Focus on Coop Suppliers:
Swany White Flour

A quick, behind-the-scenes look at products found on the Coop’s shelves

A Kernel of History

 When Gary Thelen’s grandfather opened the Swany White Flour Mills in 1903, many small towns in the heartland had their own flour mill, a sure sign of the rapid modernization sweeping the nation.

Fast forward 100 years. Most of those small, locally owned mills have long since gone the way of horse and carriages, casualties of America’s love affair with all things bigger and better.

Even so, there remain some rare and wondrous exceptions, if you know where to look. For an authentic taste of that simpler time, Coop shoppers need look no farther than the bulk grocery aisle, to the bin marked “Swany organic unbleached white flour with wheat germ restored.” Gary Thelen, 49, is the third generation in his family to own and operate Swany White Flour Mills in Freeport, Minnesota. And, amazingly, his main mill (which Thenen calls the “white mill”) is the same equipment his grandfather used in 1913. Specifically designed to grind white flour, the mill uses 10 sets of steel, corrugated rolls, and sifters, to make very refined flour.

“I only make about 1,000 pounds of white flour an hour,” Thelen said. “In a day’s time, that’s 12,000 pounds. The bigger mills, they make what I make all day in an hour or so.”

By anyone’s standards, the Swany White operation remains remarkably tiny. Thelen employs one person to help mill, package and market about a million pounds of flour per year. “I’m a small company and I can only handle so much. I’m already working 12 hours a day,” he said. “I’m pretty limited as to how much I can take on.” Although the Coop only carries the organic unbleached white flour, Gary Thelen mills “every kind of grain that you can think of.” In addition to his bleached and unbleached white flours, he makes flour from whole wheat, rye, soy, millet, brown rice and buckwheat. There’s also oatmeal, cornmeal and wheat germ, and a popular 9-grain bread mix. Swany White flours are pretty much all organic, Thelen said. Most of the organic grains he mills comes from North and South Dakota, where farmers have been growing organically for quite a long time.

Why doesn’t the Coop carry the rest of Swany’s flour? The answer is simple: The company only ships the organic unbleached white flour (with wheat germ restored) through national distributors. This flour represents about 60% of the mill’s total production. His other products sell locally at the mill’s retail shop. “I ship stuff all over the country,” Thelen noted. “You have to be willing to pay the freight. Sometimes it costs more than the product does, but some people don’t seem to mind.”

Aside from being organic, what distinguishes Swany flour from most white flours is that the germ is restored. The germ — the part of the seed that sprouts and grows into a new plant — contains a great deal of B-complex vitamins and trace minerals. Of course, like all white flours, the bran — wheat’s fiber and nutrient-containing outer layer — is not retained.

Thelen said his greatest reward is that he’s still running a family business. “The mill’s been in my family for over 100 years. There’s a little bit of pride in that.”

You can’t find Swany White on the Net because he has no website. “My wife keeps bugging me that we should get one. But I’ve already got so much to do in a day,” he said. So, if you want to contact the mill, you’ll have to do it the old fashioned way — by mail or phone: Swany White Flour Mill, Ltd., 206 2nd St. SE, Freeport MN 56331; (320) 836-2174.

Or, visit the bulk aisle at Coop, and scoop some for yourself!

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