ANITA’S ORGANIC GRAIN AND FLOUR MILL

Anita’s Organic Grain and Flour Mill has been processing organic grains and flours for more than 15 years. In 2000, they opened a new facility in Chilliwack, where their new stone-mills quadrupled their output capacity.

“Our mission is to provide the highest quality, certified organic, grains and fresh stone-ground flours to our customers at fair prices,” says John MacKenzie, President of Anita’s. “Our inventory is replenished every 10 days, so when we say fresh ground, we mean fresh.” The stone-mill allows them to control the temperature, the fineness of the grind and the mixing of the flours. The low temperature is essential for the preservation of nutrients, texture, and flavour of the flour.

“We offer individual sales at our retail store in Chilliwack, as well as large bulk ordersand specialty productssuch as kamut and spelt,” says MacKenzie. “Since we never grind anything but certified organic grains, there is no possibility of cross contamination with conventionally grown grains.” The raw grains come from certified organic growers in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

Working with a number of distributors Anita’s products (including their popular Mutli-Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix) are found in natural food stores throughout Metro Vancouver. They also sell to restaurants, but the core of their business is with artisan bakers who buy from the mill directly. “We keep in touch with these people and try to meet their needs,” says MacKenzie. “We even worked with one of our customers recently to develop a different granulation on the flour for their specific needs.”

MacKenzie welcomes the direct contact with consumers who either come out to their Chilliwack retail store or who buy through mail order. “Lots of customers come back to us for recipes and instructions on how to use our products,” he says. “There are nuances in how to replace certain flours in recipes, so we love hearing from our customers about their experiences with our products.”