With so many people working from home these days, buying basic supplies online is more important than ever before. While we can be thankful these things aren’t always necessities, they are still things that will make our lives a bit more pleasant.
On of the main things we’ve been hunting for in our household is wheat flour. High quality flour is heavy, not particularly cheap, and is often sold out in local stores, so buying online makes a lot of sense.
The Past Few Years
For us, the act of buying flour online all started in early 2020. What started out of desperation has become a normal practice as we’ve fallen in love with high quality producers from across the United States.
Back in March 2020, we were desperately searching for flour during the early days of the covid-19 quarantine. As avid sourdough bread bakers, our existing stocks of bread flour, rye flour, and whole wheat flour didn’t last long. While we don’t normally buy food products from Amazon, this seems like the perfect opportunity to stock up… but Amazon’s stock of flour, King Arthur flour in particular, was zeroed out for weeks.
So, where do you get flour if local super markets and the “everything store” are both sold out? Keep in mind that perennial favorites like Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur were entirely sold out and are the first places people turn to, so getting something from either has proven to be impossible for many of us. Our preferred online outlets, like Thrive Market, have been sold out as well.
As 2020 progressed, flour got easier to find, but the supply wasn’t entirely predictable, especially if you wanted King Arthur flour (the organic bread flour in particular). I was able to place a great order with Sunrise Flour Mill, making for the second time I had ordered from them since the start of quarantine. Sunrise Flour has maintained a high quality level and great customer service for years, making it one of our favorite options.
Central Milling Organic Flour
I’m a big fan of Central Milling flour. This Utah-based company makes all sorts of organic flour that’s perfect for both professional and amateur bakers. Central Milling is best known for their famous Red Rose Flour, but they make many other varieties of malted, sprouted, whole wheat, all-purpose, and other flours. They sell specialty flours as well, like an “00” flour that is perfect for homemade pizza.
Central Milling is also handy because they have sprouted grains and whole grain cereals, like wheat berries and cracked 9-grain cereals.
And interesting fact is that Central Milling actually makes a number of the Whole Foods flours under the 365 brand, so if you fall in love with their stuff, you might be able to buy it locally. Central Milling sells flour at Costco as well, but under their own brand name.
One downside of Central Milling is that their shipping can get quite expensive.
Sunrise Flour Mill
A lesser known, but still excellent, resource is Sunrise Flour Mill. We placed a good-sized order from here in mid-March and it worked out perfectly, with fast, cheap ($9) shipping and some very nice flour. Sunrise is, responsibly, placing limits on order sizes but is still a great place to order from.
We’ve been using their Heritage Whole Wheat Flour and Turkey Red Heritage White Flour, but there are many other interesting products, like a breakfast cereal bundle and 7-grain cereal mix.
The main downside of Sunrise is that the do not produce organic flour at this time.
Anson Mills
I’m a huge fan of Anson Mills‘ Carolina Gold rice, Sea Island red peas, and other products, but I hadn’t had a lot of experience with their flours. Having done a recent order which contained white bread flour, red fife flour, and a few other things, I can say their flour is quite nice.
Anson Mills is a place we regularly order from — primarily for their mainstays — and while it won’t become a flour go-to for us, I’m glad they came through during quarantine.
Downsides for Anson Mils are primarily their high-ish prices and expensive shipping. Their quality and customer service are both excellent, plus from what I know of the company it seems like a great place to support.
Other Great Flour Mills Online
While we can recommend the top four options from personal experience, there are many other places where you can get flour online. Here are some we’ve tracked down but have’t yet tried.
Please note: While I do sometimes make money from Amazon links, I don’t have any affiliate with the above brands.