About Us
How I Got Started With Sprouted Flour
I’ve always loved baking and cooking. As an artist, my canvas is the dinner table, and my medium is delicious, healthy foods. I have been baking bread for many years, but sprouted flour breads for only five years.
About ten years ago I decided that I needed to make some changes in my life, centering on my body: how I treated it and what I put or didn’t put into it. I started hacking through the jungle of nutrition information. The more I researched, the more clear the answer was: Eat a variety of foods God made available to us with as little processing as possible.
Through my research, I unveiled truths about traditional food preparation and its role in nutrition and health. Often times it’s the processing of foods that makes them less healthy. Did you know that people have been sprouting and soaking whole grains for thousands of years? It turns out there are many good reasons for the traditional, artisanal methods of our ancestors.
Most people know that whole grain flour is better for you than refined white flour. But did you know that whole grains contain phytic acid which actually blocks absorption of precious minerals like calcium, iron and zinc? When we eat foods made from whole grains that have not been properly prepared by sprouting or fermentation, we’re consuming this phytic acid. Sprouting the grains before we grind them into flour neutralizes the phytic acid, and helps make us absorb the minerals.
The Birth of To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co.
I began counseling friends and groups of folks who wanted to make positive lifestyle changes as well. When we talked about how our ancestors would harvest grain and leave it in the fields for several days to germinate (sprout) before threshing and storing it, and about a simple (but time-consuming) way to modern-day germinate or sprout grains for baking, the answer was always, “I don’t have the time nor the inclination to do that, can’t you just do it for me?”
And so I did. And To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. was born.
Starting in my kitchen three years ago, baking for a few friends, word quickly spread and opportunities arose to bake for customers of several local and regional CSAs and co-ops. I soon outgrew my kitchen space and wanted to get my product in several additional markets, so I opened up a commercial kitchen in our barn in September of 2006 and got licensed as a food processor.
My business is still mainly CSAs, co-ops, a couple of retail stores and restaurants, internet orders, and regional farmers’ markets, but we’re growing every day. In February of 2008 we began to offer our organic sprouted flours for sale and we’re “on the grow” again! We discontinued our baked goods in january, 2009. Although we are growing steadily, there are still just a few of us here doing the sprouting and milling fresh to order.
Every opportunity I get to sprout and bake is pure joy for me. Even after several years of baking, I still get excited every time I make another sprouted bread. My personal favorites are sprouted Apricot Almond bread, sprouted flour crackers and sprouted flour brownies. Click here for the recipes.
Knowing how good sprouted flour is for you (Click here to read about the benefits of sprouted flour) , I hope I never lose the passion for producing it for all those folks who enjoy it.
While there are several of us always busy in the sprouting milling room, it would not have been possible without my sweet, supportive husband, Jeff, who built our facilities for us. He encourages me as my little business grows. And, of course, he loves to eat my sprouted breads, especially with raw butter and honey.
Peggy Sutton
Owner, To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co.
