As Oregon wheat farmers barely break even, a burgeoning Washington flour company could be a boon for farmers and bring premium Pacific Northwest grown wheat to the national spotlight.

Cairnspring Mills will soon open its Blue Mountain Mill in Pendleton, a stone mill built to bring locally-sourced craft flour to bread makers and restaurants nationwide and give Pacific Northwest farmers who use regenerative growing practices a local market to sell their wheat.

The mill is set to begin commercial production in November. Once it’s running, it will allow the company to source and purchase far more grain directly from Pacific Northwest farmers at prices well above the commodity market.

The mill was built in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation — the largest public-private partnership the tribe has ever done. Tribal members say it gives the tribes ownership in a growing company that aligns with the tribes’ own values — preserving and strengthening local food systems.

Cairnspring, founded in 2016, already operates a mill in Washington’s Skagit Valley. Its premium flours have become a popular favorite among home bakers, high-end bakeries and restaurants from Seattle to Portland and beyond.

Pulling farmers out of a ‘race to the bottom’

The Blue Mountain Mill comes at the heels of disruptive U.S. trade policies that have created challenges for commodity wheat farmers dependent on overseas buyers. Over 90% of the wheat grown in Oregon is exported to mostly Asian countries like the Philippines, South Korea and Japan.

To add to their troubles, rising inflation has made the cost of diesel and fertilizer more expensive.

Skagit Valley resident and former farmer Kevin Morse co-founded Cairnspring. He said the idea is to pull conventional wheat farmers out of what he says is a “race to the bottom” of the global commodity market.

Morse said what makes Cairnspring different is that it works closely with farmers to select unique grain varieties that bakers seek out and pays farmers a premium price for their grain.

“The world is asking the farmers to feed them, but they are stuck in a system that’s putting them out of business,” Morse told OPB at the mill’s opening celebration on Thursday. “Ultimately farmers want to do good work, they want to steward the land, and so giving people the opportunity to continue to do that is a huge component of what’s happening here at the mill.”

It’s welcome news for farmers like Keith Morter, who farms wheat in Morrow County. Morter already supplies Cairnspring’s Skagit mill.

Just a few years ago, Morter transitioned his farm from a conventional wheat farming operation selling to traditional commodity markets to using regenerative practices — a farming approach that often focuses on building healthier soils through less tilling and less chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

“It makes me feel like I can pass [the farm] on to the next generation and know that the next generation is set up good,” Morter said. “All the biology that we try to get into that kernel, it [stays] in the flour. And in the end, that makes a healthier human being and that’s a real thing that people talk about right now.”

Feds boost Umatilla Indian Reservation flour mill project

Cairnspring already has sourcing agreements with a few Oregon and Washington farmers, and is working with Oregon farmers, including on the Umatilla Reservation, to source more grain for its Pendleton mill.

Finding the middle ground

Craft flour, which Morse compares to craft beer or third-wave specialty coffee, is having a moment, partly sparked by pandemic-era baking trends but also, because people want healthier, locally-sourced options, Morse said.

And they’re willing to pay a premium for it.

“More and more of these days people want to know where their food comes from. They want to trust it and they want to feed their families healthy, nutritious food that’s not laden with chemicals,” he said.

In Oregon, and other corners of the country, some mills do produce small-batch, premium flour, but usually those mills don’t produce at a commercial scale. Cairnspring is trying to position itself as a “remarkable middle” in an industry Morse says is dominated by a few massive mills.

How the craft flour movement could be a boon to farmers and Indian Country

When fully operational, the Blue Mountain Mill will expand Cairnspring’s annual milling capacity from about 8 million pounds to more than 115 million pounds of flour.

“That might sound like a lot, but the big mills that make 8 million pounds a day can literally make what this new Blue Mountain Mill will make in a year, in about two weeks,” Morse said.

That added capacity will generate more than $22 million a year for Northwest farmers and create more than 22 local living-wage jobs, according to Morse.

This is the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s first equity stake in a private company. The tribe leased the land the mill sits on, the Coyote Business Park, for 50 years and invested $5 million of its own money on the project.

Susan Bower, the business development manager with the CTUIR Department of Economic and Community Development, said the partnership serves as a model that sustains the tribes economically and supports food sovereignty.

“We literally geographically are in the heart of wheat country in this area and so the tribe has long wanted to make its tribal farm operation a bigger part of the ag community here,” Bower said. “To have a partner, a subject matter expert come forward that really aligned well with the tribe — it was the perfect union.”

Bower said she hopes it signals that Indian Country is open to do business with companies that align with the tribes values.

“Indian Country does want to do public-private partnerships that create…win-win or better yet, win-win-win regional beneficial opportunities,” she said.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/19/umatilla-reservation-cairnspring-mills-flour/