Est. 2014 · Skagit Valley, Wash.
Grain from
this valley,
ground on stone.
Kestrel Granary is a working mill on Dike Road. We buy wheat, rye and buckwheat from four farms inside a twenty-two mile ring, clean it here, and grind it between granite the week you need it.
- 22 miFarthest field we buy from
- 88 rpmSpeed of the granite runner
- 3 runsDelivery days each week
Lot 01 · How the mill runs
Lot 02 · Three ways we work
Wholesale flour for bakeries and kitchens
Fifty-pound cloth sacks, twenty-five pound paper, delivered on one of three routes or picked up off the loading door any weekday morning. Standing orders are the backbone of the mill: tell us what you go through in a week and we will put it on the truck without you having to think about it again.
Most of our accounts are naturally-leavened bakeries, wood-fired pizzerias and a handful of restaurants doing their own bread service. A few brewers take triticale and rye.
The mill store, Thursday to Saturday
Walk in the side door under the grain leg. Quart jars, two- and five-pound bags, and whatever came off the stones that morning, which in the case of rye is usually still warm. Cash, card, or a jar swap if you bring your empties back.
Open 9am to 4pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Closed the rest of the week because those are milling days and the floor is no place for visitors.
Custom milling and grain cleaning
Bring your own grain and take back your own flour. We clean, grind and bag on a toll basis for growers and for a few bakeries that contract their own acres. Minimum five hundred pounds. Lead time stretches to two weeks between September and November, so call early.
Cleaning alone is common too. Plenty of Skagit growers use the Clipper and the gravity table for seed stock without any milling at all.
Lot 03 · What is in the bin
This season's grain list
Six things are in the bins right now. The list changes with harvest, and when a variety runs out we say so rather than quietly substituting something else.
| Grain | Type | Protein | Grinds | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edison | Hard red spring wheat | 12.4–13.1% | Whole or sifted to 85% | Our bread flour. Halverson place, Fir Island. |
| Yecora Rojo | Hard red spring wheat | 13.2–14.0% | Whole or sifted to 80% | Thirstier and faster-browning. Long ferments. |
| Skagit rye | Winter rye | 9.6–10.4% | Whole, medium or fine | Ground Thursday mornings for the store. |
| Emmer | Farro piccolo | 12.8–13.6% | Whole | Pasta, porridge, and a share of the pan loaves. |
| Triticale | Rye × wheat cross | 11.5–12.2% | Whole or cracked | Brewers take most of it. Dykstra, Beaver Marsh Road. |
| Buckwheat | Groats, hulled | n/a | Light or dark grind | Not a wheat, and not milled gluten-free. |
Protein figures are the range we have measured across this crop year, not a specification. Buckwheat is milled on the same stones as wheat and rye, so we make no gluten-free claim.
Lot 04 · Where the truck goes
Three delivery runs a week
Mount Vernon, Burlington and La Conner accounts get flour whenever we are going that way, which is most days. Everything else runs on a fixed weekly schedule.
North on I-5 at 6:15, first back door open by 7:00. Three bakeries, a co-op that bags our two-pound retail, and a brewery on Roeder taking triticale. Hundred-pound minimum per stop.
The Bellingham runSixty-two miles down I-5, wheels rolling at 5:00 to get under the ship canal before it seizes. Ballard, Fremont and Phinney only. Two hundred pounds a stop, or split it with the shop next door.
The Ballard runTwenty-two miles out Highway 20 over the Swinomish Channel, after the store opens. Short enough that we will take a fifty-pound order and squeeze in an add-on if you call by Wednesday noon.
The Fidalgo runLot 05 · What people say
From the people who bake with it
MargueriteBakery owner, BellinghamThree deliveries running, the Edison red came in at the same protein. That matters more to me than anything else printed on the tag.
TomasPizzeria, BallardWe moved our 48-hour dough over to the Yecora last spring. It drinks more water than I expected and it browns faster, so we took the deck oven down fifteen degrees. Nell talked me through it on the phone before we wasted a batch.
PriyaHome baker, AnacortesI drive up on Saturdays for the rye. It is ground that morning and you can smell the difference in the car on the way home.
DaleGrower, BowThey cleaned twelve tons of triticale for us in November and had it back on our truck the same week, in the middle of their own harvest.
Kestrel Granary is a fictional business built to demonstrate a Kolbrant site. These quotes are written examples, not real reviews.
Wholesale · store · custom milling
Call the mill and ask what is in the bin.
Nell or Wes picks up between 7:30 and 3:30 on weekdays. If we are on the floor and the stones are loud, leave a message with the variety and the poundage and you will hear back the same day.