Swany White Flour Mills is a small flour mill in Freeport

Freeport, Minnesota

Freeport is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 632 at the 2010 census. It is part of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Freeport is located in Oak Township, T125N R32W §3...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

. The miller is Gary Thelen, and the mill has been owned by the Thelen family since 1903. The mill is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 as "Freeport Roller Mill and Miller's House".

History

The mill has operated continuously at the same location since 1903, although according to Stearns County the mill dates to 1898. Swany White Flour Mills has been owned by the Thelen family from its inception.

Production

For white flour, Swany White has used the same milling equipment since 1913. It has a milling capacity of about 1000 pounds (453.6 kg) per hour, or 12000 lb (5,443.1 kg) per business day. This is a fraction of the milling capacity of most mills. It is notable that Swany White Flour has continued to operate as a small independent while most other small regional producers have either given up or sold out.

For its conventional products, the mill has a commercial presence mainly in the Upper Midwest

Upper Midwest

The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the midwest. Although there are no uniformly agreed-upon boundaries, the region is most commonly used to refer to the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and...

, however its organic products are distributed more widely. In addition to sales to distributors and retailers, Swany White has a retail

Retail

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

outlet at the mill in Freeport. The mill's most popular product is a bleached flour sold under the brand name Faith's Best, which accounts for about 60% of all sales.