Joe Lindley

Graham, NC

Lindley Mills stands where the north-south trade route from Hillsborough to Raleigh crossed the east-west route through the Piedmont in the 1700’s.  Built in 1755 by Thomas Lindley, the mill on Cane Creek milled local grain.  During the Revolutionary War, the North Carolina militia ambushed the Tories on the north-south road at Lindley’s Mill.  Hundreds of men died in the four-hour Battle of Lindley’s Mill.

Nine generations later, Joe Lindley owns Lindley Mills.  The family had sold the mill in the 1800’s, and as the milling process became concentrated in larger operations across the country, the mill switched to animal feed.  In the 1960’s, the mill closed down completely.  Joe’s father, a local surgeon, bought the mill back in the 1970’s with the intention of restoring the water wheel.  Once the wheel was operational, though, the opportunity to grind flour was too good to pass up.  Once they ground their first batch of flour, Joe became hooked on grinding.

If you’ve ever seen the giant grain elevators of the Midwest, you’ll understand why we’re so fortunate to have a local mill.  Flour production was one of first businesses to be transformed from a local supply-and-demand business to a giant, centralized export.  Cheap shipping and aggressive company building created grain corporations that drove the price of flour down and put small mills out of business.  This also narrowed the available products to what the giants wanted to produce.  We are fortunate to have a local mill, especially one that turns out such a high quality product.  Lindley Mills designs their flour to be closer to a European style; it’s not as uniform in texture as flour used for large production baking.  (Machine-processed bread needs to be overly elastic and consistent because a machine cannot adjust to changes in the bread dough.)  Lindley Mills flour is good for an artisanal bakery like Weaver Street Market where the hand-processing of the bread allows for the fluctuations in flour batches.

The mill has ground 100% organic flour since the Lindleys began operating it again in 1976.  Joe is interested in buying wheat from local suppliers, and recent efforts to grow wheat in North Carolina have raised hopes.  In addition to providing the flour for the breads served in Panzanella, the Panzanella kitchen uses Lindley Mills flours.