Our entire ethos and way of doing business is based on the notion of self-reliance.
We believe in heritage, craftsmanship and continued learning and experimentation.
Our way of expressing these ideals is through baking and through baking we want people to feel the joy, independence and satisfaction that comes from making something from scratch.
We are Darrold and Marty Glanville, founders of Sunrise Flour Mill in North Branch, MN. We produce single source, organic, heritage flours using a renewed milling technology from the 1930’s called the Unifine mill. It is a single pass, high velocity impact mill. Instead of grinding the grain, the mill shatters it into very minute particles, a technology that produces a super-fine and fluffy flour. Unifine flour will help anyone create luscious lofty baked goods and achieve better baking results than are normally achieved using conventional whole wheat.
Not only is the process something we take pride in, but organic heritage grains are better for you, and many people find them to be more digestible than modern hybridized wheat. At Sunrise Flour Mill there are no added chemicals, and we never bleach or bromate. Our wheat is grown in nutrient-rich, chemical-free soil on a fourth-generation organic family farm.
We control every part of our wheat’s journey; from planting the seed to delivering your farm fresh flour. Sunrise Flour Mill is farmer-owned and operated, expertly cultivating organic easy-to-digest heritage wheat in ways that are sustainable to our lands for generations to come.
There are a few things that make us unique
One of the only mills that mills exclusively heritage wheat
Free from chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides
Renewed 1930s milling technology, making whole wheat nearly as fine as white
We mill our products in small batches to ensure quality control
When you use the earth's best ingredients, there's no need for man made additions
Customers are treated like family and we wouldn't have it any other way
People continue to ask how two retired people with no background in baking started a garage business that outgrew the garage and has nearly outgrown our current building.
Our story began with a quest for a good loaf of bread, the crusty, artisan type we had eaten in Europe. Unable to find it, Darrold began baking, seeking to make that loaf we couldn’t find.
For the first six months we saw most of the bread go in the trash as hard, tasteless inedible door stops. We discovered how important quality flour is in bread making and Darrold began milling his own flour in a table top mill.
Darrold studied bread baking, and worked on developing a pizza flour, while we were selling organic conventional wheat flour at a local farmers market.
While Darrold was developing this pizza flour, we were baking and eating a lot of bread and pizza. As we ate more and more bread and pizza, Darrold became increasingly achy and lethargic with new symptoms every few months. He had sinus problems, headaches and myriad intestinal issues including gastric reflux so bad he slept nearly sitting upright for a year.
He saw numerous doctors who prescribed and suggested a variety of pills, but to no avail. Darrold’s symptoms became so debilitating that he was spending most of his time in bed. We reached out to specialists, but gained no further understanding of his illness.
It wasn’t until after an evening out gorging on family-sized Italian pasta dishes that Darrold’s symptoms hit a peak and we began to consider that gluten sensitivity might be the culprit.
We went gluten-free that day and within two days Darrold felt better, and within two months he was back to his old self.
However, after becoming so accustomed to fresh baked goods, we struggled to eat gluten-free substitutes. To paraphrase our favorite Julia Child quote, it tasted like… Kleenex. The more we ate gluten-free, the more we noted the long list of ingredients: added sugar, gums, and other additives that seemed very unhealthy.
As Darrold delved into the issue of gluten sensitivity, he discovered that modern wheat is very different from the heritage wheat we ate growing up. During the Green Revolution of the 1950’s, high-yielding, modern wheat was developed.
This modern wheat has a different chromosome structure and less digestible gluten. Additionally, modern wheat requires more insecticides, herbicides, and other chemicals to grow..
It became obvious to us that we needed to go back to the wheat we ate growing up, the pre-1950’s heritage wheat.
We quickly learned that heritage wheat flour was easy to bake with and tasted delicious. Best of all Darrold could eat it without symptoms.
Even for me, who never suspected I was gluten sensitive, benefited from heritage wheat. I found that within a few weeks of making the change, my joint pain subsided and I was able to stop taking medication. After five years of not being able to knit due to thumb joint pain, I was again able to make my needles fly.
So began our new mission to bring heritage wheat to the everyday home baker.
To our unbelievable luck, more people wanted to stand behind this mission, and our team, company, and customer base have grown. We have been astounded at how many other gluten sensitive people have found they are able to enjoy heritage wheat without symptoms.
As more people became aware- the demand for heritage wheat grew. Darrold and I were driven to find a way to meet that demand and provide these products to as many people as possible.
Understanding we could no longer meet the growing demand alone, we decided to seek out a partnership.
We found the perfect partner in CEAD Farms led by a fourth-generation wheat farmer whose passions lie in organic farming of the heritage grains we sell. Their goals align with ours and they have the capability to continue our mission in a way that will take Sunrise Flour Mill to a place Darrold and I could only dream of, nourishing many generations to come.
Sunrise Flour Mill has control of our process from the moment the heritage wheat seed is placed into the rich soil of our new organic farms- to when our products arrive on your doorstep.
We are passionate about flour… something many people find boring. It’s not sexy like truffles or fine wine. Wheat is fascinating though. There is so much to discover and we are not only continually learning from other industry professionals, but also from our customers who use our products
Wheat is the foundation of almost every baked good, and better flour makes you a better baker.
If you find yourself struggling through gluten sensitivity and miss the flavor and comfort of home baked goods, we ask you to consider heritage wheat. Feel confident that with Sunrise Flour Mill you get the very best.
