DWIGHT, N.D. (AP) - Three North Dakota farm couples are hoping to make plenty of dough by turning their whole white wheat flour into bread that even the pickiest young customers seem to enjoy.
The owners of Dakota Family Mill LLC are Adrian and Anne Biewer of Lidgerwood, Debra and Robert Evenson of Dwight, and Duane and Jean Smith of Great Bend.
Their flour is truly homegrown: They grow it, harvest it, mill it, test it, bake it, eat it and market it. Jean Smith, the lead baker, said it has all the nutrients of wheat bread yet looks like regular white.
It doesn't taste like wheat bread, one store manager said. 'It's surprising. The kids like it,' said Barry Bowar, store manager of Econofoods in nearby Wahpeton, after a day when his store offered free samples to shoppers.
Most of the milling is done at a house on the Evenson farm that was converted into a certified kitchen. The couples have two stone grinders, one bought at an auction and another found on the Internet.
The grinding is simple. But the group is continually experimenting to find recipes that work with the flour. They have made 'a lot of squirrel food' before settling on the right mixes, Jean Smith said.
'We found out it had the same whole grain benefits as the red wheat flower, with a sweeter flavor and a lighter color,' Debra Evenson said. 'We thought this would be good especially for kids, who don't often like the dark bread.'
Besides being tasty, Jean Smith said, the bread doesn't dry out like 100 percent whole wheat bread does. 'You can really tell with the pizza dough,' she said.
The pizza crust is one of three mixes currently on the market, along with a bun mix and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. The company will likely add more mixes after testing in the next few months, Jean Smith said.
Dakota Family Mill was formed two years ago, when crop prices were flat and the couples were looking for other income. The health benefits of whole white wheat flour earned the group an $18,000 federal grant from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.
'The obesity level of our kids is something in general that the public system is worried about,' Adrian Biewer said. 'This is a way to promote whole grains into our schools.'
As part of the grant, the couples have been required to give seminars to every school in the county. They have shown students how to mix and make their own breads, including the favored 'pretzel in a bag,' Debra Evenson said.
'Kids are getting it,' she said.
The flour sells for $5 for a 5-pound bag at the Wahpeton grocery store. The products also are available on the company Web site, where the couples offer the flour at $3 for a 5-pound bag to make up for high shipping costs.
'We're pretty small yet because we haven't really sought out a big market,' Duane Smith said. 'We're still doing a lot of our research.'
The hard white spring wheat -- or albino -- variety used to make the flour is not common in North Dakota, said Dale Siebert, a Richland County extension agent who is helping the company. The group has experimented with three varieties so far, he said.
'One of the challenges we have is finding something that's resistant to disease,' Siebert said. 'We've had some good yields, but like any of the wheats, it depends on the weather conditions.'
The couples are not worried about running out of their product in the fertile Red River Valley, in southeastern North Dakota. The three families together have about 2,400 acres of land to farm.
'I think it's a good time to be introducing a whole grain product,' said Colleen Svingen, a county extension agent who got the three couples together to form the business. 'The public is becoming more and more health conscious.'
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