On August 13, large parts of Warbro Kvarns operations down. We had a chat with Maud Brinckmann, who works at the profiled and enthusiastic eco-mill, who is also a member of Organic Sweden.

   - It was probably an electrical fault in the grain dryer that caused the fire to start. The fire spread to the grain silos, stables and mill, which were completely engulfed in flames. The only building that survived was the smelter. Thankfully, no animals or people were harmed, says Maud.

Over the past decade, the Warbro Kvarn developed into a locomotive for cultured grains and with the launch of a range of new products. In 2022, they even released their own ten-episode podcast: The flour and bread pod. In the podcast, the founders, as well as the relatives, Maria and Thomas Björklund, and others who want to getwhite, refined flour out of date.

Fantastic support

 - In the midst of the misery, the response and help from other mills has been fantastic. There aren't that many of us in Sweden who work with organic cultured grain. When things like this happen, it feels fantastic to be part of a mill family, says Maud.

In concrete terms, the support manifests itself in others milling on behalf of Warbro Kvarn, offered to grind the grain that Warbro Kvarns contract growers have stored with them. All the grain that was with Warbro Kvarn burned up, but in October rye, wheat, spelt, einkorn and emmer, which remain with the contract growers, will begin to be milled.

Whole the other assortment that Warbro Kvarn had before the fire (On Eko-Portalen there were 25 products...) will unfortunately not be available this year. However, a selection of flour types, both sifted and whole grain, will be available to order. The products will therefore soon be able to be ordered via former wholesalers and shortly afterwards via Warbro Kvarns website.

The brand Warbro Kvarn will be the same despite the fact that the grain is thus handled on behalf of other mills for some time to come. However, the package sizes will be slightly different. In addition, all mills are unique, so the product characteristics will also differ slightly compared to before.

     - At first it was shock, sadness and despair that tormented us who are active in the company. Today, however, the objective is and
     the impetus to rebuild the company from the ground up again, says Maud.

Exciting collaboration in progress

One of the few buildings that survived the fire was the malt house where beer malt is produced. In the maltery, there is also an interesting collaboration between Warbro Kvarn and the company Hidden in Grains. Their vision is to offer whole grain cereal products with higher bioavailability of minerals. One of the founders of Hidden in Grains, Kerstin Fredlund, is also a guest in the last episode of the Flour and Bread podcast. Kerstin believes that there needs to be a shift to cereal products with more bioavailable mineral content if we are to switch to eating less meat and more vegetables. Hidden in Grains hopes to have products ready for the consumer market in 2023.

This flower miraculously survived the fire