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Jeff Burke, a 23-year-old who grew up on a dairy farm but never expected to follow his parents into farming, is building the city‘s only flour mill. He bought a 23-acre property outside Kakabeka called Brule Creek Farms and is busy putting his stone mill together. The first bags of flour should be ready for ovens this fall. Burke made it through a biology/environmental studies degree at Lakehead University without catching the growing bug, but only just. He grew up on a dairy farm owned by his parents, Jim and Brenda Burke. It‘s his younger brother who wanted to follow their parents into dairy, Burke said. After graduating last year, Burke took a job with the university‘s Food Security Research Network and worked on a pilot project to determine whether locally milled flour could be a viable business. Marketing studies were done and Burke milled local test wheat that went to bakers for opinions on the quality. “So they were kind of looking for somebody who would want to take this on as a business,” he said of the FSRN. “I liked the idea of using a local product like this and as far as running the mill, I liked that,” he said. “That was where I decided that maybe this was something I‘d like to do for a living.” He hopes to make it his livelihood, but expects he‘ll have to work off the farm as well for the first years. Physical work appeals to him, as does the idea of taking a local crop and milling it for local customers. “It‘s not like you‘re shipping it off elsewhere to get processed or you don‘t know where it goes,” he said. “You can see it from start to finish.” Student surveys done for the Lakehead University pilot project determined there is a market for local flour. Over the winter, Burke looked further into the idea and drew up a business plan. For the farmers who grow wheat commercially here, a local mill means a local market, said Erik Johansson, president of the Thunder Bay Federation of Agriculture. “Right now, there‘s a limited number that grow wheat on a commercial scale,” said Johansson, who grows a bit of grain along with raising hogs and sheep. “Having a market here will encourage others to bring wheat into their crop rotations, so it‘ll definitely be a positive thing.” Currently, the few wheat farmers ship their grain to southern Ontario, where the closest mills are located. “Primarily in Thunder Bay, agriculture is to grow feed for animals,” he said. “The transportation issues kind of preclude shipping it anywhere.” Though wheat sells at higher prices now than in years past, fuel prices to get the grain down south are higher too. According to Statistics Canada numbers compiled by the Thunder Bay Federation of Agriculture, 176 hectares (435 acres) of winter wheat was grown in the area in 2006. At about 1,000 kilograms of grain per acre and Johansson‘s estimate of $100 or more per tonne to ship the stuff south, local farmers are dumping a good $43,500 into gas tanks just to get their crops to a flour mill. “Having a market here, you‘re going to have a reduction of that shipping cost,” said Johansson. “You‘re going to save a whole pile.” This summer, Burke is constructing his mill – a standard food processing building – and buying the equipment. He hopes to sell directly to home bakers at the country market held at the CLE each Saturday or some of the other farmers markets in town. He also hopes to sell to local bakeries. Burke isn‘t sure how much he‘ll charge per bag, but hopes to stay competitive with grocery store prices. Though powered by an electric engine, his stone mill equipment runs on the same concept as the old wind or water-powered mills – two big stones grinding wheat between them. Industrial mills use large, expensive steel rollers more suited to huge volumes of flour. “There is wheat grown in Thunder Bay, but not the huge volumes that there would be in Western Canada,” said Burke. He‘s hoping the move toward people seeking out local food works to his favour. “I‘ve heard a few people say that maybe I‘m getting into it at just the right time when this global – I don‘t want to say trend – but this whole idea of eating local is getting more popular,” he said. “People like to know where their food comes from.” Burke is also watching his first crop, 17 acres of wheat, at his farm outside Kakabeka Falls. He‘s among the many farmers whose crops didn‘t start well because of the cold, wet spring, though it‘s perked up lately. Eventually, he hopes to grow more wheat himself, but will buy most of it from other local farmers for his mill. Last year, local wheat farmers put in about 500 acres, he said. This year, other varieties such as durum wheat were seeded. In rough numbers, he figures he can mill 30 tonnes of wheat this year and up to 100 tonnes or more five years down the road. One tonne of grain mills down to about 950 kilograms of whole wheat flour, or between 700 and 800 kg of sifted flour. He won‘t be sticking to wheat either – Burke hopes to get into rye, barley and other specialty grains. “I‘ve had some people say, ’If you made rye flour, I‘d love to have some of that,‘” said Burke. Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |