NYT Discovers Craft Flour

The New York Times seems to have discovered craft flour this week, in a tiny bakery in Brooklyn, no less. And since my favorite craft flour company was not even mentioned, and since the comments section is already closed, I thought I'd weigh in here.

I've been baking bread a home, continuously, since 2007 when Mark Bitman's first no-knead bread recipe came out in that same New York Times. I discovered Janie's during COVID and have been ordering from there, usually with my mother, ever since (free shipping for orders over $100).

Janie's is a family farm based in the town of Ashkum in east central Illinois. They grow and mill their own organic grains, offering a variety of wheats as well as corn, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, and barley. For the flour junkies among us, their wheats include ancient varieties such as einkorn, spelt, KAMUT, and black emmer, heritage varieties such as Turkey Red, Red Fife, and Warthog, and standard varieties like hard red spring and winter wheats. More information about which flours are best for which purposes here. Read more about their story here.

Janie's also offers fantastic value for the quality: at $26 for 10-pound bag of bread flour, it is not significantly more than organic bread flour from Whole Foods. (They also offer free shipping for orders over $100, another good reason to team up with a local friend when ordering). Here are some of my latest bakes with Janie's Mill flours: purple potato bread, Indian naan bread, and moon cakes.