Hayden Flour Mills – Artisan Wheat Flour

The Short Version

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What Is Hayden Flour Mills?

Hayden Flour Mills is an Arizona family business with a simple, stubborn goal: to make the freshest flour possible from some of the world’s oldest varieties of grain. Run by the father-daughter team of Jeff and Emma Zimmerman, it pays homage to a time when flour was non-hybridized, minimally processed, and full of flavor — before industrial milling sanded away most of its character. The grains are grown on Arizona farms and milled fresh, so what reaches the bag still carries the texture, aroma, and taste that mass-market flour leaves behind.

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What Was the Martha Stewart American Made Award?

Martha Stewart’s American Made program spotlighted the maker, supported the local, and celebrated the handmade — researching and recognizing the people behind artisanal goods who had turned a passion for craftsmanship and community into a way of life. In 2014, the program recognized one of Arizona’s own. Hayden Flour Mills was named one of 10 winners of the American Made Award in the food category, taking home $10,000 along with national exposure: a feature in Martha Stewart Living magazine, a profile online, and a trip to the American Made Summit in New York. For a tiny mill still finding its footing, it was the moment the rest of the country started paying attention — and press from Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, The New York Times, and others followed.

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How Did Hayden Flour Mills Get Started?

Jeff Zimmerman started the company in 2010 with little more than an idea and the rights to a historic name. “Hayden Flour Mills” traced back to Charles Hayden, who founded the original mill in Tempe in 1874 — a name that had been abandoned by its later operators. What Jeff had was a memory: the soft, flavorful flour he grew up with in the farm country of North Dakota. Piece by piece, with help from people who understood the vision, he found the seed specialists with heritage wheat varieties, the farmers willing to plant them, and a massive stone mill imported from Austria.

Then came a crucial assist. In 2011, James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Bianco — yes, that Chris Bianco — offered the young company a back room in his sandwich shop, Pane Bianco. That’s where the Austrian stone mill was set up and the milling began. Jeff’s daughter Emma, meanwhile, made a leap of her own.

Key Milestones

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What Does Hayden Flour Mills Make Today?

The family business long ago moved out of that back room, but it’s still grinding heritage and ancient grains on a stone mill, milling each batch fresh to keep the flavor and nutrients intact. Over the past decade-plus, the Zimmermans have grown their crop from 30 acres to more than 400, reviving grain varieties that were sliding toward extinction.

That range now spans more than a dozen grains — White Sonora wheat, emmer farro, einkorn, spelt, durum, rye, heritage oats, purple barley, corn, and more — sold as flours, whole berries, and baking mixes. Co-owner Emma Zimmerman added an acclaimed chapter to the story in 2022 with her cookbook The Miller’s Daughter, which earned a James Beard nomination, and the company has branched into playful collaborations like a confetti cake mix with Molly Yeh. Once stocked mainly in a handful of Phoenix-area shops, Hayden flours now ship nationwide from haydenflourmills.com and reach home bakers and chefs well beyond Arizona — with recipes for bread, pizza, and pasta on the site to match.

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What Happened to the Historic Hayden Flour Mill Building in Tempe?

Here’s a detail worth untangling: when Jeff Zimmerman registered the trademark, he claimed the abandoned Hayden Flour Mills company name — not the Hayden Flour Mill building, the iconic structure in downtown Tempe. He had no plans to reoccupy it, and the two have remained separate.

For years the landmark sat empty; the historic mill had stood vacant since milling there ceased in 1998, and a string of redevelopment attempts stalled out. That finally changed in October 2023, when the City of Tempe approved a restoration and redevelopment plan led by Venue Project and Sunbelt Holdings. The roughly five-acre project preserves the 1918 mill and its 1951 grain elevator and silos, reimagining the site as a mixed-use destination with restaurants, shops, a public park, and an improved trailhead to “A” Mountain. In a fitting twist, the developers have even expressed hope of welcoming the modern Hayden Flour Mills as an anchor tenant — bringing the revived name home to the building that started it all.

Frequently Asked Questions About Hayden Flour Mills

🌾 Hayden Flour Mills at a Glance

The fast facts on Arizona’s heritage grain revival