Winema Elevators
They may not do any farming at Winema Elevators, but our friends there are essential members of the community that’s grown up around our mill and a big part of what makes our flour so different. As manager Martin Garza tells it, the company is “completely immersed within the farming culture (and) as much a part of the community as the farmers are part of the community. It's really neat.”

That means buying grain directly from the fields of some 60 local farms in neighboring Oregon, three of whom they entrust with raising wheat for our craft flour.

As is the case much of the time, this wheat is really a regenerative cover crop that's planted to protect and rebuild the soil while it rests between the growing seasons of the farms' main crops, which are onions and potatoes. Often cover crops are just left in the fields where they grew, but our flour “recycles” them into a new product that boosts farmers' incomes and helps them make ends meet.

“It's a perfect combination,” says Martin. “They can make money on it and still use it as a rotational crop where they don't have to leave the land idle or just till it back into the ground.”