#180 No Gluten? No Problem - Sara Woods, Wyoming Heritage Grains

Meaningful Marketplace Podcast

Today, we welcome a fifth generation farmer, Sara Woods of Wyoming Heritage Grains. Wyoming is great for spreading out and having lots of elbow room to be a farmer, as the population is not huge nor all that concentrated. The family came out to Wyoming in the early 1900s as homesteaders and their current farm, located in Northwest Wyoming, 70 miles east of Yellowstone, was established in 1946. They have grown just about every commodity crop that exists and also raise beef cattle and alfalfa hay. They are focused on regenerative practices and use multiple species of cover crops and mob grazing to ensure rich biodiversity, and healthy soils. As an interesting note, the land once belonged to Buffalo Bill Cody, and was used as a Country club at one point in time. Irrigation became possible from the Shoshone Water Project from 1899-1947,and the water is fed by the Yellowstone Eco-system. The family farm had started a malting company a few years ago and sold to beverage brewers quite successfully. The pandemic put a hold on that business, but the farm began milling flour as the lockdown put a huge demand on that commodity. Sara left the farm at adulthood, but after having a corporate life and kids, she desired a slower lifestyle. So Sara quit her corporate job and returned as the mill had become a thriving business. It turned out to be a very steep learning curve for Sara as producing flour is not the simple process it appears to be from the outside. The company now offers five to six different grains from their mill and their equipment has been upgraded as the company expands and becomes more efficient. Sara also has gone down the proverbial entrepreneur rabbit holes, experimenting with heirloom vegetables, varieties of animals and other commodities that in the end were not good business ventures. Sara points to our changing diet as a driver for their choices of grains. After World War II, wheat was hybridized in order to feed a growing population. That phenomenon has created a very large population of people who are now sensitive to gluten, so that has served to take wheat out of the mix of grains that can be raised and processed for Wyoming Heritage Grains. Now the older varieties of grains are more tolerable, but of course the yield per acre is smaller than the hybridized wheat, so it becomes a price/quantity/quality puzzle for Sara and the family. The big breakthrough has been finding customers who could not eat grains previously and can now eat Wyoming Heritage Grains every day. Filling that market segment of people who cannot tolerate wheat but want the “wheat experience” has been the family’s success to date. For example, their White Sonora grain was originally brought to the Americas in the 1500s and has been very easy to digest for people with gluten sensitivity. And since the company makes a pancake mix out of the flour, it’s a real treat for every family. Wyoming Heritage Grains also sells Einkhorn grain and flour, a grain that has stayed essentially the same for 10,000 years. The family also has experimented with red and blue corn kernels. There is some great news about cooperation amongst food producers who care about the consumer who is eating what they produce. The family communicates with other millers to coordinate what is being grown and milled to make sure consumers are supplied with all the healthy food they desire. You can find their products in farmers markets in Cody and others around Wyoming. They also are about to be stocked in Bayard Grocery stores. Be forgiving when buying online from their website, as it is being re-built and all the recipes were deleted in the process: https://www.wyomingheritagegrains.com/. Follow them on IG, FB and TikTok: wyomingheritagegrains. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.

Thank you for Listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast.

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Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers
Show logo designed: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design
Production Coordinator: Kayleen Veatch