Ohio family mills “farm to table flour” and raises local grain awareness.
Local Millers mills and distributes grains in Central Ohio and beyond. Doris and Joe Bozzi, alongside their daughter Isabella, began building the business at the end of 2021, wanting to solve a problem they (and others) had experienced: finding local grains for home baking. Co-located with fellow AGC member Brandt Family Farms who grow some of their grains, Local Millers officially launched their businesses in 2023.
This is the Bozzi family’s first foray into the work of producing food. Joe still works full time in IT, while Doris has pivoted her off-farm customer service job to serving their grain customers. They each mill grains at the farm, which is 45 minutes from their home. Isabella handles packaging, milling their retail corn, and helping Doris bake Joe’s biscotti recipe. Isabella also works for Common Greens, a nonprofit that supports food access and farming and runs several farmers markets, including one in Clintonville where Local Millers sells their flour and baked goods along with loaves of sourdough from a nearby cottage baker. Fresh flour is generally a surprise to folks who visit their stand.
“Most of the people who stop by are curious. The idea of local flour just hasn’t occurred to them before,” said Doris. They keep a diagram on the table that shows the wheat berry and its parts—germ, endosperm, and bran—and use it to explain the nutrients found therein. “They’re fascinated to hear how stone milling retains all the parts of a kernel.”
These conversations reflect the wonder that drove them into this enterprise. While the Bozzi’s have understood the superior taste and nutritional value of local food for a long time, they didn’t dive into grains until the pandemic. Working from home, Joe started to explore his Italian roots, especially in baking: pizza, focaccia, and biscotti. The Italian focus on ingredients led him to explore flour, which soon meant buying a small flour mill. Finding grain wasn’t as simple as farmers’ market shopping for other foods, and they found themselves hunting throughout Ohio.
One of the farms they found in their grain circuits was Brandt Family Farm, well-established champions of regenerative grain farming. Their infrastructure for cleaning and handling crops led to them becoming a grain hub for other growers, and to cleaning and milling grain for a large bakery. Eventually, the Brandt’s decided to move on from milling, and this segued nicely with the Bozzi’s desire to start. Local Millers are now contract milling for the Brandt’s original bakery customer, and a few other farms that are part of the grain hub. Milling and co-packing services are key needs for a vibrant regional grain economy; not every farm has the capacity to clean and store grains, let alone set up a mill, and package grains and flour to standards that fit food safety codes and customer expectations.
“We structured our business with the goal of helping to make a larger variety of grains and grain-based products more available to consumers and food producers,” Doris said. Working in collaboration with Brandt Family Farm has been indispensable. “They own several mills we use, and our mill is also on their property. Other farms bring their grain to be cleaned and stored by the Brandts and then we do the milling and distribution.”
Local Millers have supplied grains for masa, tortillas, breads, cookies, grits, and whisky. They would like to support corn nixtamalization and add wet milling to their operation and are looking for funds to pursue this.
The Bozzi’s love learning about their farm partners and the different agriculture methods people are using to try to grow better food, and are well-positioned to deliver this information to food processors and eaters. Working with professional bakers and chefs, they see the creativity involved in making new products. To support their customers, they host a monthly meetup at a local pizzeria, facilitating peer exchange for home bakers.
A baker who used to work at Hadyn Flour Mill in Arizona now teaches baking in the area and uses their flour; another professional baker, the late Sarah Black, who made bread kits using heirloom flours in Columbus, helped Local Millers connect to two retail stores that now sell their flour. Sarah Black also organized, with AGC and members the Bread Bakers Guild of America and Dorothy Lane Market, a daylong grain event last November that featured a panel where Joe spoke about his experiences and work, along with member Jon Branstrator of Branstrator Farm.
Education about local grains is arguably as important as access, and Local Millers welcomes learning and sharing. Isabella joined fellow AGC members to attend Northern Crops Institute's stone milling course in February, with funding support from AGC.
Last month, Local Millers hosted an open house and tour at the Brandt Family Farm in partnership with Common Greens. Visitors toured the farm and learned about its cover crop seed business, regenerative farming practices, and grain cleaning operation. They also saw the mill room and a stone milling demonstration.
“I want to talk to folks about local grains. I think it's crucial to strengthen our local economy as much as possible not just from a financial point of view but also from a nutritional one,” she said. She’s passionate about using foods around her to help foster community, and customers sense that. “They want to have coffee sessions with me, to know more about bread and the people that I work with.”
“Connections with others in the grain chain have been the greatest benefit of AGC membership. Knowing that we are not alone and that there is a community of others who are also passionate about sharing their love of local grains is terrific,” said Doris. We are glad to have Local Millers and their curiosity and work in our midst."
