Building Out Woodson's Mill: What a Federal Grant Is Funding
In December 2025, Deep Roots Milling received a $99,616 VDACS RFSI Equipment Only Grant. Here's what it's paying for and what it means for the mill.
Last December, we got some good news. We were awarded a $99,616 equipment grant from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, through a USDA program called the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure initiative. We used it to order three pieces of equipment for the mill. None of it has arrived yet, but when it does, it’ll meaningfully change how we operate.
Here’s what we’re getting and why it matters.
The Sifter
We already have a plansifter. It separates the flour by particle size after it comes off the millstones. The one we have works, but it’s undersized for where we’re headed. It handles what we’re milling now, but it’s a ceiling on how much we can grow.
The new one is built for higher throughput. More consistent extraction run to run, and a cleaner product coming off the end.
The Pneumatic Conveyance System
We already move flour through the mill pneumatically. A blower pushes it from the basement up to the third floor and back down to the second. The new system does the same thing in reverse. It’s vacuum-based, pulling flour through the line rather than pushing it. The exhaust runs through a filter on the third floor before it exits.
The real difference is dust. A vacuum system keeps more of it contained, which matters for the people working in the mill every session. Flour dust is an occupational hazard, and this is a direct step toward reducing it.
The Bulk Flour Bin
Right now, as flour comes off the sifter it goes straight into bags. That means someone has to be up there bagging the entire time the mill is running. A bulk bin holds the finished flour before it gets bagged, so milling and bagging don’t have to happen simultaneously. It frees up a person and adds flexibility to the session.
Taken together, the new sifter and conveyance system also open up something bigger. Running both sets of millstones at once. There’s a second set of stones at Woodson’s Mill that has been sitting idle. Bringing them online has always required more infrastructure to handle the throughput. This equipment gets us there. We’re not putting a date on it yet, but it’s no longer out of reach.
What Stays the Same
The mill is still water-powered. We’re still running 48-inch granite millstones from the 1840s. We mill once a month, to order, and your flour is ground fresh each session. The grain still comes from the same farm partners at the same prices, 3 to 4 times commodity rate. More capacity doesn’t change any of that.
“The mill is being built out, not just maintained.”
If you haven’t read our post on the mill, it covers the full history of Woodson’s Mill and why it’s still running after 230 years.
A Note on the Grant Program
The RFSI program funds infrastructure investments in what USDA calls the “middle of the food supply chain,” the mills, processors, and distributors that sit between farms and consumers. Virginia ran an Equipment Only category, and we were one of the recipients.
If you want the broader picture on what the RFSI program is up against in Washington, we covered that in our post on the 2026 Farm Bill. This post is just about what the money is actually buying, and what we’re building toward.
Deep Roots Milling ships nationally and delivers on regular routes throughout Virginia, DC, Maryland, and North Carolina. Shop our flour → or learn more about wholesale accounts →