Unified Mills Flour & Grain sells freshly milled, small-batch flour to retail and wholesale customers. Our flour comes from independent flour mills that source grain from local farmers whose growing methods leave the soil -- and the rural communities that depend on it – stronger and more resilient. We work with artisan millers and farmers who specialize in the grains of their shared region. That means the flour is at peak freshness when it gets to you. And the flavors, textures and aroma unique to its geographic origin shine through to the final bake.

Our baker community celebrates the wide world of flour, as varied and complex as wine and coffee, as central to the local food movement as corn and peaches. Every bag of Unified Mills flour tells the story of the region where the grain was grown, milled and packed, and is co-branded with the miller. Unified Mills is launching with three retail products, all from the Northeast region. They are sold directly to retail and wholesale consumers online, at farmers markets and specialty grocers, and through distributors. They are marketed and distributed nationally.  

Unified Mills unlocks market opportunity for independent mills while allowing them to focus on what they do best – making flour. Unified Mills is an aggregation partner, giving millers a national megaphone and scalable distribution channel, while preserving and highlighting their geographic distinctions. In UM, millers have a partner who understands craft flour and combines their products with others in their region in an enticing way, putting their flour in front of passionate home bakers, ethical shoppers, curious and experimental chefs, and everyone in between.

ABOUT FOUNDER HEIDI DOLNICK

I stumbled into the world of local flour. I was a journalist, and before that I got a degree in digital mapmaking. What I loved about both was connecting dots to see a fuller picture. I researched and reported on farmers and land whenever I could: including when I lived in India, and when I worked for GrowNYC, which runs New York's largest farmers market program. There I helped build a regional grains and flour initiative. My eyes were opened to one of the starkest disconnects in our modern food system: that between grain and flour, and between flour and baker. 

I started Unified Mills with a simple question: Why do most home bakers stick to the same 3 or 4 flours every time they bake – even though hundreds of varieties of grains grow across the U.S. with a stunning array of flavors and textures? It turns out the answer is just as simple: Because most home bakers don’t know they have options. And that’s because the American grain system is broken. 

Unified Mills exists as a solution to the disconnect between bakers and their single most important ingredient - flour, by bringing it directly from the independent flour millers across the U.S. to the doorstep of the home baker. How do we do that? Unified Mills sells fresh, regionally distinct flour made by craft millers who buy grain directly from local farmers. The closer the flour mill is to the grain farm, the fresher and tastier it is, and the more it reflects the soil and climate in which it's grown. Flour may be a commodity, but behind its veil of anonymity is an endlessly rich ingredient with exciting culinary distinctions from field to field and mill to mill.

WHY DO WE DO IT? Because we don’t want home bakers to miss out on the flavors, variety and nutrients of flour anymore. But that’s not the only problem we hope to solve. 

Our centralized flour and grain system has led to these problems too: 

• Independent millers miss out on high profit potential of the retail marketplace. 
• Grain farmers have few places to sell their grains other than global market exchanges that require very high volume of just a few types of grain and offer prices that fluctuate with supply and demand.  
• Soil degradation, erosion, higher carbon emissions, and loss of biodiversity result when just a few crops are grown on farms that cover tens of thousands of acres. 

OUR MISSION

• Market, sell and distribute on behalf of independent millers so they can focus on what they do best: milling flour
• Create a high-value retail market as alternative to commodity system so farmers grow and sell a wide variety of grain crops that build healthy soil.
• Disrupt the centralized flour supply chain and replace with regional supply chains.
• Enable home bakers to level up their baking game by using local flour.

Once you taste the local flour difference, your baking will never be the same. Now that the most important ingredient in baking has your attention, prepare to become really, really popular. 

In Love & Flour, Heidi Dolnick, Brooklyn, NY