"Buy local." It's
becoming a mantra in an age when food production has become ever more
anonymous and removed from any connection with people's daily lives.
Decades ago, we knew our grocer, butcher, and baker, and the farmers who
brought their crops to market. At Great Harvest, we still do.
That's right: for more than 3
decades we have been a friend to family farms located in Montana. We can trace the
source of every kernel of wheat that goes into our loaves of honest, natural
whole-grain bread. That's because we buy our wheat from
traditional family farmers who work in the fields and take pride in
producing the finest crop, a product their long standing ties to the land on
which they live. They understand and produce our
proprietary whole grains that have the baking qualities and hearty taste
that's uniquely Great Harvest.
They're people like
Tex Crawford, a third-generation wheat grower who still lives outside the
600-resident town of Valier, Montana, where he grew up amid the golden
fields and blue skies. Each harvest, Tex brings in the crop with
the aid of his son and his 85-year-old father who, despite being retired,
can't let go of his life-long passion for wheat-farming.
("Officially" retired, he drives in 80 miles from Great Falls each harvest
morning to ride the tractor and follow the combines in the seasonal ritual
that defines the Crawford family identity.) Tex's son,
Cory, who studied biochemistry at Montana State and understands the science
behind producing a superb crop, is at his father's side.
When the wheat has been cut and
delivered to a small mill in nearby Conrad, it's cleaned, bagged, and ready
for Jason, Great Harvest's buyer, to inspect and test-bake. The
dense, hearty bread that results keeps Great Harvest coming back to small
family farmers like the Crawfords, whose intimate connection with the
Montana soil is the link to the quality loaf on your table.
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