Spelt is indeed an interesting grain. It provides great opportunity for the organic farmer to distance himself from the price fluctuations of staple crops while growing a product that tastes good and is good for you as well.

Purity Foods insists that the farmers growing spelt for their bakery customers buy certified seed from one of 4 varieties of spelt known to have good baking characteristics. Samples are taken prior to harvest, then de-hulled, milled and test baked. Purity Foods pays premiums to growers whose products meet certain criteria.

Spelt responds well with minimum attention, and in poorer soils. It is generally planted in the fall with harvest in July. Purity Foods is currently involved in the development of a "spring" spelt.

The thing that differentiates spelt from wheat products is that it is not free threshing. The product dropped out of sight back in the early 1900's for this very reason, a higher cost compared to wheat. Back then there were over 600,000 acres of spelt grown in the US.

Spelt has to be mechanically de-hulled which adds 2 additional manufacturing steps to the process, the hulls surrounding the kernel actually represent 30-35% of the weight of the product. To get good farmers to grow the product we must be able to provide them with the same return per acre as what can be expected from competing products. To have a good quality spelt you must have quality growers! We don't begrudge the grower the good price we pay them to grow it.

You can learn more about spelt by visiting www.spelt.com.

If you would like to join our grower base for the upcoming planting season, please contact us at 517-351-9231.