Milling & Baking News - August 23, 2022 - 25

will look for opportunities to tap into consumer
interest in nostalgia, or " going back
to the way things used to be. "
The investment and management group
assembled for Heirloom Brands includes
a number of individuals with deep roots
in the farming, flour milling and food
industry. Investors include Plaza Merchant
Group run by John Stout, who was an executive
in the flour milling and vital wheat gluten
businesses before establishing a private
equity firm focused on the food sector.
Descendants of H.D. (Joe) Hale, who led
ADM Milling Co. for many years, also are
actively involved in FDF. Nelson Family
Farms, led by Doug Nelson and Dana Hale
Nelson (Mr. Hale's daughter), are investors/advisers
and are supplying grain to
the venture.
The Nelsons' daughter Hayley Eckert
partnered with Mr. Webster in the
establishment of the business and is vice
president of strategy and business development/sales.
In May, her cousin Keaton
Hale joined FDF from Grain
Craft, where he worked at the
company's flour mill in Pendleton,
Ore. A graduate of the
Department of Grain Science
and Industry at Kansas State
University with a degree in
milling science and management,
Mr. Hale is superintendent
of the FDF flour mill in
New Cambria.
The seeds of Ms. Eckert's
interest in FDF were sown during years she
spent with Deloitte in Sydney, Australia.
While there, Ms. Eckert gained an appreciation
for a farm-to-table approach she
said was far ahead of the movement in the
United States.
" They were innovative in going back to
the way things used to be done, " she said.
While she was away, the Nelson Family
Farm in central Kansas began transitioning
some of its acreage to the production
of heritage and ancient grains. When she
returned in 2020, Ms. Eckert established
City Farmer Foods, a consumer products
business that marketed the grains as well
as flour in the Kansas City area.
Calling City Farmer Foods a " big education
in the middle of a pandemic, " Ms.
Eckert said she and Mr. Webster spent
bakingbusiness.com
a year looking into opportunities in the
food sector and " creating a thesis for what
turned into Heirloom Brands and the
vision we have looking forward. "
The exploration led Mr. Webster to
approach FDF, which had been milling
heirloom grains from the Nelson Family
Farm. The American White Wheat Producers
Association was renamed Farmer
Direct Foods in 2003 after installing the
flour mill, but by 2021 Mr. Webster said
the group was " fatigued " and had been
investing only limited resources toward
promoting its own branded product. Ultimately,
the group was attracted to a financial
transaction that offered upside if FDF
is successful going forward.
" The most important thing is we want
The wheat that farmers deliver is not co-mingled
- it is batch milled providing farm to flour
transparency.
critical to achieving the company's goals
around sustainability and traceability, Mr.
Webster said. Regenerative agriculture is
a central part of sustainability at FDF.
" At FDF they are way ahead of the market
in terms of what they are doing with
regenerative agriculture, " he said.
" That is a function of having King
Arthur as their primary customer
embracing a commitment to regenerative
agriculture in addition to the fact there
is a group of enlightened farmers who
think taking care of the soil and taking
care of the climate make good sense. "
The company's regenerative agricultural
practices follow strict guidelines
and include the use of cover crops, crop
rotation, dry farming, no-till, composting
and the introduction of livestock for natural
fertilizer.
Equally involved and perhaps more
unique is the traceability of the company's
flour. FDF has a longstanding protocol
around the certified seed varieties that
may be used with fields subjected
to monitoring. The
wheat that farmers deliver
is not co-mingled. It is batch
milled providing farm to
flour transparency. Mr. Webster
likened it to a vineyard
specific bottle of fine wine.
" There is a lot to the grower
network, " he said. " We think
this is how you differentiate
our products in a marketthe
growers to remain a central, integral
part of this, " Mr. Webster said. " It was
win-win that they could put money in their
pocket and maintain the opportunity to sell
grain at a premium to the elevator price. "
FDF now has long-term grower agreements
that he called a " unique structure. "
" We have built in a profit-sharing
mechanism that in addition to a long-term
growing commitment, ties the growers
to the success of FDF, " he said. " Dana and
Doug (Nelson) are actively working with
us, because we envision growing the
business significantly, so we will need
a broader, larger, more diverse grower
network both as to acres and the types of
grains we source as we go down the road. "
Maintaining and building the network
of 25 growers currently supplying FDF is
place where there is a lot of commodity
business. Where the grains all have been
comingled by the time they hit the mill. "
Even as the company plans to develop
a diverse product line of grain-based
foods longer term, FDF's initial lineup of
products to be branded under the Farmer
Direct Foods name is simple. In addition
to stone-ground whole wheat flour milled
from either white wheat or hard red winter
wheat the company already offered,
FDF is introducing whole wheat flour
milled from heirloom turkey hard red
winter wheat and an all-purpose flour
milled on a co-packing arrangement.
" Our initial lineup includes three premium-quality
flours that combine our
Identity-Assured (which is trademarked)
higher protein wheats and stone-ground
MILLING & BAKING NEWS 25
FARMER DIRECT FOODS
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Milling & Baking News - August 23, 2022

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