Small Business Spotlight: Sunrise Flour Mill

Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided

Have trouble when you eat gluten-rich products? Check out the wonderful heritage wheat products available from Sunrise Flour Mill. Your experience will be different! We talked to Marty and Darrold Glanville, owners, about how they became millers, the legacy of heritage wheat and where to buy their products in the Twin Cities area.

Q:  Non-GMO, organic and single source heritage wheat flour – that’s your core product at Sunrise Flour Mill. Why did you and your husband Darrold get into this business? Did you imagine you would be part of a heritage grain renaissance?  

A:  By the time I retired from my job with Minneapolis Public Schools in 2005, Darrold had sold his interest in a small biotech business, and we moved from Minneapolis to an acreage south of North Branch. He wanted to learn how to bake the breads we had eaten in Europe, the ones with the crusty exteriors and soft interiors. He taught himself to bake bread and we sold some at the local farmer’s market. People wanted to buy it, but he didn’t want to be a baker. He wanted to be a miller.

We started, as many small businesses do, in our garage. We were invited to sell at Mill City Farmers Market. At the time we were selling organic, conventional wheat, and many people told us they had gluten intolerance. The first summer Darrold was baking a lot of bread and was developing a pizza flour, so wheat was a dietary staple. He was becoming sicker and sicker with myriad symptoms. No doctors could come up with an answer and the prescriptions and over the counter medications he tried didn’t make a difference. One day, after a dinner out of pasta at a local restaurant, he was sicker than ever. He wondered if gluten could be the issue. We went gluten free that day and in two days he was better and in two months he was well. I had no expectations that anything would change for me but after having had to give up knitting because of very painful joints, I realized those pains were gone. We were not satisfied with gluten free products, so Darrold spent long hours researching wheat and called on others in the business for advice. That is what led us to heritage wheat. He could eat it without symptoms returning.

Marty and Darrold GlanvilleQ:  Did you expect to be a part of a heritage grain renaissance? 

A:  Absolutely not - at first. To secure enough heritage wheat, he drove all over seeking out farmers who could provide us with a few hundred pounds of heritage wheat each time, because 10 years ago there wasn’t much of a demand for it. Now we have farms that are large enough to provide us with truckloads at a time. We sold a lot of heritage at our cost to encourage farmers to plant it. We like to think we have had a part to play in the growth of heritage wheat acres.

Q:  Where is your wheat grown? Could you ramp up the production if your flour business continues to grow?  

A:  Heritage wheat was the predominant wheat grown in the Central Plains from the mid-1800’s to the mid-1900’s. It is what inspired the name Breadbasket of the U.S. Wheat typically is a desert/high desert crop so there is little wheat grown in MN. Most of the farms we use are in Nebraska, Kansas and Arizona. With the onset of the pandemic, we had unexpected growth because, yes, people really did start baking sourdough bread. Organic heritage wheat farmers are some of the nicest and most helpful people we have ever met.  As in most businesses they network, and if they didn’t have enough for a time, they sent us to other farmers they knew who were growing it. Farming is a tough business, but we are confident that we can keep up with the demand.

Q:  What are the company’s plans for growth? I read that you have a small team of eight employees at Sunrise Flour Company. Will you need to hire additional employees or add additional milling equipment?  

A:  Our staff fluctuates, and we actually have more than a dozen employees right now. We are working on an expansion plan to include more value-added products ready to launch soon. We have more pasta shapes in mind as well as frozen dough products.

Darrold working on the Unifine millQ:  Do you worry about the impact of climate change on wheat production for your business? I read that unless steps are taken to mitigate climate change, up to 60% of current wheat-growing areas worldwide could see simultaneous, severe and prolonged droughts. (See Assessing the Effects of Climate Change on Future Wheat Production on newswise.com.)

