The smell of fresh bread greets a visitor to the fourth-generation family farm south of Stabuck.
“It’s a smell we shipped over from Honolulu,” smiles Jenny Bredeken.
Roscoe Fowler and Jenny Bredeken welcome us to the aptly-named Full Circle Farm south of Starbuck. A “Live Wide Open” story beckons!
Jenny grew up on the family farm, and after making Hawaii her home for a few years, she came home; full circle indeed! She not only found adventure in Hawaii, but she also found a husband. Together, their life on the island state evolved. And Roscoe’s sourdough bread-making hobby blossomed into a full-fledged business.
The bread-making enterprise was doing so well that Jenny left her healthcare job and joined her husband in trying to satisfy a growing demand for their products, particularly sourdough.
Ironically, some of the grain they used in their product came from Jenny’s family farm. We’re talking nearly 4,000 miles away! And maybe there was some magic in using that grain.
Or maybe the whole farm beckoned. To look at their move south of Glenwood another way, the Bredekens landed in the Midwest breadbasket. Talk about removing food miles!
“We were shipping grain from this farm to Honolulu on pallets,” Jenny remembers. “And that was kind of an experiment that turned into a pretty big success. We learned how to make bread pretty much with grains from this farm.”
Today they sell bread at local farmer’s markets. You might not find them there right now; there’s a baby expected to join the family early this fall.
And they have dreams for the future. Growing grain is just the start as they foresee a day when the entire footprint of their breadmaking efforts is on the farm. It’s called circular agriculture, or in this case “Full Circle!”
Roscoe says right now they purchase about 80% of the flour they use now, but one day hope to have 100% of their needs come from the land beneath their feet. “We plan on building capacity and one day and ship our grain around the nation. I like the potential of whole, fresh grains and milling. We’re excited about sharing it with other people.
“We have a lot of meetings about Farm to Table,” he continues. “We try to promote economic development, vitality, small towns, and businesses.”
Farm innovation is always on the mind. Jenny grows fresh flowers for the markets and because the sourdough bread process involves fermentation, ideas are flowing. Sauerkraut? Special cheeses? Kimchi?
Whatever the future holds, the family is happy to become the next- and newest – generation as caretakers of the land.
