Sold the farm to make the mill: New style mill off ground after 50 years

Steve Fulton believes his uncle’s flour mill will revolutionize the milling industry and sold his farm recently to produce and distribute the mills.

After more than 50 years of stagnant production, Fulton brought the invention to Washington State University industrial design students who re-engineered the machine and introduced it at a presentation last Thursday at WSU’s Compton Union Building. Several different varieties of Unifine Flour, produced by the machine in an Oregon mill, were also displayed at the presentation, along with whole wheat flour cookies, bread and waffles.

Fulton hopes this will get the flour flowing.

“I didn’t know how the mill worked,” Fulton said. “My uncle and dad handled that. All I knew is that it was unique.”

“I’m not re-inventing the wheel,” he said. “I’m producing it.”

Fulton sold a farm he owned near Fairfield just a few days ago and plans to promote and produce the flour mills full time.

“I’m looking for farmer cooperatives to go into partnership with,” he said.

Over the past five years, Fulton and some partners have financed scientific and engineering research at WSU culminating in a push this fall to take the mill into production.

Fulton announced through his company, Unifine Flour LLC, that production of the first mill that included the modifications the WSU team developed is anticipated to be complete next March at an Oregon location.

“Unlike the crude raw steel machine in the old one, we’re using stainless steel, powder-coated crimson, of course, with the internal rotor powder-coated gray, the WSU color scheme,” Fulton said.

With the enhancements the students have engineered into the new version of the mill machine, Fulton said he believes the mill could produce up to 2,000 pounds of flour per hour.

The mill can process not only wheat, but all kinds of grains, including rice.

In addition to being more cost effective, WSU scientific studies have confirmed that this holistic, dry, one-pass system yields nutritious ultra-fine whole grain flour with a superior shelf life and loaf volume for both bread and pastry products such as cakes and cookies. The only difference is that the flour is a tawny color and has what some call a “nutty” flavor that naturally results from whole wheat flour.

Consumers are demanding more whole grain products, and this particular mill delivers it. Instead of processing the grain a dozen times as standard flour mills do, the Unifine flour milling system processes the grain once, preserving the whole grain nutrients.

“This machine produces a better product,” Fulton said. “It gives consumers what they want.”

But it took 50 years to perfect the milling machine and get it off the ground.

The milling process originally was the brain child of John Wright who brought the idea to the United States from England after World War II.

Wright, via a letter from the U.S. Department of the Interior, contacted WSC President Wilson Compton in 1946.

The letter describes Wright’s interest in processing wheat into a palatable, nutritious flour that sustained its quality for a long period of time.

Wright applied for a patent and thus Unifine Flour Products was born.

Compton, however, restricted publicity of the flour milling process because he felt it could mean “a continuation of wrangling with the milling companies.”

The WSC president did allow test results to be published.

For some unknown reason, Wright never signed an agreement with the college to build the flour mill. Wright hired an engineer in Seattle to design and build a mill, but after testing it Wright couldn’t make it work.

Fulton said his uncle, Leonard Fulton, “somehow got wind of this milling system and started the ball rolling to design and build a mill of his own.” Fulton, who was the agriculture chairman of the Washington State Grange, signed a cooperative agreement with WSC in 1953 to design and fabricate a mill capable of grinding about 500 pounds of whole wheat flour per hour. The Grange agreed to invest $4,000 for the mill, and provided the wheat with the understanding that the flour would belong to the Grange. Eventually, the mill became Fulton’s property.

Fulton built the mill and operated it near Fairfield for 20 years until he retired. Steve Fulton said the mill produced 200,000 pounds of flour a year.

Jerry Schauble of St. John, who attended Thursday’s presentation, said there is community interest about having a mill in the area.

“My grandpa operated a mill from 1915 to 1954,” he said.

Schauble said he liked the idea of the process.

With consumers demanding more health-conscious choices, Fulton believes now is the right time for the Unifine mill to take off.

The mill is no bigger than a regular kitchen dishwasher, but Fulton said it sounds like a jet engine when it runs.

The grain is lifted into the hopper and gravity fed into the mill.

The Unifine Flour Mill uses less energy and leaves much less of a carbon footprint on the environment than standard flour mills, Fulton said.

Azure Standard of Dufur, Ore., uses an older version of the mill for flour production, and had samples of the products at the presentation. The president of the company said the mill is in a sealed room, rarely needs maintenance and has not been shut down for maintenance in 15 years of operation. He said the mill produces 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of flour per hour.

Fulton said one person can operate the milling machine while other employees bag processed flour, move it and store it.