Short answer: Drought in the US and war in Ukraine.

Longer answer: In late ’21 oat prices started to increase exponentially. Our buyer said the reason was twofold. 1) A drought in the major oat producing area of the US and 2} the gov’t heavily subsidized the growing of wheat in 2021. Oat farmers switched over to take advantage of the added income, creating a further shortage of oats.

In Feb 2022, war erupted in Ukraine, also known as Europe’s breadbasket due to its fertile soil, cheap labor, and deepwater ports. Conscripted farmers are not harvesting winter crops nor planting spring crops, creating a shortage of all kinds of agricultural products. Millers and bakers are having to scramble to find other sources of grain, including from the US, creating a dearth on our continent as well.

When you check out, please choose Pickup in NC or PA as your shipping option. During checkout, you will need to specify your pickup location, NC or PA, in the text box titled Order notes (optional)

Myerstown, PA Warehouse Pickup: Warehouse hours are 7:30 – 2:30, Mon – Fri. The minimum order for pickup in PA is $150. All warehouse pickups must be prepaid. There is no store at the PA warehouse, and purchases cannot be made at the dock. Orders require four hours to pick and process.

Wake Forest, NC Cooperative Pickup: Members and customers place their orders online during the week. Once the cooperative order hits $1500 in value, which occurs about once a month, it is placed with the warehouse by Friday at lunchtime. Orders placed after lunchtime on Friday will wait for the next $1500 cycle.

After the cooperative order is placed, it’s loaded onto an 18-wheeler horse and buggy in PA and delivered to the co-op location Wednesday or Thursday the following week. We will then send you an email with pickup procedures or call you, to let you know that your order is ready for pick up. To check your order status, please log in to your account here.

On occasion an item will go on backorder with the warehouse after you have placed your local pickup order, but before the cooperative order is placed. We will contact you if this happens, and will attempt the item on the next cooperative order. We try to keep the website updated regularly so that this doesn’t occur often, but it will happen from time to time.

Our co-op is open to all, members and general public alike.

For customers who desire to order more than $350 worth of product annually, receive 10% off on case goods purchases when you join as member. To join the co-op, please see this page.

To receive the member’s discount, the system needs to know you are a member first. Memberships are not automatically applied, so please set up an account and purchase a membership prior to placing any food orders. Do not use guest checkout. You will receive a thank you email once your membership is processed.

If you purchased a membership along with your food purchase and set up an account, your membership will be processed and your member discount refunded the next business day.

If you did not set up an account and used guest checkout, please set up an account and email david@grainmill.coop with the email address you used for your account. Your membership will then be processed and your member discount refunded the next business day.

Some case goods co-ops have a minimum order. We do not. We will gladly ship you one case of product if that’s all you require.

The first number is the case count and the second is the individual weight. In this example, a case would be two 10 lb bags (20 lb total weight) or six 32oz quarts (1.5 gallons) of product.

Unfortunately splitting cases or offering samples would leave us with an amazing amount of unsellable inventory. As such, we are unable to offer those options to our members and customers.

For locals in the Raleigh, NC area, we have a case splitting software available if anyone would like to manage product splitting and distribution. Please email david@grainmill.coop if you’re interested in helping initiate that program.

You can choose to refuse a delivery, but there are some stipulations that MUST be followed to do so. Check out this page for more information. The parcel is considered accepted by UPS if it is opened. If you accept the parcel, all sales are final unless there is an issue with the quality of the product.

If there is a quality control issue, please contact us within 14 days. You will receive an RMA number and return label. Once we receive the product, you will be issued a refund via the payment method you used.

As a co-op, we operate on a smaller profit margin than standard retail. As such we don’t run many specials.

We offer 10% discounts to our members on case goods. Twice a year, Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Independence Week, we run a 15% off sale.

And we offer 15% off every day to orders of ten or more items.

Most products are not packaged for long term storage. Wheat, beans, and rice come packed in paper feed bags or boxes and will need to be repackaged for use six month or more from now. For short term, within a year or so, we recommend high density polyethylene buckets and snap on lids from your local hardware store. There will be a triangle on the bottom with a 2 and the initials HDPE.

For longer term storage, you should invest in mylar foil bags and oxygen absorbers. The co-op has had good experiences with the folks at Sorbent Systems. This page has a chart to assist you in choosing the proper sized O2 absorber for your needs, along with videos and supplies for your long term storage needs.

Our products are not organic unless specified in the item title and description.

Many of our wheat products come in a chemical-free and certified organic option; Prairie Gold wheat for example. The major difference between them is the way the fields are treated prior to planting. Organic crops require organic fertilizer, whereas the chemical-free crops are grown with a commercial fertilizer. Neither crop is treated with herbicides or pesticides once sprouted.

On occasion the co-op is confused with a retail store. We do not carry any products in-stock and orders are not immediately available for pickup. Wake Forest orders are cooperatively accumulated until an $1500 minimum group order is met. which occurs every month or so. The orders will be available for pickup the week after that minimum requirement is met. You will receive an email or text with pickup directions after the orders are sorted.

Myerstown PA pickups are typically available the next business day. You will receive an email or text with pickup directions after the orders are delivered to the customer pickup dock.

Of course the sooner the better, but any order left at the co-op for longer than six weeks, will be donated to the Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry. Orders not received at the PA warehouse will be returned to inventory.

Unfortunately, this is sometimes the nature of the cooperative buying business. We strive to keep our website updated several times a week with availability. Sometimes an item goes out of stock between the time you placed your order with the co-op and the co-op places the combined group order with the warehouse. We will try to keep you updated with new estimated arrival dates, or you may choose to have your item(s) refunded.