Sorghum Flour From Ruskin Being Sold Nationwide
– Beth Bohling - Hastings Tribune (Saturday, Oct. 7, 2000)

Ruskin - Although the end of the growing season is upon us, Gerald Simonsen's farming operation just now is coming into flour.

Simonsen's farm near Ruskin is home to one of the two mills that produce grain sorghum flour in the Unites States.

Simonsen and his father, Hubert of Superior, and Chester area farmer James Vorderstrasse have formed Twin Valley Mills, a limited-liability partnership and are milling their own milo into flour.

The men are selling the flour to individual customers across the United States as they plan wider marketing strategies.

Simonsen said the mill went into operation about a month ago - a little earlier than planned.

About two months ago the men learned that one of the two producers of grain sorghum flour in the nation had shut down and no longer was distributing product.

"Rather than waiting until after harvest, we decided to rush in and fill that void, " he said.

Grain sorghum flour is particularly important to people who cannot tolerate wheat products. Some people have a disease known as celiac sprue, in which certain proteins found in wheat, barley, rye and oats cause damage to their digestive systems leading to malnutrition. Others are allergic to wheat gluten.

Vorderstrasse said the partners had learned recently that many people with autism also have an intolerance for gluten and dairy products. Eating either reportedly makes them hyperactive.

To accommodate customers with such special dietary needs, Twin Valley began producing as soon as it received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Aug 31.

People who needed the flour found out about Twin Valley through inquiries to the National Grain Sorghum Producers Association. The information also spread by word of mouth and over the Internet.

Twin Valley already has shipped flour to Idaho, Iowa, South Dakota, Florida, Texas and Washington in addition to Nebraska. The men also have fielded inquiries from Canada.

Vorderstrasse said he planned to have a display booth at the national conference of the Celiac Sprue Association in Albuquerque, N.M., last week.

Sizes and samples

Twin Valley packages its flour in 2 1/2-pound and 25-pound plastic containers. Simonsen said there is less chance of shipping damage or contamination with such containers than with bags.

The smaller container is a clear cylinder with a self-sealing lid. Larger containers are buckets with lids that lock in place.

Packages shipped in September carried homemade labels. Professional labels with the Twin Valley Mills logo were on order from the printer.

In order to promote general interest in sorghum flour, the Nebraska Grain Sorghum Producers Association gave out 1,000 one-pound samples in plastic bags at Husker Harvest Days near Grand Island in September.

Simonsen said Kathy Boellstorff of Johnson, a member of the Nebraska Grain Sorghum Board, also distributed the flour at the recent Women Involved in Farm Economics conference in Hastings.

Sorghum producers have been providing cookies and pancakes made with sorghum flour at farm meetings for years.

Hubert Simonsen said many people without a health need for the product just like the taste of the sorghum flour.

"It has a kind of nutty taste," he said. "My wife, Virginia, uses it in a lot of her regular recipes replacing up to one half of the wheat flour with milo."

Twin Valley’s next target is a general market to be reached through health food and grocery stores. The partners have invested $500 in a Universal Product Code number in order to fit the grocery market.

Lots of work

At present, the men are operating the mill themselves with some help from family members on packaging.

Simonsen said red tape involved in getting set up to produce and sell the flour took longer than physically setting up the mill. He estimated that Twin Valley had spent more than $2,500 preparing to do business over and above the cost of equipment. This includes research, licensing, inspections, permits, insurance and attorney fees.

USDA approval followed an inspection by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. The mill had to meet the same cleanliness standards as a restaurant.

All surfaces must be non-porous. The concrete floor had to be sealed, the cracks and joints of the steel walls filled.

Originally, the Simonsens and Vorderstrasse planned to locate the mill in an area town. Not finding a suitable site, they decided to wall off a part of Simonsen’s 6,000 square foot machinery shed and set up their operation there.

Two rooms were built, providing a total of 700 square feet of space. The smaller room houses the mill and sifter; the other is used for packaging, storage and distribution.

At the moment, the partners are hand-bucketing milo into the mill hopper. Plans call for an auger to feed grain from the outside storage bin directly into the hopper.

Two grooved stone mills grind the milo extremely fine. One stone is stationary, and the other rotates. A collecting system delivers the ground grain to the seven-screened sifter that divides it into three grades.

The finest flour, which makes it all the way through the bottom 80-mesh screen, is packaged for sale. At the moment, the other two grades are being used as feed for the partners’ livestock.

Some of the 60-mesh flour is sold on special order to customers who desire more textured baked goods. It also is appropriate for breading meat products, the partners said.

The third grade is grits and overs. Gerald Simonsen said a brewer has expressed interest in using the material in a gluten-free beer.

Keeping it clean

All three of the partners have been active for years in the state and national Grain Sorghum Producers Associations. At the moment, Vorderstrasse is president and Gerald Simonsen is secretary-treasurer of the Nebraska Association. Hubert Simonsen is one of the group’s founders.

In 1999 the men began growing a special food-grade strain of milo, looking forward to the milling operation. They prefer using their own grain since they can be sure of its quality, Vorderstrasse said.

The milo fields are rogued to eliminate all other grains. They also make sure their combine, trucks and bins are clean of any traces of other grain.

Finally, the grain is run through a cleaner twice before it is milled.

The partners agreed that while they had overcome many obstacles to establish their business, the toughest part – marketing – lies ahead.

Gerald Simonsen said that because marketing food products was so different from selling commodities, the men had sought input from various people in the food business and drawn on their philosophies to develop their marketing plan.

Twin Valley is aiming to provide a quality product and good customer service, he said.