24 WHEN MELISSA MCKEOWN and her brother Trevor were casting around for ideas that combined their farm background with their entrepreneurial spirit, they landed on local organic flour milling. It was an excellent choice that became 1847 Stone Milling, a thriving business that ships products right across Canada. “We saw that there were locally produced cheeses, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and meat, but in southern Ontario, where one in three fields is a grain crop, we thought it was bizarre that there were no local mills,” she says. Looking to Europe, mills tend to be smaller and attached to bakeries and communities Ontario mill fills a niche market FERGUS-AREA ENTREPRENEUR BUILDS SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS Lois Harris and use more organic grains. In fact, in Germany, where she and her husband Sasha lived for several months, 15 per cent of households mill their own flour. STARTING OUT So in 2014, the siblings set about emulating the European model by buying an Austrian mill, sourcing mainly locally grown organic grains and producing fresh flour. Melissa and Trevor split responsibilities so that Melissa does the business and marketing, and Trevor handles operations. They named the company 1847 Stone Milling, after the year its original home — a Fergus, Ontario farmhouse — was built. They started slowly but had the right idea by developing the business as a direct-toMarket Development MELISSA MCKEOWN.
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