Be Back in a Jiffy

Ok, it's Thursday. We've chosen this day to visit one of the iconic midwestern factories. We've been waiting for this for months, and The Day has arrived!

Located in Chelsea, Michigan, about 50 miles east of us, the Chelsea Milling Company was founded back in the '30's as a traditional grain mill. This part of Michigan grows tremendous amounts of wheat and this local mill allowed farmers to process their crops locally rather than transporting the wheat to mills miles away (mills miles?)

Grain is brought to the mill and stored under strict temperature and humidity conditions in huge concrete silos. As the grain is processed, and taken out of the bottom of the silos, new grain is added. Two types of grain are planted in the US: winter wheat and spring wheat. Winter wheat is planted in September and harvested the following July. Spring wheat, as you might guess, is planted in April or May and harvested in August or September, so you can see that a great deal of grain arrives at the mill in late summer and early fall. Some corn is mixed with the wheat, along with baking soda, sugar, and such, and those items are out-sourced. The wheat comes from an area of about a 150 mile radius of Chelsea.

We watched a couple of short videos about the mill before we entered the actual production area. We found that "Jiffy" came from the wife of the company's founder, when she said that the dinner biscuits would be ready in a.....Jiffy. She also had the idea to retail a ready-to-go baking flour in the now familiar blue boxes. The production volume varies during the year as demand and supplies dictate. The crops come in in late summer, just as the school season starts, and just as retailers are stocking their shelves for the winter holidays. Production is reduced during the Spring and Summer, with staff spending a lot of time cleaning and "tuning up" equipment for the next season. The plant operates 3 shifts continually throughout the year, and produces 1.5 million little Jiffy boxes per day!
Recently the Chelsea Milling Company has expanded into commercial markets with baking products packages in quantities suitable for large-quantity use.

The tour was about an hour and a half long, and very interesting. The tour guides were humorous and informative, and at the end, we all received a couple of boxes of Jiffy muffin mix! Unfortunately, photography is not allowed within the plant, so you'll have to imagine whirring, clanking equipment (most from the 1930's), conveyor belts, tubing full of flour mix, and workers feeding boxes into machines. While 95% of the process is automated, I was tickled to see that a worker sat on a stool beside the machines that fold the boxes, feeding flat cardboard boxes into it, a handful at a time! Hey, Daddy, what did you do all day.....?

I shouldn't do this, but since we're all friends here, I will.....

We were asked to don particular gear before we went into the production area. I should say that a young girl behind me couldn't stop giggling....

Ok, stop it right now!

Tomorrow, Friday the 18th of August, will be our last day in Marshall, MI. We've enjoyed the time here and have discovered several interesting things. I'm sure we missed many more. We will spend the day cleaning, maybe have an extra cup of coffee, and prep to leave here Saturday.

Stay with us!