I thought some more about it after I went home, and decided to go organic. I haven't used any spray or chemical fertilizers since.
With the help of two sons and a son-in-law, I built a modern facility on our farm to grind our home-grown organic hard red spring wheat into flour. We purchased a natural granite stone mill and designed bagging equipment and a process for preserving freshness and nutritional quality with natural nitrogen packaging.
All of this was fully inspected, approved and licensed by the State of Montana. We began marketing our natural Stone Ground Wheat Flour in January, 1980.
Over the years Great Grains has become a "Ma and Pa" operation. Our five children have moved on to other careers, but some of our twenty-one grandchildren give us a hand now and then. I raise the wheat and do the grinding and packaging, and Ma tests recipes and takes care of most of the office details.
I am a native of northeastern Montana and have been involved with farming and ranching all of my life, except for duty with the 28th Division and later the Second Ranger Battalion during World War II.
After the war I married the city gal from Tacoma I had met while stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, and we settled down on our ranch in northeastern Montana to raise cattle, wheat, and five children. About the time most of our friends were thinking about retiring we started Great Grains Milling Co., and we have been keeping our noses to the grindstone ever since.
--Alvin Rustebakke
As you can see this is a family run operation.