Hard white winter wheat with improved baking qualities as compared to other ancient or heirloom wheat. White Sonora and Clark's Cream are the nearest that we offer for milling into all purpose flour, however sifting/removal of some of the bran may be desired for a lighter texture. In 1912, fifteen year old Earl Clark of Kansas noticed a plant with unusual black wheat kernels. He saved three of these seed to replant. The resulting “Blackhull” variety accounted for a third of the Kansas crop in the 1930s. Clark developed other varieties including KanKing also derived from seeds from a single plant crossed with Blackhull descendants. Developed over eight generations, with lineage traced back to the original black seeds noticed by Earl in 1912, Clark’s Cream was released in 1972. Our current crop of Clark’s Cream was grown as certified organic by Venner Farms, Pierre, SD.
Please check out the recent episode about our operation on NewsCenter1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBFnAuhz6Jw
All of our grains are chemical free, having used zero pesticides in our 15 years of farming. All are grown organically and most are certified organic. No herbicides are ever used for weed control. Instead, crop rotation helps to control weeds, and those that do appear are eliminated in the combining and cleaning process. No nitrogen fertilizer is used either - again rotation to alfalfa, beans or lentils provides natural nitrogen. None of these are new techniques. These were methods used 100 years ago prior to herbicides and synthetic fertilizers. None of our products are GMO. We are a source of whole grain, primarily ancient or heirloom varieties for those who would like to know exactly where their food comes from. We are not far from the beautiful Black Hills of western South Dakota - visitors are always welcome!
A family history of milling grain and farming in South Dakota began with great great grand-parents Anders and Anna Quarnberg in the 1800s when they came to Dakota Territory from Sweden and began milling in Dakota Territority. We are proud to continue this heritage and in particular, to return to varieties of grain and methods that are a century or more old.
Great grandparents Hans and Minnie Quarnberg continued the business, founding Tri-State Milling in 1913. In 1889, there were over 300 flour milling companies in South Dakota, by the 1960s only one - Tri-State. Today, Tri-State operates as Dakota Mill and Grain but no longer mills flour. Today virtually all of the wheat from South Dakota is shipped out of state for milling. We at Belle Valley, would like to reverse that trend with a goal of growing, milling and using wheat in western South Dakota on a local basis.
Just a few miles from here, my father and mother, Maurice and Claire Stambaugh operated one of the top Grade A dairies in the state for many years until 1971.
Perhaps missing life on the farm, in 2002 we purchased 200 acres on the Belle Fourche River of western South Dakota, just a few miles from the dairy farm where I grew up, thus, with our three daughters, we are the fifth and sixth generation involved with grain, milling or agriculture in South Dakota.
My background - I have had a 35 year career in engineering, and farming provides a welcome diversion from the computer screen. Our primary crop was hay in the first years, in rotation with corn and other grain, however in 2015 we began a journey of discovery with ancient grains. This has been most rewarding and challenging! First, just locating seed (my niece provided a link that led to the red fife). Secondly - will it grow? The first summer I recall watching as local farmers tended conventional wheat crops with fertilizer and herbicides while I did nothing but watch and hope that it would grow. Indeed it did grow! A storm with 100 mph winds and grapefruit sized hail in June of 2015 did not seem to bother the wheat too much. It did flatten it - as is the concern with ancient grains. Modern wheat is hybridized to grow short, and not get flattened by the wind. Ancient wheat can grow three to five feet tall and often does get flattened by the wind. However, by going slowly, the swather was able to pick up the downed wheat with little problem. Speaking of the swather, that brings up a key element of chemical free farming. Since we do not use herbicides, there may be weeds, and green weeds do not get along with a conventional "straight cut" combine. The answer was, once again, to look to ways of farming in the pre-chemical days. The swather cuts the crop and lays it down. The green weeds, which would plug a combine, then dry down in a few short days, and then the combine works just fine on the dried material. The combine itself compliments the ancient grain theme, as it is about 50 years old. It (John Deere model 6601 pull-type), was purchased from a wonderful family near Opal, SD, having sat in a shed unused for many decades. It does an amazing job of cleaning the wheat from weeds, and the Clipper 29D precision grain cleaner (about 70 years old), and Oliver gravity table do the rest. A John Deere grain drill from the 1950s rounds out the theme of antiquity in crops, methods, and equipment. I have observed, interestingly, that equipment 50-70 years old can be purchased for a lot less than new, does essentially the same job (although with much lower capacity and speed), has no electronic circuit boards or computers to get fried by lightning, and is much easier to work on. In the farm equipment I have come to appreciate time tested machines with quality engineering rather than speed of harvest and fancy electronics. In the products of harvest I have come to appreciate quality over quantity. In one case looking on as a recent spelt crop, yielded less than 100 bushels of wheat, then finally less than 30 bushels of final product - which delivered some of the best dinner rolls, pancakes and spelt/flax/oatmeal cookies ever. Is there an inverse relationship between dollars spent and acres harvested vs final quality and flavor? Perhaps there is in this day and age.
The pieces of the ancient grain project/puzzle are finally assembled. Welcome and enjoy the fruits of this labor!
