janie's Mill Team Member, Heather, wearing a gray sweatshirt, leaning on a stack of 50 pound packages of flour on the mill floor

Heather Pierce

WHOLESALE SHIPPING ASSOCIATE
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.

Janie's Mill team member Tracy

Tracy Booi

ASSISTANT TO WHOLESALE MANAGER
Tracy joined the Janie's Mill Team in November 2024 as Assistant to our Wholesale Manager. She assists with setting up new customer and preparing orders for shipping. In her free time, Tracy loves to read, cook and be outside. She is an animal lover and enjoys taking care of the animals in her barn and gathering fresh eggs. She has four grandchildren that are some of her "favorite people."

Office Team

Janie's Mill Team member, Andra, sitting at a computer

Andra Adams

OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR/SQF ASSOCIATE
Andra is the Mill’s record-keeper and paper-chaser. Among her many other duties is keeping our OCIA Organic, CRC Kosher, and SQF 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.

Janie's Mill Team member, Jean, sitting at a table with a package of Einkorn flour, a laptop and phone on the table.

Jean Sparenberg

ASSISTANT TO MILL MANAGER
Jean takes care of emails, special projects, and many other things around the Mill. She enjoys baking, 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.