‘Big Flour’ can’t recreate this stone-milled secret ingredient: the Kansas-grown artisan wheat in your favorite KC bakeries

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NEW CAMBRIA, Kansas — Artisan flour sourced from a network of Kansas growers not only takes any batch of baking up a notch, said Ben Mantooth; it makes a better product for consumers, farmers, and the earth.

Hayley Eckert, Farmer Direct Foods and Heirloom Brands, holds bags of the Kansas-grown flour outside a Kansas City-area Sprouts Farmers Market; courtesy photo

Farmer Direct Foods — an Overland Park-owned flour mill based in New Cambria, northwest of Salina — has more than 50 growers across the Sunflower State who all practice regenerative agriculture to grow wheat and other grains. The company produces four flours — whole white wheat, whole red wheat, heirloom wheat, and all-purpose — which can be found online or at local Hen House and, most recently, Sprouts locations.

“For any bag of flour that we produce, we can tell you the farmer who grew the grain behind it,” said Mantooth, vice president of marketing. “Consumers want to know where the food comes from. So that’s a huge advantage for us in the marketplace.”

Kansas City-area bakeries that use flour from Farmer Direct Foods include Ibis Bakery (Black Dog Coffeehouse and Messenger Coffee), Farm to Market Bread Co., and Strawberry Hill Baking Company. A larger partnership with McLain’s Bakery also is in the works.

“Most of our flour — with the exception of our all-purpose flour — is 100-percent whole wheat,” Mantooth noted. “The way that we process them is a lost art form. It’s a stone milling method that — what I’ll call, quote, unquote, Big Flour — doesn’t use. They use cheaper alternatives that strip the nutrients and the vitamins, essentially strip the bran and the good parts of the grain out of the wheat when they process it, and that yields a lower quality product.”

RELATED: Farmer Direct Foods cuts ribbon on facility expansion

Flour packaging and production for Farmer Direct Foods; courtesy photo

Worker at Strawberry Hill Baking Company in Merriam, Kansas, use flour from Farmer Direct Foods to make dough; courtesy photo

Bread using flour from Farmer Direct Foods cools at Strawberry Hill Baking Company in Merriam, Kansas; courtesy photo

Because the farmers — who are located all across Kansas, including Gypsum, Ingalls, WaKeeney, and Assaria — all use regenerative agriculture practices, the land benefits, as well, said Mantooth.

“They’re building the health of the soil, whereas commercial farming operations and traditional farming is really just using the land and then not really putting any value back into it,” he explained. “Regenerative is really focused on rebuilding soil health, which produces healthier foods, because you’re capturing carbon in the soil. You’re not releasing it up into the atmosphere. So the more nutrients that are in the soil itself, the better the food products that are that come out of it.”

The Peterson Farm Bros: Greg, Nathan, and Kendal Peterson; courtesy photo

Did you know?

The TikTok-famous Peterson Farm Bros — who gained popularity over more than a decade on social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook with their farm-related song parodies and choring videos — are members of the Farmer Direct Foods network of growers.

Check out a video feature on the brothers below, along with a video from their YouTube channel, then keep reading.

Farming practices championed by Farmer Direct Foods and its growers not only improve soil health and reduce carbon emissions, they conserve water, he continued, which is especially important in dry areas of Kansas, Mantooth said.

Ben Mantooth, Tim Webster, and Keaton Hale, Farmer Direct Foods; Santo Scavuzzo and Rick Steele, with Scavuzzo’s, one of Farmer Direct Foods Kansas City-area distributors; Hayley Eckert and Blake Woolman, Farmer Direct Foods; courtesy photo

“Every five pound bag of flour that we produce saves 650 gallons of water,” he added.

Investing in Kansas family farms is also important for Farmer Direct Foods — which was purchased by Heirloom in 2022 — Mantooth said. Farmers are paid a premium for their grains in exchange for using regenerative agriculture practices.

RELATED: Investor group looks to elevate Farmer Direct Foods

“We also have a profit sharing program, so we share a portion of our profits back with all of our farmers,” he explained. “So we’re supporting farmers, we’re supporting rural communities. We’re enhancing their lives.”

“Things like our regenerative practices are not without cost,” added John Griffith, farmer from WaKeeney, whose family has worked with Farmer Direct for generations. “Folks who value that in their foods can know that the premium they may pay for Farmer Direct Foods’ flour is being returned directly to the farmers who are doing those practices.”

The company is hoping this investment will encourage younger generations to continue their family farming traditions, Mantooth noted.

“It’s a tough life,” he said. “Our goal is hopefully to try to provide some incentive there to support the family and make it more profitable for them. It’s important. They are the backbone of the food industry.”

Check out a podcast below featuring Farmer Direct Foods leadership on the Kansas City-based Open Aire podcast.