A: As everyone else does, we are very concerned about what effects climate change could have on our wheat. The good news is that heritage wheat has a very deep root system compared to modern wheat, so it is capable of reaching water deep in the soil. Our Turkey Red farmers tell us that the yield for Turkey Red is about 30% less than the yield for hybrid wheat under normal climate conditions. However, when there are drought conditions, Turkey Red will out produce hybrid wheat by about 30% because of its deep roots. Shallow roots need to be fertilized because they can’t feed themselves. Heritage wheat is good for the soil, rather than depleting it. Modern wheat fields no longer produce waving wheat. Those plants are about two feet high compared with heritage wheat plants that are about four to five feet tall. Short plants have a smaller leaf canopy allowing in more weeds and insects, thus needing insecticides and herbicides. More farmers are starting to practice regenerative farming. This helps to reverse climate c hange by rebuilding organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity. It results in carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle. 

Q:  You once said that organic wheat is not a sexy ingredient, like wine or truffles. I think that a freshly baked crusty bread can be put up against any wine or truffle for pleasing the senses. Have you come around in your thinking? 

A: We agree with you to a point. There are few smells more enticing than a warm loaf of bread. It could be, however we still say that for a number of reasons. There is a lack of consistent vernacular so that people don’t always understand each other. There is a lack of understanding about wheat in general, and heritage in particular. To most people flour is just an ingredient and there is little knowledge about the nuances in flavor and bakability among varieties. There is a vast difference in taste, quality, and baking qualities between heritage and modern wheat. More people all the time are learning about the nuances, especially when they can eat baked goods without symptoms.

Q:  Some people will complain that heritage flours are too expensive and too tricky to work with for anyone not involved in elite food production. What do you say to these critics?  

A:  It all has to do with the economies of scale. There still are relatively few producers and we pay four times as much to purchase this wheat as we would for hybrid wheat. However, many people find it easier to digest and find they stay fuller longer. They don’t have to eat as often. We let our customers tell our story. They have provided hundreds of comments on our website under each of the products. We get several emails a week thanking us for allowing them to eat wheat again. We even had one woman come to our stall at Mill City Farmers Market. She was crying tears of gratitude.

When someone takes the time to mail a handwritten note of thanks with a photo, you know you've made a positive impact!

Q:  Do you provide education for your customers? 

A:  Yes, we were doing sourdough bread baking classes a couple of times a month prior to COVID. Once that came, our space was too small. We are just beginning to think about how we can do them again. We provide our customers with recipes and information on our website and in person. We both love talking about heritage wheat and baking. We love answering questions. About a year ago we started a Facebook page, Baking With Heritage Grains. It’s such a nice and knowledgeable group of people who love to share their expertise and recipes. We also send out emails several times a week with recipes using heritage wheat, or providing information about both the wheat and our unique milling process. We do not have a stone mill but rather a Unifine high velocity impact mill which allows us to mill whole wheat flour nearly as fine as white.  The smaller bran pieces allow baking lighter, loftier loaves of whole wheat bread.

Q:  Where may we purchase your products? 

A:  We are at Mill City Farmers Market every other Saturday until the end of October. People can preorder or just come and browse. We have parking lot pick up at the mill on Tuesday mornings with a preorder. (We don’t have a store at the mill so people can’t just stop by.) We have some of our products in most co-ops. There are some restaurants and bakeries in the Twin Cities using our flour. People often ask if there is anywhere they can go out for dinner and know they can find dishes to eat. Luci Ancora and Tenant are two that use our heritage wheat exclusively. We have products in some of the smaller, specialty stores like MinnyRow Market in Hopkins. They have a whole wall of Sunrise Flour Mill products just inside the door. Around the country there are several small stores and farm stores where they can be purchased. We soon will launch a new website that has an in-depth store locator. Our primary sales outlet is ecommerce. We ship daily to all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and APO.

Q:  How may we follow your news?   

A:  Our new website will have links to previous news sources, and current ones as they happen. Signing up for our newsletter gives access to our informational messages and recipes (this is real wheat so it should convert one for one in most recipes. We just like sharing our favorites, as well as coming up with new ways to use our flour). We are on social media - FaceBook, Instagram and YouTube. I’ll give one more plug for our Baking With Heritage Grains FaceBook group. I have learned so much from reading it every day, and it’s the most wonderful, positive, helpful, encouraging group of people. From them I’ve gained my new baking motto: If it works, it works!