Wheat Montana In-store Flour Mill
I finally remembered to take a camera with me while grocery shopping this afternoon. For almost two years now I've been thinking "Gotta remember to take a picture to show the other Loafers." So, finally, here goes.
The Hy-Vee supermarket located at the intersection of 135th St. and Antioch Rd. in Overland Park, KS has an in-store unit from Wheat Montana that contains two micronizer-style mills. One is fed from a hopper with Bronze Chief wheat kernels (a hard red wheat) and the other is fed from a hopper with Prairie Gold wheat kernels (a hard white wheat). A customer places a bag from the center of the display on the stand beneath the wheat variety of their choice, and then pushes a button to grind the wheat into flour, which falls into the customer's bag. See photo below:
This particular installation is in the middle of the "health foods" section of the store, in case any of you are close enough / curious enough to go take a look at it.
If you want fresh-ground flour without having to splurge on a mill for yourself, you might want to see if you can cajole your local grocer into getting this kind of set-up for a store near you. Probably wouldn't hurt to check with the folks at Wheat Montana first to see if they are still making these units; no point in wheedling your grocer into getting something that isn't available.
Gotta run. The hamburger rolls are ready for shaping.
Paul
Comments
That's totally cool, Paul! I wish we had a supermarket like that around here. Thanks so much for sharing the picture with us.
--Pamela
Hi Paul,
We have this same set-up at our local HyVee too. I'm just down the road from you, in Columbia, MO :-)
dw
Sheesh! The only stuff I can get fresh ground in local stores is stale coffee and rancid nuts. It's downright painful for a coffee geek and nut butter nut.
The coffee, at least, I can get shipped the day it's roasted and grind it myself for each cup. We make our own nut butter too. Looking in my crystal ball, I seem to see a grain mill in my future.
David
Kansas is so much more advanced than the rest of the country.
Yep, I can get that in Iowa, too. I buy that flour occasionally. Pretty cheap, usually, and quite good.
Our Wal-Mart’s have these available, but most of us just run down to the outlet in town. We are located only 45 miles from the main mill. There you can browse the shop while eating their fresh pastries and a hot cup of coffee. Best cinnamon rolls around!
Visit them online at http://www.wheatmontana.com/index.php
Hopefully this becomes a trend in more stores! Thanks for sharing your photo.
Sylvia
We have one here too, in a local independent. It's in the bulk foods section.
Like Pam said - totally cool. Even here in health food crazy, trend starting Southern CA, we have nothing like this that I'm aware of. I'd love it. I'm glad you remembered the camera!
Marni
At least some of the Whole Foods Markets in northern Calif have these set-ups.
I am in Lenexa and have been using this for a while!