The Lottsville grain mill has been supplying animal supplemental feeds since 1908 – for over a hundred years, and now the owners have expanded into handcrafted locally made crafts and foods.

Todd and Wanda Johnson have owned and operated the business since 1996, celebrating 20 years in 2016, but Todd has been working there since he was 12, and his father was an employee, Wanda said.

Although grain supply has been around for a long time, the nature of the business has changed, she said. Farmers grow crops to feed their animals, and the Johnson’s take samples of the crops for laboratory testing.

“The better your crops, the less you need us, but we complete diets for proper daily balance through custom design supplemental feeds for every farm,” she said. “We adapt to our customers’ needs.”

The Johnsons deal with whole corn, cracked corn, oats, soy products and distillers’ products for the production of whisky. “We buy a lot of things through commodities brokers,” she said.

They supply farms in Warren County, Kane, and Ripley and southwestern New York

The original portions of the building measures 40-feet by 60-feet, and is a post-and-beam construction.

The grains are lifted for storage by the original 100-plus-year-old, four-story elevator using wooden buckets and reinforced belts, and mill can hold 450 tons of grain.

“We still deliver bagged and bulk feeds, and sell retail out of the store,” she said. “We feed all the horses and dairy in the area, and sell pet foods. We feed just about everything.” She added that farming is the Warren County’s largest manufacturing sector.

Johnson said she had always enjoyed being creative, but the business takes a lot of her time. So in March 2013, they decided to diversify and offer handcrafted, locally made goods, and they turned a 20-foot by 60-foot 1920’s era addition into a general store, of sorts.

“I always loved doing crafts. I felt the idea would fly in our area. I’m always here, anyway,” she said. The jams, jellies, candles, furniture and other sundry crafts are sold on consignment for vendors, “a little bit of everything like a general store.”

And she said she is always looking for more vendors. “The homemade, handmade quality appeals to me, with products made by a person who took their time to do it right. There is a lot of talent in the local area.”

The sales benefit the business without an overwhelming overhead, and benefits vendors by having a year-round outlet for their wares.

It would seem that Lottsville, on Route 958, would be an out-of-the-way location for such a business, but she said that in addition to her regular customers, many people passing through stop in. Motorcycle riders in particular prefer 958 to Route 6, Johnson said.

For more, see Lottsville Milling, Inc. on Facebook.